Home / Community / AES Committees / AES Historical Committee / What’s new on the AES HC Web Page
2018-09-21
Added: Links to the SMPE Indexes and to the SMPE Journals.
Updated: Officers & projects .
Added: Many 3M tape files (but not yet linked)
Added: List of Ampex tape types
Added: 2004 Interview (transcript of sound only) of John Leslie (manufacturer of Ampex 200A electronics, then Chief Engineer of Ampex Pro Audio and Tape Divisions) by Ross Snyder. We just realized that we had never posted it, so John just edited it.
2018-01-08
Added: Contents , to help you find things that interest you.
Updated: Obituaries, current to 2017-12
Updated: How to use “Affiliations” – instructions added – Click “Advanced”, go down to “Author’s Affiliation”, enter author’s company name, click “search”, and you’ll get a list of all the papers by authors from that company.
Updated: Link to “Elements of Sound Recording”
Updated: AES HC Homepage, general cleanup, added links
2017-11-29
Updated: AES HC Officers
Updated: Audio Patents Project from 2007 to 2017
Updated: Scans of SMP(T)E Journal. Revised, and indexes added.
Added: “Evolution of a Recording Curve”, that became the RIAA and IEC disk equalizations, by R C Moyer. From Audio Engineering, 1953.
2015-09-21
Added: “Success Story” – Ampex Corporation
A 30-minute video about Ampex Corporation and Ampex tape recorders, from a kinescope recording of a live television broadcast originally made by KGO-TV and broadcast in 1955 June, and accidentally found by Charlie Anderson (one of the original Video Recorder engineers) in 2003 Sept. (Viewable by AES members.)
We see a visit to the Ampex headquarters in Redwood City, with an explanation of audio and instrumentation recording. Brief interviews with Bob Sackman (Instrumentation Div. Manager), Walt Selsted (Engineering and Research Div Manager), Phil Gundy (Audio Div Manager), George Long (Ampex President), and Alex Poniatoff (Ampex Founder), then a demonstration of making a “Sound-on-sound” recording.
Finally a review of manufacturing a Model 600 audio recorder: making heads (stacking laminations, lapping pole tips, winding the coil, assembling and testing the finished head), and making a wiring harness (with [the other] Charlie Anderson).
2015-04-12
Added: Libraries: Looking for an historical issue of an audio-related magazine, including Audio, db, REP, Studio Sound, Western Electric catalogs, GR Experiminter, Bell Labs Record, RCA Review, and much, much more? See americanradiohistory . For the SMP(T)E, Journal look below in “Motion Pictures”.
Added: Microphones: Studio microphones — manuals, descriptions, pictures, schematics, sound samples, characteristics, notes and comments. A site by Prof. S. O. Coutant (retired), Performing and Communication Arts, Pasadena City College.
2015-04-07
Added:One of the best histories of magnetic recording is here ; update “Magnetic Recording: The Ups and Downs of a Pioneer, The Memoirs of Semi Joseph Begun”, is again available at the AES Historical Store .
2014-10-09
Added: Agenda for HC Meeting at AES137; update “ Using the HC Reflector “; update HC Project Leaders ; update “Bibliography of Magnetic Recording Histories “
2014-07-20
Added: Links to “ Motion Picture Sound Engineering ” (1938) and “ Elements of Sound Recording ” (1950).
2014-07-09
Added: John Herbert Orr, by David Morton.This historical study examines part of the career of Alabama native John Herbert Orr (1911…1983). Orr is perhaps best known for his OrRadio Industries, Incorporated, of Opelika, Alabama, a company that manufactured magnetic recording tape after World War 2.
2014-06-30
Added: Finding His Voice (1929) . An animated cartoon synchronized to voice and sound.
2014-06-22
Added the following:
SIGSALY — The Origins of DSP and Compression, by Jon D. Paul
Sel-Sync and the Octopus : How Came to be the First Recorder to Minimize Successive Copying in Overdubs, by Ross Snyder.
The Les Paul Console in 1958
2014-05-30
Added the following:
The Craft of Recording Through History
Which contains the YouTube presentations:
Recording Engineer
A Contribution to the History of Field Tape Recording , 1939-1940
And the links to:
Reeves Sound Studios NYC (1933 – 197X)
UCSB’s massive Edison cylinder archive and transfer project
The in-house newsletter from Bill Putnam’s empire in its heyday
The Search for Roy DuNann“Classic Tracks” articles from Mix magazine
Interview with Sigma Sound Studios founder Joe Tarsia
2014-03-08
Added Bob Morrison’s STL Manual
2013-11-07
Added SMP(T)E Issues Available Online
2013-10-13
Added 135rd Convention, San Francisco, 2013-10-19, Agenda
2013-10-02
Added 135th Convention New York, NY, USA, 2013-10, Historical Events
2013-09-23
Added AES Members, 1951 Found & scanned courtesy of Del Eilers.
Added “Recordgraph”, a 1940s sound recorder/reproducer that embosses a groove on an endless loop of uncoated 35-mm film, to “ Online Museums “, with the technical description and its history and applications .
