What were the earliest translucent vinyl (audiophile?) pressings?

[kap'n krunch]

A recent discovery has got me thinking about this...
Now, I KNOW that JVC developed that kind of "virgin" vinyl but IIRC they were not translucent, or were they?

ANYWAY...some History , anyone?

 

[kfbkfb]

https://www.furnacemfg.com/blog/why-are-vinyl-records-black/^^^
By coloring records black with carbon-based pigment, manufacturers ensure their records last longer and sound better.


One (1970s Disco) picture disc I have (clear vinyl w/color picture sandwiched between the sides) had an advisory that the sound quality would likely be worse than a black vinyl disc.


CD-4 R&D resulted in vinyl with more anti-static compound added, which greatly reduced the tendency of vinyl to attract dust (and clog up the grooves/CD-4 FM carriers).


Kirk Bayne

 

[jefe1]

I seem to recall some translucent red 45s of classical music I once had or found
What a nuisance to keep flipping or stacking 45s to hear a classical piece.....

 

[DuncanS]

When I got my Technics SL-10 (now sadly broken) parallel tracker (with LEDs to detect the record) I discovered some LPs were not black & opaque, the one I remember the most is the double album Sky 2 released in 1980 where the LP looks black but is actually a deep crimson!

 

[Doug G.]

These certainly would have been considered audiophile in their day (1945-46) and still sound very good and are vinyl:

My set of "Till..." inherited from my father who bought the set after he was out of the Army, in 1945. The recording/pressing process was much improved by then. Very close to "HiFi" standards.

Doug

 

[atrocity]

I seem to recall some translucent red 45s of classical music I once had or found
What a nuisance to keep flipping or stacking 45s to hear a classical piece.....

When RCA introduced the 45 they color-coded them:

 

[atrocity]

When I got my Technics SL-10 (now sadly broken) parallel tracker (with LEDs to detect the record) I discovered some LPs were not black & opaque, the one I remember the most is the double album Sky 2 released in 1980 where the LP looks black but is actually a deep crimson!

Pressed in the UK by Pye? Discogs Forum - UK Pye pressings

 

[kap'n krunch]

These certainly would have been considered audiophile in their day (1945-46) and still sound very good and are vinyl:

View attachment 79519

My set of "Till..." inherited from my father who bought the set after he was out of the Army, in 1945. The recording/pressing process was much improved by then. Very close to "HiFi" standards.

Doug

AAMOF, they had to place a Low pass filter at about 15K cause a lot of these 78s did actually reach ultrasonic frequencies!

 

[Quad Linda]

Audiophile records, translucents, opaques and colored vinyl (other than black) go back farther than you might imagine. Early records by nature were direct-to-discs.

1- (original) 70's & 80's MoFi 1/2 speed LP's appear black, but they are more opaque, if not translucent. Hold one up to a high wattage (75w+) light. The vinyl passes nearly as much light as the spindle hole.

2- We had one of those RCA Victor 45 changers depicted above.

3- There were many solid color 78's from at least as far back as the late 40's. and a few translucents, as Doug G. has posted above.

4- There were late '70's solid white direct-to-discs by L. Almeida, C. Byrd and Peter Appleyard, to name a few.

5- Here's a post I did in another QQ thread 9 years ago:

(Going through my Dad's record collection after his death): The real find was some special recordings which were limited editions around '62 - '63. They are clear, gold LP's that friends in the electronics business gave us. They were used to demo hi-fi gear. I don't know if they were direct-to-disc, but they sound great. I only had cassette dubs of these. They say "Custom Pressed by Kimberly Records, a division of PRI" and come in white paper sleeves. The only markings are the LP labels.


Each record has different music and perhaps bands as well on each side. All have numbers of 1003, with different volumes:
Record 2, Side 1: Great Movie Themes
Record 2, Side 2: (mislabeled) Jazz

Record 4, Side 1: Mel Torme FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE & FIDELITY!
Record 4, Side 2: Percussion Tribute to Lawrence Welk

Record 5, Side 1: Enchanted Strings of Hawaii
Record 5, Side 2: Percussion Tribute to Les Brown

Record 6, Side 1: Sing-along (cooler than Mitch, that Son of a Bitch)
Record 6, Side 2: Percussion Tribute to Frank Loesser

Does anyone else know about these?



Kimberly was owned by Precision Radiation Instruments, Inc. (PRI) of Los Angeles. The "Frankie Capp Percussion Group" consisted of Bud Shank, Robert Drasnin, Richie Kamuca, Marty Berman, and Ronny Lang on saxes, Al Porcino, Frank Beach, Ray Linn, and Conti Candoli on trumpets, Dick Noel, George Roberts, and Harry Betts on trombones, Bob Florence on piano, Buddy Clark on bass, and Emil Richards, Larry Bunker, and Frank Capp on percussion instruments. The songs were arranged by Harry Betts. Actually, all of the Frankie Capp Percussion Group albums were reissues of the Dave Pell albums on the P.R.I. label, with a percussion overdub by Frankie Capp.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Audiophile records, translucents, opaques and colored vinyl (other than black) go back farther than you might imagine. Early records by nature were direct-to-discs.

1- (original) 70's & 80's MoFi 1/2 speed LP's appear black, but they are more opaque, if not translucent. Hold one up to a high wattage (75w+) light. The vinyl passes nearly as much light as the spindle hole.

2- We had one of those RCA Victor 45 changers depicted above.

3- There were many solid color 78's from at least as far back as the late 40's. and a few translucents, as Doug G. has posted above.

4- There were late '70's solid white direct-to-discs by L. Almeida, C. Byrd and Peter Appleyard, to name a few.

