Okeh Truetone?

[Lucius1958]

Also notable is the early, some say the first, appearance of "scat" singing on record.

There were probably earlier examples, but the earliest example of 'scat' I've heard was on " 'Gene" Green's King of the Bungaloos, back in the 'teens.

Bill

[gramophone-georg]

The acoustic Okeh´s are of outstanding quality, in early 1926 Okeh introduced their Truetone records - of lesser sound quality.

Some articles in the net say, that Truetone was a electric recording process.
But this article of the invention by Charles Hibbard, recording engineer of Okeh says, that the truetone process could be applied to either acoustic or electric recording....

So - today, do we know more about the Truetone process? Was it electric - what was it, I wonder...

truetone.jpg

PS: I made some searches in the net, but couldn´t find any patents about Truetone, either with Charles Hibbard or General Phonograph Cop. as keywords.

Interesting note about the "blasting", but I think it lacks truth somewhat. The reason blocks were used instead of drums in the recording studio was exactly because of blasting, especially with hot jazz drummers. Supposedly the first time a drummer was allowed to bring actual drums into the OKeh studio for an electric recording was when Gene Krupa did it on the McKenzie/ Condon Chicagoans sessions of December 1927.

There are several drums on record in the acoustic period, like snare drums and tom toms in marches and jigs. The limitation in the acoustic recording was not the blasting, but the cut-off frequency, that simply did not reach bass drum frequencies and severely limited the reproduction of cymbals. This is the reason why there are no acoustic records of bass viols. Wood blocks and snares could be recorded, so they were used in replacement of full sets. The blasting concern appeared in the electrical recording era when the microphones started to be used, and then such frequencies could be recorded, and loud instruments like drums had to be moved to the back of the room and the drums muffled with cloth to prevent saturation.

Ummm... I was talking specifically about OKeh electrical recordings there. This thread is about OKeh records, correct?

[gramophone-georg]

The Kurpa story is a myth. Bass drums appear quite early, although they were usually enough trouble so that the recordist would insist upon their being left out. On the other hand, Brunswick made quite a point of leaving the bass drum in place in their recording sessions,maven quite early on. Those purple label Isham Jones sides from,1920 and 1921 have a bass drum energetically booming away. Same thing with the Lyman, Oriole, and Fenton sides.

Vanya, again, I was talking specifically about OKeh electric recordings, and in that context, no, it's not a myth.

[gramophone-georg]

Also notable is the early, some say the first, appearance of "scat" singing on record.

There were probably earlier examples, but the earliest example of 'scat' I've heard was on " 'Gene" Green's King of the Bungaloos, back in the 'teens.

Bill

So did Ted Lewis actually invent rap, then?

[Odeon]

Back to topic (although the story of early scat singing is also very interesting)...

According to the original article I posted on the first side:

...that the truetone process could be applied to either acoustic or electric recording....

Do we know when Okeh started with their acoustic Truetones? Just a thought: If the truetone process could be applied to acoustic or electric recordings, may it be, that they played in a mice, boosted and equalized by a amplifier and by a loudspeaker to the recording horn?

I also searched for patentes with the name "Peter Decker" (the second technical engineer of Okeh) - no results...

Acoustically