On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 19:50:01 -0800 (PST), Keith M
wrote:

I also hope that everyone in here has a wonderful evening.Sincerely
Frank R.Schoonover

Happy Holiday Frank
What no Bobby Helms or Dolly. I was playing my Chipmunk Xmas tape for
my Grand kid on my 2XL today . What's Santa's number one Christmas 8
track? Don Ho Ho Ho snip

I have the original Chipmunk LP in stereo on red vinyl in mint shape.
It's the one that includes "The Christmas Song" and several others
that were the rage back in '58. My dad bought it at the local record
shop as a gag, and it just happened to be a stereo version. He'd just
got his new Shure M3D stereo cartridge to go with his new preamp,
second amp and speaker system. I think it wasn't the first stereo
record I ever heard, but pretty close to it.

As I remember (geez, this was 49 years ago!) the FIRST stereo record I
heard was a stereo demonstration disk released by Omega (which had
been making 2 track, 7½ IPS stereo tapes since about '56 under the
Omegatape brand) and I remember the music being Chabrier's "Capricio
España," which two years earlier, RCA and Perry Como had co opted to
become the melody for "Hot Diggity (Dog Diggity Boom), which hit the
Billboard Top 10 that year. RCA, whether forced by legality or not,
actually gives Chabrier label credit on the single! I can't remember
the orchestra or conductor of the Chabrier piece, but the audio was
quite stunning. I can still remember the near absence of tape hiss,
which plagued all stereo tape releases of the day. Later, he got the
2 track release of the same recording, and comparison showed that
consumer 2 track releases were indeed noisier than the masters used
for the disc. I still have both the disc and the tape.

For other Christmas oldies, I have an excellent copy of Glenn Gould
playing Christmas favorites with the "Warner Brothers Symphony
Orchestra" (a misnomer for a bunch of guys out of Musicians Union
Local 47) in Warner's glorious 3 track "direct to master" format. It
still sounds stunning to this day, even more so with an excellent
cartridge and tone arm.

Back in the tape days, we had a Berlant Concertone (we called it a
"faux Ampex") and one of Bob Bell's 2 track machines, very rare even
then. The Berlant tried to emulate all the proficiency of an Ampex
350/351, but fell rather short in several areas, one being the noise
floor and stability of the electronics, as well as heads that wouldn't
hold azimuth alignment very well. The Bell deck was a portable, one
of Bob Bell's attempts to crack the home hi-fi market. It was unique
in that it had room in the head bridge for addition of an extra head,
which allowed it to be modified to play either 2 or 4 track, when 4
track reverse became the rage starting around 1960. Not a great
machine, but lots of fun. We ran a lot of Audiotape through those
machines back in those days, much of which I still have in cans. We
also learned in short order than you cannot use ¼ mil Mylar tape on a
three motored machine without turning it into cassette tape unless you
were VERY judicious with use of the brakes! That's when I learned the
time-honored method of reversing the reel motors to slow down the tape
to a standstill, rather that using the brakes. Later, I would learn,
this was de rigueur in all studios, as brake bands on Ampex transports
were not cheap and were a chore to replace and set up.

For even more Christmas spirit, look soon for the annual Charlie Nudo
family Christmas card!