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Author is ricr-prcaldenf •£ MaHaf?er of Atni»cx Audio, /nr., a dirlsion nf /ł«ij»rx Corp. Hcjoincd firm in IU55 and lina bccn with Raytheon and Jcffricd Trana-former in addition to sonie non-clectronic firma. He ia a urodna te of \tacKny College; took advanccd irork at the Univcralty of Callf,

Ed/torial

By HERBERT L. BROWN

Presidenł, Magnetie Recording Indułtry Anociation

THE magnetie recording industry is playing a vital role in the Communications netV/ork that implements and binds together many aspeets of modern life— ranging from the arts and entertainment to education, manufacturing, and research. It has experienced fantastic growth in the past few years, undergoing the "growing pains” and facing the problems that are encountered by any new industry in this jet and space age.

The Magnetie Recording Industry Association is the alert and vital organization which represents this youńg and energetic industry. It has proved to be the right vehicle for bringing together varied interests and helping to weld into a unified approach.fłie problems and opportunities of the medium.

In its self-imposed role. MRIA is taking the initiative for speaking for the industry before governmcnt bodies, allied associations and organizations, as well as to the var-ious American businesses with which we work.

Ali segments of the industry are represented on MRIA’s roster of forty-four members—manufacturers of recorders, raw tape, recorded tape, accessories. heads, reels and car-tridges, educational recorders, as well as language labora-tories and tape duplicators.

At the annual meeting of the MRIA membership, held in Chicago last May, the association adopted a new and ex-panded program that cleared the way for legał representa-tion and the establishment of a permanent address at 110 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago. The members also approved a long-range public information program which is now being implemented. Another important phase of the plan is being carried out by the Standards Committee which is currently conducting a survey among MRIA members to determine which aspeets of standardization deserve priority.

Recently someone madę the statement that the stereo disc was the best thing that ever happened to magnetie tape. In many ways this is true. A year ago stereo tape*s potential audience was perhaps 5,000,000. Today 95,000,000 Americans, or 54.4% of our population, are aware of stereo. These are people who presently have phonographs and rec-ord playing equipment in their homes and have been *‘ex-posed" to the currcnt trend toward stereo reproduction. Thus, instead of being an esoteric subject for the sophis-ticated musie lover alone, stereo has become a household world in millions of families—virtually overnight.

As morę and morę musie lovers become conscious of the benefits of stereo reproduction, or are "stereo oriented,” an inereasing number will, inevitably, adopt stereo tape as the finest medium for recorded musie and entertainment. For this reason. the tape industry's potential has inereased fan-tastically. We welcome this new challenge and are pre-pared to meet it with the same enthusiasm and know-how' which has characterized our progress in the past.

It was only 12 years ago that the first single-track tapes madę their appearance. The signal was recorded across the fuli width of the tape while the tape ran at 30 ips. Speed was gradually reduced to 15 and then to 7.5 ips, without impairing the frequency response seriously.

It is interesting to notę that no change in speed or number of tracks was ever madę until the industry was certain it could be done with no loss of the ąuality which characterized tape from the very beginning.

The single track w^fas divided in 1949 with one half used for monophonic recording in one direction. The reel was then flopped and the second half of the tape was used for recording in the other direction. When stereo came into the picture in 1951, tape was ready for it.

The first multi-track machines were used professionally and it wasn*t until 1955 that the first home stereophonic tape phonographs were introduced. It was a two-channel system which has remained virtually unchanged until the four-track stereo tape was launched in May of this year.

Machines to play the new four-track. 7.5-ips reel-to-reel stereo tapes are Corning ofT the assembly lines in ever inereasing numbers. Three-quartcrs of a million four-track recorders will have been produced by the end of this year. Morę than a half-million machines now' in use can be con-verted and. for these, the industry is already bringing out conversion kits. The tape cartridge has been revived and will be available in inereasing numbers this Fali.

Most significant of all from the standpoint of the musie lover is the fact that literally hundreds of new stereo tape titles from recognized tape libraries, as well as the musie catalogues heretofore available only on dises, will be ofTered in the new’ four-track. 7.5-ips stereo format.

This trend will insure the availability of the great musie libraries which have been put on master tapes over the past decade by all of the recording companies. The musie lover can now have this new and exciting repertoire at a considerably lowcr cost without sacrificing any of the fidelity that tape alone can insure.

The members of MRIA look to a bright futurę with the quiet confidcnce of those who know their job and are pre-pared to offer the music-loving public the best in sound reproduction.    -ffi-

67

October, 195?