Okeh Truetone?

[Odeon]

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...

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.

[David Spanovich]

Apparently, Okeh issued both electrically and acoustically recorded discs just prior to their acquisition by Columbia, as noted here -- http://www.vjm.biz/new_page_15.htm

"The only technically deficient recordings made by OKeh are the electrical titles made by OKeh's own Truetone system from April 19 to October 29, 1926 (matrix numbers 80001 to 80198). This was OKeh's own electrical recording system, devised by Charles Hibbard in an attempt to circumvent the swingeing licensing fess and royalties demanded by Bell Laboratories for the use of their Western electric recording system. That the Truetone system was fatally flawed can by gauged from the fact that fully 73 of these 198 titles were rejected and at least 14 of them were remade and issued using the acoustic process (the last two were the great Clarence Williams titles Would Ja?/ Senegalese Stomp from 29/10/26, remade acoustically 10/12/26). Even after OKeh got their own Western Electric system two titles by Esther Bigeou from 21/12/26 were remade acoustically the same day!"

Based on the scant description in the article of exactly what this was, I'd guess that this describes some type of filter or dampening device used during the recording process--either electrical or acoustic--rather than the (TrueTone) recording process, itself. It's possible the writers got it wrong, in other words.

DS

[Wolfe]

I think Truetone must apply to both electric and acoustic records of that short period. Listen to something like the Louis Armstrong Hot Five Heebie Jeebies )probably find it on You Tube) which is Truetone on the label and tell me that isn't an acoustic recording, and also in sound quite distinct from electrical Truetone, which I don't think were all that bad, at least compared to other early non WE electrical systems.

[JohnM]

Perhaps the 'TrueTone' label could be applied to either an acoustic or electric record!

[Wolfe]

Okeh delivered the goods, whatever you want to say about it. Have a listen an early vertical cut (acoustic) Okeh. Give old man Edison a run for his money.

[Odeon]

truetone1.jpg (50.68 KiB) Viewed 3122 times

[Wolfe]

This thread kind of dovetails with this one : http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... =3&t=25069

[Henry]

I think Truetone must apply to both electric and acoustic records of that short period. Listen to something like the Louis Armstrong Hot Five Heebie Jeebies )probably find it on You Tube) which is Truetone on the label and tell me that isn't an acoustic recording, and also in sound quite distinct from electrical Truetone, which I don't think were all that bad, at least compared to other early non WE electrical systems.

Agree on the Heebie. Tell-tale signs: the "boxy" sound of the piano, and the lack of percussion, which recorded poorly on acoustic (sometimes the only percussion on these early jazz acoustics is wood block). Also notable is the early, some say the first, appearance of "scat" singing on record. "Scat" means here exactly what it means to an animal; it's a more polite way of saying "sh*t." Sometimes Armstrong used scat when, as occasionally in Heebie, the lyrics escaped him!

[estott]

I think Truetone must apply to both electric and acoustic records of that short period. Listen to something like the Louis Armstrong Hot Five Heebie Jeebies )probably find it on You Tube) which is Truetone on the label and tell me that isn't an acoustic recording, and also in sound quite distinct from electrical Truetone, which I don't think were all that bad, at least compared to other early non WE electrical systems.

Agree on the Heebie. Tell-tale signs: the "boxy" sound of the piano, and the lack of percussion, which recorded poorly on acoustic (sometimes the only percussion on these early jazz acoustics is wood block). Also notable is the early, some say the first, appearance of "scat" singing on record. "Scat" means here exactly what it means to an animal; it's a more polite way of saying "sh*t." Sometimes Armstrong used scat when, as occasionally in Heebie, the lyrics escaped him!

Comedian Le Delauria used to say "I'm a scat singer- that does not mean I sing like s*it"

[Henry]

Well, "scat" in this context means "nonsense," conveyed through meaningless utterances, but the larger significance is that scat singing represents the use of the voice, not to convey verbal meaning (i.e., thoughts and ideas), but rather as a musical instrument; in that sense, it is abstraction, not representation (cf. visual art).