Remington Lp Vinyl Record Pressing:: RECORD CORPORATION OF NEW ENGLAND Webster Massachusetts

LP LIST / AUDIO & MUSIC BULLETIN / THE REMINGTON SITE / 7" RECORD GALLERY / BACK

Webster Manufacturing Co. Massachusetts - Record Corporation of New England

In the nineteen forties most of Gabor's 78 rpm shellac records were pressed at the Scranton Record Mfg. plant which at the time was the largest independent record pressing plant in the U.S. Even after the plant had been acquired by Capitol Records in 1946, Gabor's Continental, Csardas, White Eagle, and Remington discs were pressed there. But that was soon going to change.
Another important name in early American LP history is Webster Manufacturing Co. of Webster, Massachusetts, Webster - as the story is told - had once been a center of textile manufacturing, but just after World War II, the Webster Manufacturing Co. had moved to a non-union site in the South to avoid strict regulations, leaving behind an empty factory and an unemployed labor force. Whether Gabor persuaded the workers to buy the factory and install record-pressing equipment as David Diehl suggests, or that Don Gabor himself bought the mill relying on the existing labor force, is not sure. Fact is that the facory started pressing shellac records in 1947 for the Continental and Remington 78 rpm disks.

When the Long Playing record had been introduced, it soon became clear that not only shellac was in short supply but also the plastic to press the new discs from. Gabor had already experimented with a substitute for shellac and conducted trials for a substitute for LP records. There were two reasons. First there was a shortage of plastic and secondly he wanted to keep his prices low which was impossible when using high grade vinyl.

At the same time - in 1948 - Gabor installed a record pressing plant in Montreal, Canada, manufacturing the Maple Leaf label. All this was proof that the company was growing and became one of the world's largest independant record manufacturers.

The Webster factory had 42 presses and also started manufacturing 45 rpm 7 inch records in 1949. A few years later all of Gabor's labels were pressed there: 33 1/3 and 45 rpm discs; the early high quality Masterseals;, and the cheap Remingtons. In 1951 Gabor told journalist Cecil Smith that he intended to press the Remington records in the Webster plant. See Cecil Smith's article in The New Republic. He did not make this statement just for promotional purposes, but he had plans with the factory. From the looks of most of the Plymouth releases it is possible that these may have been pressed in another factory.
At left is a page of a small sized Remington Records Catalog issued in the fall of 1952. It says that Remington is one of the world's largest independent record manufacturers. It also shows with pride the pressing plant and the countries were Remington Records were recorded and/or distributed. In 1955 the plant was flooded and after reopening in the fall of 1955 it was working at onloy 75 per cent of the nprmal capacity. Gabor sold his Record Corporation of New England in 1959.

Page first published on the www on
October 14. 2009.
This page will be updated.

Many recordings of classical and semi classical music for the Remington label were made in Vienna. A few were made in Stuttgart with soloists and conductor Hans Grischkat. In France recordings were made with conductor George Enesco and other French artists. In the Netherlands Remington records were pressed and handled by Basart International in Amsterdam. In Canada LP records were pressed and distributed. From 1954 till 1956 recordings were made in in Berlin and a few in other German cities. And there were the recordings made with Thor Johnson in Cincinnati.

Most recital recordings made in America were generally done in the Mastertone Studio in New York. However at some instances a recording session was more or less improvised as the idea to tape a specific artist was decided on the spot at that very moment. This may have been the case with George Enesco's Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin by Bach released on Continental CLP-104/5/6. These may have been recorded at Gabor's home, or in his office, or in a room of a recording studio when the actual studio was not available, or even in the Webster plant. This is suggested by the striking of a clock which can be heard at some instance in the background. These performances were recorded on acetates. In specific cases other locations may have been chosen for practical reasons like Mannes School of Music or the Florida State University.

It is not sure what makes and types of tape recorders were used, although they must have been professional machines somewhat like the Magnecord M-80A (mechanical tape transport) and M-80C (amplifier) or earlier types. The speeds of the Magnecord tape transport were 15 and 7.5 ips (38 and 19 cm/sec.). Notwithstanding the fact that the sound quality recorded with professional and semi-progessional machines was of a relatively high standard, Donald Gabor transferred the original tapes to a simpler tape recorder. And from that "master" the lacquer was cut.