2013-08-26
Added new interviews to “Talks and Papers”
2013-02-01
Updated Journal Obituaries
2012-12-25
Added Ampex Factbook 1970
2012-12-24
Added Popular Misconceptions about Magnetic Recording History and Theory—Things You May Have Missed over the Past 85 Years, by Jay McKnight
Added Calculating the Short Wavelength Response of the Magnetic Recording and Reproducing Process — A Historical Review, by Jay McKnight
2012-12-19
Updated Historical Committee Activities at AES Conventions
2012-12-10
Added Stanford Libraries’ Ampex Model 200A Magnetic Tape Recorder, Restored by Larry Miller (“All About the Ampex Model 200A”),with links to relevant references
Added the Ampex 200A references:
● Lindsay&Stolaroff 200A design
● Miller&McKnight “Playing 200A Tapes”
2012-10-24
Added AES133_HCMeetingAgenda
Added Agenda
2012-10-23
Updated Oral History Project and Interview List
2012-10-20
Added 131st Convention, New York, NY 2011-10-22
2012-08-25
Links to Museums
2012-08-01
Updated Links to Unofficial Sites
2012-07-27
Updated Links to Organizations and Institutions
2012-07-25
Updated Timeline
2012-07-23
Updated HC Officers and Projects
2012-08-13
Updated some “404” URLs along the way
Added “ Recording History Technology “, and the intro to it on the Home Page.
2011-10-13
Updated HC Officers and Projects
2011-10-10
Updated HC Officers and Projects list and Internet Communications
2011-08-11
Added Development of Coated Tape and the Magnetophon in Germany
2011-08-01
Added 3M tape Tables in SI Units
2010-11-09
Added BOG Reports for Conventions 124, 125, 126, 127, and 129.
2010-11-08
Added AES129 HC Meeting Agenda
2010-10-15
Added McKnight, AC-Bias at Bell Telephone Labs, 1936-1939
2010-10-13
Added Leslie and Snyder “History of the Early Days of Ampex Corporation” , the first publication of an original history.
2010-06-27
Added Hilliard “A Brief History of Early Motion Picture Sound Recording and Reproducing Practices”
Added Hilliard “Early History of the Evolution of the Volume Indicator”
Added Frayne “[History of] Motion Picture Sound Recording”
Added Frayne “History of Disk Recording”
Added link to “ Audio Record”
2010-02
Updated URLs on General Resources and Unofficial Web Pages…
2009-10-11
Added agenda for HC meeting at 127th Convention.
Updated Patents Project .
2009-08-11
Added Harry Hirsch to Project Leaders as Oral History Video Project Editor.
2009-01-23
Updated links for “Motion Picture Sound Engineering” ( intro and book )
2009-01-11
Added “Tape Degredation Factors and Challenges in Predcting Tape Life” , a link to Richard Hess’ ARSC Journal paper. Squealing tape, and what can and can’t be done about it to play those tapes, including a new method.
Updated Obituaries , Index and links to
2008-11-20
Added a link to the newly-available “”Motion Picture Sound Engineering” ( intro , and download 40 MB book here ).
Removed the agenda for the HC meeting on 2008-10-13 (moved it to “Agendas”, below).
Moved “Historical Committee Activities at AES Conventions” to almost the top of the page, and updated, revised, edited, etc these items:
● Exhibits, talks, presentations, etc
● Agendas for Committee meetings: What’s planned for the meetings.
● Reports of Committee activities for the previous half year.
● Minutes of the Committee meetings.
Added Tom Fine’s paper “ The Dawn of Commercial Digital Recording “.
2008-10-01
Added Agenda for HC Meeting on 2008-10-03
2008-09-19
Added 125th Convention “Historical Events” and Historical Committee Meeting time on this page (above).
2008-08-06
Oral Interviews, including Oral Histories are available for purchase at the Historical Committee Web Store.Alsosee the “AES Celebrates 60th Anniversary”.
2008-06-12
Added AES HC Web Store link. Updated Oral History Project .
2008-05-15
Added Meeting Agenda (including HC Report to Governors). Added entry for Library of Congress, Culpeper, in Links, Organizations and Institutions .
2008-04-25
HC meeting time changed to Tuesday, 2008-05-20, 10:00…12:00 h on top of home page .
2008-04-23
Added HC meeting at Amsterdam Convention to top of home page .
2008-04-14
Added advertisement for Historical Events at Amsterdam Convention ; reference to “ AES Celebrates 60th Anniversary “, and that Oral Histories will be available on DVDs; numerous minor rewordings to the home page.
2008-03-20
Added obituary for Ross Snyder
2008-02-29
Added Update on the Ampex Collection at Stanford University
2008-01-07
Added to Project Leaders page: Stan Tempelaars as Historical Events for the 124th Convention (Amsterdam, 2008-05).
2008-01-01
Added How the Audio Engineering Society Began, and Volume 0 of the AES Journal — 1947…1952 .