Tape Technology and the Nazi Party
German Wehrmacht tape recorder AEG Magnetophon Tonschreiber B with AEG 2-hole bobbies, built after 1942, from a German radio station in World War II. Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps, Saint Petersburg By George Shuklin (talk) - Own work, CC BY-SA 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2969527
Tape Technology and the Nazi Party
Did you know that the Nazi Party inadvertently had an indirect but important influence on the beginnings of rock and roll. Stay with me. Without the development of tape recording in Germany, early rhythm and blues and subsequently rock and roll would have sounded very different indeed.
Prior to the Second World War, Germany had become a leading force in the technology of tape recording. A chemical compound that was developed by the German company Farben coated magnetic tape, virtually eliminating a background noise, or hiss.
This technology created a very early model of the reel-to-reel tape recorder called the Magnetophon, and it used an technology called AC bias which added an inaudible high-frequency signal (in the area of 40-150 kHz) to the audio signal. This removed any audible hiss, a tell tale audio clue that whatever you were hearing, it was pre-recorded. It was so good in fact, that even industry experts could not tell the difference between a Magnetophon recording and a live event.
So where do the Nazi’s come into this? It seems that the chemicals produced by Farben were not the only thing contributing to the German war effort. The Magnetophon was adopted by the Nazi Party to record Adolf Hitler’s speeches. The hiss free tape recordings were just the thing the Nazi’s needed to pull the wool over the eyes of the Allied forces.The speeches were broadcast from one city while Hitler was in another city altogether. It seems that for some reason the Germans did not want the Allies to know where Hitler was. The tape worked so well that it confused and completely fooled those within the Allied forces trying to locate Hitler.
Now, fast forward to the last days of the Second World War. Germany was losing the war and making a hasty retreat back to Germany with the Allied forces not far behind. In their rush, the Germans left a lot behind, including a few Magnetophon machines. The Americans discovered these machines. Not knowing what to do with them, they gave them to Jack Mullins, an American Army officer who dabbled in this sort of thing. He took these machines back to the United States and made improvements, slowly working toward perfecting the process of recording to tape.
Now what made this technology so important that it completely altered the course of music? You see, before this tape technology, musicians recorded directly to wax, or lacquer- coated discs. This type of recording allowed for no errors. If someone made a mistake, the entire recording was scrapped and they had to start all over again. Recording to tape was nothing short of revolutionary. Now the sound engineer had actual control. If someone made a mistake, no worries, the recording could be edited after it was done. It can also be assumed that sometime shortly after, the phrase “we’ll fix it in post” started to be used but I digress. It may seem commonplace now, but after the late 1940s this technology was a miracle. It saved time, money, and a few musical careers. Probably a couple bloody noses as well.
How does all of this fit into the sound of early rhythm and blues and subsequently rock and roll? Well, by 1948, the improvements on the design on a new reel -to- reel tape machine were complete. Enter the Ampex Model 200! This new and improved model was placed in ABC Studios in Chicago, New York and Hollywood. After months of successful testing, word began to spread throughout the recording industry about the new kid on the block. One person who listened was Bing Crosby. Yes , THAT Bing Crosby. The idea of a clean recording that allowed multiple copies of his very popular radio show so that he would not have to record for multiple time zones appealed to him greatly. Plus it probably allowed for more time on the golf course. He ordered twenty Model 200 machines and his company, Crosby Enterprises became a distributor for Ampex. Crosby was connected to the Ampex 200 and was marketed as “the machine that put Bing Crosby on tape”.
Like any successful product, competitors soon appeared. Ampex released the next version, the Model 300, at half the price of the Model 200. The availability and affordability of these machines meant more and more studios were using them. This included the big three record labels, RCA, Columbia, and Decca. When smaller independent recording studios began to open, they also went to this technology.
The smaller independent recording studios is where we really begin to focus on the topic. By the beginning of the 1950s, the Second Great Migration was in full swing. This is when black people from the South migrated to northern cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Detroit. They were escaping the racism of the South and in search of a better life. Along with their belongings and culture, they brought along their music, exposing it to a much wider and predominantly white audience. There were some who wanted to begin their new life right by working for themselves. The influx of Black immigration to the larger urban cities created pockets of cultural diversity never seen before. This gave them a sense of empowerment and agency. And the affordability of a decent tape machine allowed them to open small recording studios without much capital. The influx of this music, which became known as race music, gave rise to its demand.
In response, small independent record studios began to appear. Once opened, some started record labels and began to look for clients. Since most of the major recording artists were out of reach and were locked up by the big three, they looked for other sources. These independent labels focused mainly on music found within their own communities. This was done in part because this was the only type of music available to them and in part the need to bring together and strengthen communities that were fragile at best, still confronting racial inequities in their new found homes.
Independent labels grew very quickly, partly because there was a massive repository of talent that the major labels would not touch. Ironically, the music that was ignored by Caucasian run labels, grew in popularity with white audiences. The music that came out of the independent labels was different and provocative. They also did not have the restrictions of the major labels. These small labels allowed virtually anyone with a guitar and a decent voice to make a record. It was a true DIY atmosphere. Despite the post-war racial tensions in early 1950s America, the arena of the independent label appeared to be mostly immune to the bigoted ideas of the larger labels. Independent labels during the 1940s and early 1950s found success in recording niche markets such as gospel, blues, jazz, hillbilly/country, and rhythm and blues. It was the popularity and blending of these genres that would eventually emerge as rock and roll. This new genre would grow in popularity mainly due to a number of black artists such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Dominos and white artists who recorded black music such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. And just think about it, all of this began because the Nazi’s did not want Hitler to be found.
