Chapter 6 Sound carriers

6.1 The dream that became reality.

Mankind has always had a need to communicate. The interpretation of sounds has been important, and in many cases a need has been felt for a way to repeat what has been said, in order to clear up misunderstandings.

Sources from China, Greece and Egypt describe magical contraptions that could reproduce the human voice. From the land of the Pharaohs come the tales of the singing Memnon statues, erected along the Nile by Amenhotep III. Closer to our time there is the story by Baron von Münchhausen of the notes frozen inside a bugle in Siberia. He played a signal when outside, and after he brought the bugle in from the cold it played the whole concert.

There is also a more realistic description by the French author Cyrano de Bergerac (1619 - 1755). He writes that human speech or music can be preserved in a box with four mechanisms, which then can replay the sound using a needle. This is a remarkable description of the phonograph or gramophone to come more than 200 years later. It is sad that not one single scientist took an interest in Bergerac's ideas - which could have been made into reality in the 17th century!

7.5 A chronology of the main events in the technological development of sound recording.

Please note that this is a very short summary of the Norwegian version!

Phonograph rolls Edison's Phonograph was produced until 1918, while the recordable rolls were available until 1929. Edison started out covering the cylinder with tin foil, later improving the sound quality and durability by using wax. The gramophone Berliner's Gramophone patent included a horizontal movement for the needle, as opposed to the "hill-and dale" principle, used by Edison in both his rolls and discs. Pathé discs This system recorded the sound on phonograph rolls which were then transferred mechanically to so-called Pathé discs. These are found in a variety of speeds and sizes, and are not playable on a normal gramophone. Electrical recordings brought better frequency range and dynamics, leading to higher record sales; in the US more than 100 million records were sold in 1927. The stereo LP and single record became the dominant format, lasting until the 1980s.

There are many disc formats

Post World War II wire recorder

Magnetic tape The forerunner of the tape recorder can be found in Valdemar Poulsen's Telegraphone, utilising the magnetic principle of induction. Wire recorders could never compete with the sound quality of cylinders and discs. When magnetic tape was invented, the groundwork was laid for a versatile and long-lasting medium, both as reel-to-reel tape and later in the form of the compact cassette. Optical carriers The compact disc is probably the greatest innovation in the reproduction of sound since Edison's wax cylinders. After a slow start, CD sales soon overtook the vinyl LP and left it behind. The medium will be with us in the foreseeable future, and many more formats based on the same form factor have appeared. Most promising seems to be the DVD, (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc).

Chapter 8 Document information

8.1 Gramophone records and cylinders

The producers of gramophone records and cylinders have always kept registers of their recordings through a numbering system called matrix numbers. The internal matrix number catalogues usually contain information about the date of recording, which artists participated in the session and whether the recording has been used in a released product. Usually the matrix number is engraved on the sound carrier itself, and differs from the record number which can be found printed on the label of the disc. Together these two numbering systems offer good opportunity for correct identification of the recording. The cover of a record can also contain information about the recording. The covers of old 78 records were never or rarely used for such information, but when LP records came on the market, the album cover became an important identifying factor. This tradition has been passed on to the CD cover, although it is smaller in size. In addition, the CD makes it possible to include matrix numbers and any other information in the data recorded on the disc itself. There is still not international agreement for a standard way of coding this information, and which information should be included.

Identifying the contents of magnetic tapes takes a lot of time

8.2 Magnetic tapes

The identification of magnetic reel-to-reel tapes and compact cassettes are dependent on the information in the supplementary material. Especially privately recorded compact cassettes are prone to mix-ups if the written information resides on a loose card inside the plastic cover.

8.3 Surrounding material

It must be stressed that the surrounding material is of the utmost importance in obtaining an understanding of the sound recordings, and it is therefore important that this material is preserved, possibly by transfer to another medium.

The primary surrounding material consists of record covers and record catalogues. Articles in periodicals and reviews in other media are considered secondary material, but there may be very important information here too.