I suspect that he did this to "create" a sound character which would make his records playable on relative simple radio systems and cheap portable gramophones with ceramic cartridges or crystal pick ups, and the so important variable treble and bass controls. He was interested in manufacturing records with "music for millions" as far as the prices of the discs were concerned. If recorders like the Magnecord were not used by Gabor, they or similar machines of other brands were in use by the Mastertone Studios or by any other sound recordist like Robert E. Blake.
The specs at right give an indication of the technical standards in those days. These were published in High Fidelity magazine of October, 1954. The frequency response at 15 ips is 20 to 20.000 cycles. Wow and flutter is less than 0.1 %, the distortion better than 0.53 %. The tubes used are of the types 6BK7, 12AU7, 5Y3GT and 12 AX7.

I do not have a picture of the original cutting lathe used in the Webster pressing plant. It should be similar to the one at left; with or without stroboscope.
Once the lacquer is cut, it is galvanized (nickel plated) and various positives and negatives are being made through electrolytical processes.

The nickel plated matrix has to be checked carefully before it can be the master from which negatives are made. These negatives are called mothers and from each mother subsequent pressing stampers (slaves or sons) are made. Irregularities in the spiral track and of the surface of the master are corrected with specific tools. If the galvanized master has irreparable defects, it can not be used and a new lacquer has to be cut. Naturally the mothers have to be checked too. And the slaves, the actual stampers, from which the vinyl records are pressed.
			A record pressing plant was not a healthy work environment. Dust, heat and bad air were the ingredients which determined the climate. The raw ingredients (polyvinyl, carbon, and additives) were taken out of the containers, and put on a conveyor belt.


25 Years CD<> SACD: Upsampling & Noiseshaping Your Desert Island Discs Garrard 4 & 5 HF The Sound of Tubes and Transistors The Universal Stabilizing Ring - URSR URSR: Review in HiFi Worl URSR: Picture Gallery URSR: Positive Feedback Online Award		The vinyl was "cooked" and continuously mixed in large heaters until it had the desired plasticity and density.	Then it was carried to yet another machine which pressed pancakes or tablets of a specific size and weight.
URSR: Review in PFO, Issue 20. Elisabeth Lugt Soprano/Sopraan Marie-Claire Alain Notre Dame de l'Orgue Active Loudspeake System Optimizing Phono Cartridge Performance Gold for Bernard Haitink Violinist/Violist Paul Godwin Rabco SL-8E Vintage Tangential Tonearm Wilma Cozart Fine: Mercury Living Presence Mercury Recordings on the Fontana Label Desert Island Discs DIY: Building a Tone Arm The Bullet Plug Decca London Ribbon HF Horn Loudspeaker T he Joy of Well Positioned Speakers Vintage Equipment Phono Cartridges: Ortofon, Decca, Tannoy Lp Record Cleaning + DIY Cleaning Formula Turntable + Cartridge Adjustment DIY: An Effective Turntable Weight LP Lists Stefano Pasini: Deutsche Perfektion Joachim Bung: Swiss Precision CLASSIQUE 777 Lp Record Covers Record Shops Catalogs & Books The TD124 page The SP10 Page Building a Tonearm The Turntable Mat Paris Jazz 1960s Porgy & Bess 7" Recordings of Violinists Klaas Posthuma - EMI Etcetera Globe The Remington Site
The plates are mounted in a heavy metal rig similar to a waffle iron and precisely secured. Precision is one of the basics as no pressed record should be off center and every record should be completely flat.

	Vinyl is originally a colorless substance which can be colored as one wishes. Right from the start several 45 rpm 7 inch Remingtons were pressed from blue and red vinyl.
In the early days the releases on Remington were pressed at the Webster plant. At the time when most of these pictures were taken by Piasta Photography Studio (Webster, MA), the issues of Masterseal, Webster, Palace, Buckingham, Paris, Spin-O-Rama, and others were pressed at the Webster plant.

The pictures on this page are from about 1957. By that time the vinyl was no longer the cheap vinyl-mix of the early Remingtons but had more or less acquired the quality of the vinyl used by other companies. The vinyl pancake is put in between the two plates fixed in the pressing moulds. Through a system of tubes steam is transported to the moulds. The steam rises the temperature to approx. 140 degrees. Way back then pressing a record was a manual labour. Today the modern plants that still exist press thousands of records. They are practically fully automated and the actual pressing is done hydraulically.
Checking the sound quality of a series of pressings is done by picking records from the batch of a pressed title. The turntable is the Rek-O-Kut T43 with two arms: the original Rek-O-Kut arm and the Audax Pro 16 tonearm from Audak.The Pro 16 is a unipivot design which was then called a compass bearing. The amplifiers and speakers are difficult to identify as the styling of the fronts are what was regarded as modern and handsome designs in those days. The small tube amplifier has buttons (switches) in between the large knobs, probably to activate filters at various frequencies and for muting.

