More Q&A stuff from the interwebs on home recording. I don’t completely agree with the person who answered this question. My thoughts follow below.
Q: What home recording systems did they have in the 1960s for recording vinyl records? How did they record Vinyl records at home? Was this a common?
A: actually most people didn’t do much in the way of home recording. If we needed to record something it was on reel to reel tape. You had to go into a professional recording studio to have a record recorded.
To add the above answer, it really must be said that though home recording was MUCH less common, it did exist. But those folks weren’t recording directly to vinyl. Tape recorders were the order of the day. As a matter of fact by the 1960s, they were all the rage. One great example was Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. In 1958 the actor and song-writer was down to his last $200. He spent most of that on a V-M tape recorder, which allowed him to vary recording and playback speeds. This home recording project gave birth to Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the rest is history. Ross Bagdasarian was also responsible for the hit, My Friend the Witchdoctor.
So even before the 1960s it was possible to do home recording, but the medium was tape, not vinyl.
You didn’t record them at home. You just went to a store and purchased what you wanted. If you needed to record, then you would have to find a recording studio, and pay $$$.
Reel to Reel tape existed, but most people didn’t have it. Serious people wanting to record probably used it.
Cassette tape was the first media that let almost everyone record at home.
References :
actually most people didn’t do much in the way of home recording. If we needed to record something it was on reel to reel tape. You had to go into a professional recording studio to have a record recorded.
References :
grew up in the 50-60’s
There were home disc-cutting machines in the 1940’s and 50’s, notably the Wilcox-Gay Recordiograph, but they were fairly crude. Blank discs were coated with a lacquer made either from nitro cellulose (highly flammable) or cellulose acetate (labeled “slow-burning” discs.) Acetate blank recording discs are still made to this day, under the trade name Audiodisc, by the makers of Audiotape recording tape.
Thanks for that, Jeff!