There is often a need for a third level of information, and this can be found in discographies and catalogues of sound collections. In Norway collectors such as Vidar Vanberg and Tom Valle have made important contributions in this field.

Part II Status

Chapter 9 Sound collections

9.1 Levels of responsibility

There are three governmental levels of responsibility for safeguarding sound collections in Norway, besides the private efforts. At the top level, the state channels economic support to sound collections through institutions tied directly to the ministries, such as the National Library, The National Archive, the University Libraries and the Universities. There are other institutions, such as the Norwegian Jazz Archives, that are partially supported through the State Budget, and the Norwegian Council for Cultural Affairs grants support to certain projects. The Fylkeskommune (county administration) is responsible for regional archives, some counties have specific archives for folk music. The Kommune (municipality level) supports the collection and preservation of sound through the local museums and music archives. 9.2 Collections An important part of the work with a preservation plan has been the mapping of existing sound collections. This is not an easy task, and the aim has not been to produce a complete list of sound collections in Norway. 100 questionnaires were mailed, and 56 of these were returned. We do not consider this a good percentage. The reasons for the low response rate may be several; the recipient did not feel the collection was relevant, the idea of filling out yet another form might be too much of a strain, and it may be that some private collectors did not want the public to know about their collection. In Appendix 1 there is a list of the respondents, while Appendix 2 lists the numbers of different carriers in those collections.

The National Library, Rana has large master tape collections

Chapter 10 Legislation

10.1 The Act relating to The Legal Deposit of Generally Available Documents

The Act came into force July 1, 1990. Its stated purpose is to:

ensure that documents containing generally available information are deosited in national collections, so that these records of Norwegian cultural and social life may be reserved and made available as source material for purposes of research and documentation.

The Act applies to audiovisual and electronic documents as well as traditional paper material. The Act is directed towards publishers, producers and importers of documents that are made available to the public. It also covers those who by licence or law have the right to broadcast.

Concerning sound fixations the Act in practice applies to:

• records and cassettes
• "talking books"
• broadcasts from Norway. Private local radio and television is only to be deposited on special request.

According to the regulations of the Act this material is to be deposited with several national institutions. Sound recordings are to be deposited with the University of Oslo Library , National Music Collection, which sends one safety copy to the National Library, Rana (NBR).

Broadcast material is to be deposited in one copy only to the National Library, Rana. Since the Act came into effect, the National Library has received about 400.000 hours of radio and television recordings, from the NRK Programmes 1, 2 & 3, Radio Norway (Short wave), the NRK Sami Radio and 17 regional NRK channels, besides the private radio channel P4. Television channels deposited include NRK1, NRK2, TV2 and TVNorge. One week of local broadcasting was collected in the fall of 1996, resulting in around 1.000 cassettes and tapes from more than 100 broadcasters.

10.2 The Cultural Heritage Act

This Act has a paragraph which forbids the export of objects of cultural value if they are more than 100 years old. Until recently, sound recordings have not been old enough to be covered, but in the years to come this Act can be of help in protecting Norway's earliest history of sound from being sold to the highest bidder abroad.

10.3 The Copyright Act

The copyright law was last revised in 1995 to bring it in step with international legislation. Most noteworthy was the extension of copyright until 70 years after the death of the copyright holder.

The ownership of a copy of a work does not carry with it the copyright, neither for a private person or a public collection. This is so even if it is the original of the copyrighted work that has been given or sold to the new owner. There is an important distinction between the right of ownership attached to a copy, and the copyright to the contents of the copy.

When an archive wishes to make copies from a work or display the original, this touches the rights of the creators of the work. All distribution of such works must be based on contracts and agreements made with the copyright holder or organisations that have the right to bargain collectively on the copyright holders' behalf.

There are special regulations in the law concerning the right to make copies for preservation purposes.

The new forms of electronic delivery of content makes it necessary to develop legislation and interpretations of that legislation that can serve the rights both of the copyright holders, the owners of collections and the public.