Read House of Hits: The Story of Houston's Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios (Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music) for Free Online Page B
Authors: Roger Wood Andy Bradley
between each song in a set of fi ve or more. In other words, since the recording process was strictly direct to disc, there was no option for editing, adding, subtracting, or rearranging separate tracks. It is important to remember also that standard audio recording at this time was mono, not stereophonic.
Nevertheless, these wax masters were capable of rendering good recordings. The main obstacle to excellent sound fi delity, until the early 1950s, was related to the use of shellac as the primary ingredient in the copies. The subsequent introduction of vinyl (or vinylite) vastly improved the quality of pressings, allowing records to more closely represent the nuances and tones of the original musical performance.
1 4
h o u s e o f h i t s
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 14
1/26/10 1:12:10 PM
Frank Juricek, 1948 (courtesy of Frank Juricek)
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 15
1/26/10 1:12:10 PM
Juricek performed on numerous Quinn-produced tracks starting in the late 1940s, including sessions with fellow musicians such as Hank Locklin, Leon Payne, Ernie Hunter, Lester Voytek, Red Novak, Pete Machanga, and singer Frances Turner. Later, after the studio moved to Brock Street, he played also on Quinn-engineered tracks produced by Pappy Daily. Refl ecting on those experiences, Juricek emphasizes the unique role that Quinn played in the regional music scene at the time:
He was the fi rst man doing the real recordings in Houston. . . . I used to hang out at the studio all the time, and I wanted to know how you took those acetate discs and turned them into masters. So he took me back there and showed me the whole process. . . . He showed me the plating process, and then he showed me what I called the “waffl
e” that he put between the labels in
the press—and out came the record. It looked like a waffl
e iron because of the
excess that came out around the edge of the press that had to be trimmed off .
According to Brewer, Quinn’s early recording sessions typically involved only one microphone—with the musicians arranged around it and the singer and primary instrumental soloist positioned closest. Because it was a direct-to-disc recording process, during each session Quinn had to hover watchfully with a clean paintbrush in hand, gently pushing toward the center of the disc the shavings dug out by the needle. By the end of the song, Quinn would have
“a big glob of wax” to discard.
As for the ambient environment, Brewer also notes that there was no heat or air-conditioning in Quinn’s Telephone Road building—a factor that could aff ect the whole recording process. He shares the following anecdote: We were on a two-day session when a wicked cold snap came through Houston during the night, following the fi rst day of recording. The next morning Bill had to use a blowtorch to heat up the motor in the lathe so that it would maintain a constant speed during the second day.
Accounts such as these illustrate only some of the challenges and problems that an early recording engineer such as Quinn had to address to create his products. Because the few major record companies were zealously protective of industry secrets and technology, he had to fi gure out the process and acquire workable studio equipment on his own. Moreover, because the federal government still controlled most of the nation’s shellac supply (and the major record companies dominated the limited market for the rest), he also had to scramble to procure the raw material for making records.
1 6
h o u s e o f h i t s
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 16
1/26/10 1:12:10 PM
But Quinn ingeniously pulled it off . He somehow arranged to purchase an older, phased-out pressing-plant machine from an unidentifi ed source.
Then he inquisitively began to tinker with it—experimenting, modifying, and updating it until it could meet his needs. He also scoured the city’s resale shops and garage sales, buying all the old 78 rpm records that he could fi nd.
He then pulverized them in a
Nevertheless, these wax masters were capable of rendering good recordings. The main obstacle to excellent sound fi delity, until the early 1950s, was related to the use of shellac as the primary ingredient in the copies. The subsequent introduction of vinyl (or vinylite) vastly improved the quality of pressings, allowing records to more closely represent the nuances and tones of the original musical performance.
1 4
h o u s e o f h i t s
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 14
1/26/10 1:12:10 PM
Frank Juricek, 1948 (courtesy of Frank Juricek)
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 15
1/26/10 1:12:10 PM
Juricek performed on numerous Quinn-produced tracks starting in the late 1940s, including sessions with fellow musicians such as Hank Locklin, Leon Payne, Ernie Hunter, Lester Voytek, Red Novak, Pete Machanga, and singer Frances Turner. Later, after the studio moved to Brock Street, he played also on Quinn-engineered tracks produced by Pappy Daily. Refl ecting on those experiences, Juricek emphasizes the unique role that Quinn played in the regional music scene at the time:
He was the fi rst man doing the real recordings in Houston. . . . I used to hang out at the studio all the time, and I wanted to know how you took those acetate discs and turned them into masters. So he took me back there and showed me the whole process. . . . He showed me the plating process, and then he showed me what I called the “waffl
e” that he put between the labels in
the press—and out came the record. It looked like a waffl
e iron because of the
excess that came out around the edge of the press that had to be trimmed off .
According to Brewer, Quinn’s early recording sessions typically involved only one microphone—with the musicians arranged around it and the singer and primary instrumental soloist positioned closest. Because it was a direct-to-disc recording process, during each session Quinn had to hover watchfully with a clean paintbrush in hand, gently pushing toward the center of the disc the shavings dug out by the needle. By the end of the song, Quinn would have
“a big glob of wax” to discard.
As for the ambient environment, Brewer also notes that there was no heat or air-conditioning in Quinn’s Telephone Road building—a factor that could aff ect the whole recording process. He shares the following anecdote: We were on a two-day session when a wicked cold snap came through Houston during the night, following the fi rst day of recording. The next morning Bill had to use a blowtorch to heat up the motor in the lathe so that it would maintain a constant speed during the second day.
Accounts such as these illustrate only some of the challenges and problems that an early recording engineer such as Quinn had to address to create his products. Because the few major record companies were zealously protective of industry secrets and technology, he had to fi gure out the process and acquire workable studio equipment on his own. Moreover, because the federal government still controlled most of the nation’s shellac supply (and the major record companies dominated the limited market for the rest), he also had to scramble to procure the raw material for making records.
1 6
h o u s e o f h i t s
Bradley_4319_BK.indd 16
1/26/10 1:12:10 PM
But Quinn ingeniously pulled it off . He somehow arranged to purchase an older, phased-out pressing-plant machine from an unidentifi ed source.
Then he inquisitively began to tinker with it—experimenting, modifying, and updating it until it could meet his needs. He also scoured the city’s resale shops and garage sales, buying all the old 78 rpm records that he could fi nd.
He then pulverized them in a
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