5- Here's a post I did in another QQ thread 9 years ago:

(Going through my Dad's record collection after his death): The real find was some special recordings which were limited editions around '62 - '63. They are clear, gold LP's that friends in the electronics business gave us. They were used to demo hi-fi gear. I don't know if they were direct-to-disc, but they sound great. I only had cassette dubs of these. They say "Custom Pressed by Kimberly Records, a division of PRI" and come in white paper sleeves. The only markings are the LP labels.


Each record has different music and perhaps bands as well on each side. All have numbers of 1003, with different volumes:
Record 2, Side 1: Great Movie Themes
Record 2, Side 2: (mislabeled) Jazz

Record 4, Side 1: Mel Torme FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE & FIDELITY!
Record 4, Side 2: Percussion Tribute to Lawrence Welk

Record 5, Side 1: Enchanted Strings of Hawaii
Record 5, Side 2: Percussion Tribute to Les Brown

Record 6, Side 1: Sing-along (cooler than Mitch, that Son of a Bitch)
Record 6, Side 2: Percussion Tribute to Frank Loesser

Does anyone else know about these?



Kimberly was owned by Precision Radiation Instruments, Inc. (PRI) of Los Angeles. The "Frankie Capp Percussion Group" consisted of Bud Shank, Robert Drasnin, Richie Kamuca, Marty Berman, and Ronny Lang on saxes, Al Porcino, Frank Beach, Ray Linn, and Conti Candoli on trumpets, Dick Noel, George Roberts, and Harry Betts on trombones, Bob Florence on piano, Buddy Clark on bass, and Emil Richards, Larry Bunker, and Frank Capp on percussion instruments. The songs were arranged by Harry Betts. Actually, all of the Frankie Capp Percussion Group albums were reissues of the Dave Pell albums on the P.R.I. label, with a percussion overdub by Frankie Capp.

Cool!
You are such an education , Mamita Linda

 

[DuncanS]

Pressed in the UK by Pye? Discogs Forum - UK Pye pressings

Yes, AD SKY2, Ariola Eurodisc Ltd. Manufactured and distributed by Pye Records Ltd.

 

[barfle]

I seem to recall some translucent red 45s of classical music I once had or found
What a nuisance to keep flipping or stacking 45s to hear a classical piece.....

I have a 45 rpm album of Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite. It sounds like crap, but it’s cute as all heck.

 

[Quad Linda]

78 box sets were common in the day. Doug G. provided a translucent example. Dad had South Pacific Pinza/Martin 78 box on CBS. How else could you get a long classical piece on an "album?" 45 box sets were the logical progression.

Do you have the Capitol set conducted by Grofe himself, or the Toscanini 45's on RCA? RCA was pushing 45's as the modern alternative to 78's. Sounds like whichever one you bought, it was overmodulated for the jukebox market. Surprise!

Somehow, CBS' LP's were much more suited to longer works w/up to 30 minutes/side..

 

[DuncanS]

78 box sets were common in the day. Doug G. provided a translucent example. Dad had South Pacific Pinza/Martin 78 box on CBS. How else could you get a long classical piece on an "album?" 45 box sets were the logical progression.

Do you have the Capitol set conducted by Grofe himself, or the Toscanini 45's on RCA? RCA was pushing 45's as the modern alternative to 78's. Sounds like whichever one you bought, it was overmodulated for the jukebox market. Surprise!

Somehow, CBS' LP's were much more suited to longer works w/up to 30 minutes/side..

I think I have a set of 78rpm of a Classical piece I inherited from my father, you stacked them up on the player in order, then turned them over when the stack ran out, as a kid I found it quite heavy when playing the DJ.

 

[Quad Linda]

Playing a stack, then flipping them in order on a changer is called automatic sequencing. Sides 1 & 2 on the same disc, 3 & 4 on the same disc, etc. is manual sequencing. More practical on single-play TT's.

Some multiple LP sets are manual, others are automatic. Before CD days, one of the audio and/or music magazines included this info as part of their reviews. Please don't ask me to recall which one...

 

[jefe1]

Automatic for the people........

There is no end to the fascination with recorded music and the technology.

 

[atrocity]

Audiophile records, translucents, opaques and colored vinyl (other than black) go back farther than you might imagine.

Weren't the early Fantasy records ALL on non-black vinyl? Definitely wasn't the case by the time CCR was making them rich...

 

[MidiMagic]

I seem to recall some translucent red 45s of classical music I once had or found
What a nuisance to keep flipping or stacking 45s to hear a classical piece.....

I have a set of The Nutcracker on convenient 45 rpm records. With my Collaro, you stack the low numbered sides in order and play the stack. Then you simply turn the entire stack over and play the remaining sides.

The problem was if you had the little RCA 45 changer - it repeated the last record until you (grrr) got up to turn it off.

I actually have some Bing Crosby shellac 78s from the 1940s that are dark blue transparent. But they may be wartime records made of substitute materials.

At first, RCA color coded the 45s by music genre.

Black - popular
Red - classical (RCA Red Seal label)
Orange - R & B
Yellow - children
Green - Christmas
Aqua - C & W
Blue - popular classics
Blue - black label - international

When other companies made all of their 45s black, RCA stopped using the color code.

 

[Doug G.]

I forgot to mention, RCA made available both regular 78 RPM Red Seal sets, which were black shellac and Deluxe Red Seal sets which were the red, translucent vinyl. I have both of the "Till..." sets and the red vinyl Deluxe set sounds much better.

My Hendrix "Electric Ladyland" set is automatic sequence. Same with my "Woodstock" set.

Doug