Sources for this include Chasing Sound: Technology, Culture & the Art of Studio Recording from Edison to the LP by Susan Schmidt Horning (John Hopkins Press, 2013) and Rock’n America: A Social and Cultural History by Deena Weinstein ( University of Toronto Press, 2015). Have a look at both these publications, they are excellent.
Prior to the Second World War, Germany had become a leading force in the technology of tape recording. A chemical compound that was developed by the German company Farben coated magnetic tape, virtually eliminating a background noise, or hiss.
This technology created a very early model of the reel-to-reel tape recorder called the Magnetophon, and it used an technology called AC bias which added an inaudible high-frequency signal (in the area of 40-150 kHz) to the audio signal. This removed any audible hiss, a tell tale audio clue that whatever you were hearing, it was pre-recorded. It was so good in fact, that even industry experts could not tell the difference between a Magnetophon recording and a live event.
So where do the Nazi’s come into this? It seems that the chemicals produced by Farben were not the only thing contributing to the German war effort. The Magnetophon was adopted by the Nazi Party to record Adolf Hitler’s speeches. The hiss free tape recordings were just the thing the Nazi’s needed to pull the wool over the eyes of the Allied forces.The speeches were broadcast from one city while Hitler was in another city altogether. It seems that for some reason the Germans did not want the Allies to know where Hitler was. The tape worked so well that it confused and completely fooled those within the Allied forces trying to locate Hitler.
Now, fast forward to the last days of the Second World War. Germany was losing the war and making a hasty retreat back to Germany with the Allied forces not far behind. In their rush, the Germans left a lot behind, including a few Magnetophon machines. The Americans discovered these machines. Not knowing what to do with them, they gave them to Jack Mullins, an American Army officer who dabbled in this sort of thing. He took these machines back to the United States and made improvements, slowly working toward perfecting the process of recording to tape.
Now what made this technology so important that it completely altered the course of music? You see, before this tape technology, musicians recorded directly to wax, or lacquer- coated discs. This type of recording allowed for no errors. If someone made a mistake, the entire recording was scrapped and they had to start all over again. Recording to tape was nothing short of revolutionary. Now the sound engineer had actual control. If someone made a mistake, no worries, the recording could be edited after it was done. It can also be assumed that sometime shortly after, the phrase “we’ll fix it in post” started to be used but I digress. It may seem commonplace now, but after the late 1940s this technology was a miracle. It saved time, money, and a few musical careers. Probably a couple bloody noses as well.
How does all of this fit into the sound of early rhythm and blues and subsequently rock and roll? Well, by 1948, the improvements on the design on a new reel -to- reel tape machine were complete. Enter the Ampex Model 200! This new and improved model was placed in ABC Studios in Chicago, New York and Hollywood. After months of successful testing, word began to spread throughout the recording industry about the new kid on the block. One person who listened was Bing Crosby. Yes , THAT Bing Crosby. The idea of a clean recording that allowed multiple copies of his very popular radio show so that he would not have to record for multiple time zones appealed to him greatly. Plus it probably allowed for more time on the golf course. He ordered twenty Model 200 machines and his company, Crosby Enterprises became a distributor for Ampex. Crosby was connected to the Ampex 200 and was marketed as “the machine that put Bing Crosby on tape”.
Like any successful product, competitors soon appeared. Ampex released the next version, the Model 300, at half the price of the Model 200. The availability and affordability of these machines meant more and more studios were using them. This included the big three record labels, RCA, Columbia, and Decca. When smaller independent recording studios began to open, they also went to this technology.
The smaller independent recording studios is where we really begin to focus on the topic. By the beginning of the 1950s, the Second Great Migration was in full swing. This is when black people from the South migrated to northern cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Detroit. They were escaping the racism of the South and in search of a better life. Along with their belongings and culture, they brought along their music, exposing it to a much wider and predominantly white audience. There were some who wanted to begin their new life right by working for themselves. The influx of Black immigration to the larger urban cities created pockets of cultural diversity never seen before. This gave them a sense of empowerment and agency. And the affordability of a decent tape machine allowed them to open small recording studios without much capital. The influx of this music, which became known as race music, gave rise to its demand.
In response, small independent record studios began to appear. Once opened, some started record labels and began to look for clients. Since most of the major recording artists were out of reach and were locked up by the big three, they looked for other sources. These independent labels focused mainly on music found within their own communities. This was done in part because this was the only type of music available to them and in part the need to bring together and strengthen communities that were fragile at best, still confronting racial inequities in their new found homes.
Independent labels grew very quickly, partly because there was a massive repository of talent that the major labels would not touch. Ironically, the music that was ignored by Caucasian run labels, grew in popularity with white audiences. The music that came out of the independent labels was different and provocative. They also did not have the restrictions of the major labels. These small labels allowed virtually anyone with a guitar and a decent voice to make a record. It was a true DIY atmosphere. Despite the post-war racial tensions in early 1950s America, the arena of the independent label appeared to be mostly immune to the bigoted ideas of the larger labels. Independent labels during the 1940s and early 1950s found success in recording niche markets such as gospel, blues, jazz, hillbilly/country, and rhythm and blues. It was the popularity and blending of these genres that would eventually emerge as rock and roll. This new genre would grow in popularity mainly due to a number of black artists such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Dominos and white artists who recorded black music such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. And just think about it, all of this began because the Nazi’s did not want Hitler to be found.
Sources for this include Chasing Sound: Technology, Culture & the Art of Studio Recording from Edison to the LP by Susan Schmidt Horning (John Hopkins Press, 2013) and Rock’n America: A Social and Cultural History by Deena Weinstein ( University of Toronto Press, 2015). Have a look at both these publications, they are excellent.
Comments
Post a Comment