The Webster plant was not just a record pressing factory. The mill had also a department where the covers were printed, cut and glued. Here a worker adds paint for printing sleeves on a press manufactured by Stokes & Smith Co. from Philadelphia.

	A stack of covers is being cut to size by an operator handling a "Sheridan New Model" cutting machine.
	Putting the ready LPs in a protective cellophane bag (jacket) is the finishing touch.

		These three lovely ladies put the ordered records in cardboard boxes. The LP with the Masterseal MS-50 recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto played by Michèle Auclair and Kurt Wöss (the re-release of the early Remington R-199-20) is also shipped.
	Every week thousands and thousanfs of LP records were ready to be transported to companies who had ordered the pressings. Don Gabor's Masterseal, Webster, Buckingham and Paris LPs were shipped to shops, department stores, and gaz stations.
The important job of the finance department: sending invoices and checking the balance of payment of each and every retailer. Modern electrical calculators assisted the workers. The rest was done in a pure analog fashion, so to speak.

	In the nineteen forties most of Gabor's 78 rpm shellac records were pressed at the Scranton Record Mfg. plant which at the time was the largest independent record pressing plant in the U.S. Even after the plant had been acquired by Capitol Records in 1946, Gabor's Continental, Csardas, White Eagle, and Remington discs were pressed there. But that was soon going to change. Another important name in early American LP history is Webster Manufacturing Co. of Webster, Massachusetts, Webster - as the story is told - had once been a center of textile manufacturing, but just after World War II, the Webster Manufacturing Co. had moved to a non-union site in the South to avoid strict regulations, leaving behind an empty factory and an unemployed labor force. Whether Gabor persuaded the workers to buy the factory and install record-pressing equipment as David Diehl suggests, or that Don Gabor himself bought the mill relying on the existing labor force, is not sure. Fact is that the facory started pressing shellac records in 1947 for the Continental and Remington 78 rpm disks.
	When the Long Playing record had been introduced, it soon became clear that not only shellac was in short supply but also the plastic to press the new discs from. Gabor had already experimented with a substitute for shellac and conducted trials for a substitute for LP records. There were two reasons. First there was a shortage of plastic and secondly he wanted to keep his prices low which was impossible when using high grade vinyl. At the same time - in 1948 - Gabor installed a record pressing plant in Montreal, Canada, manufacturing the Maple Leaf label. All this was proof that the company was growing and became one of the world's largest independant record manufacturers. The Webster factory had 42 presses and also started manufacturing 45 rpm 7 inch records in 1949. A few years later all of Gabor's labels were pressed there: 33 1/3 and 45 rpm discs; the early high quality Masterseals;, and the cheap Remingtons. In 1951 Gabor told journalist Cecil Smith that he intended to press the Remington records in the Webster plant. See Cecil Smith's article in The New Republic. He did not make this statement just for promotional purposes, but he had plans with the factory. From the looks of most of the Plymouth releases it is possible that these may have been pressed in another factory. At left is a page of a small sized Remington Records Catalog issued in the fall of 1952. It says that Remington is one of the world's largest independent record manufacturers. It also shows with pride the pressing plant and the countries were Remington Records were recorded and/or distributed. In 1955 the plant was flooded and after reopening in the fall of 1955 it was working at onloy 75 per cent of the nprmal capacity. Gabor sold his Record Corporation of New England in 1959.
Page first published on the www on October 14. 2009. This page will be updated.
	Many recordings of classical and semi classical music for the Remington label were made in Vienna. A few were made in Stuttgart with soloists and conductor Hans Grischkat. In France recordings were made with conductor George Enesco and other French artists. In the Netherlands Remington records were pressed and handled by Basart International in Amsterdam. In Canada LP records were pressed and distributed. From 1954 till 1956 recordings were made in in Berlin and a few in other German cities. And there were the recordings made with Thor Johnson in Cincinnati. Most recital recordings made in America were generally done in the Mastertone Studio in New York. However at some instances a recording session was more or less improvised as the idea to tape a specific artist was decided on the spot at that very moment. This may have been the case with George Enesco's Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin by Bach released on Continental CLP-104/5/6. These may have been recorded at Gabor's home, or in his office, or in a room of a recording studio when the actual studio was not available, or even in the Webster plant. This is suggested by the striking of a clock which can be heard at some instance in the background. These performances were recorded on acetates. In specific cases other locations may have been chosen for practical reasons like Mannes School of Music or the Florida State University.
It is not sure what makes and types of tape recorders were used, although they must have been professional machines somewhat like the Magnecord M-80A (mechanical tape transport) and M-80C (amplifier) or earlier types. The speeds of the Magnecord tape transport were 15 and 7.5 ips (38 and 19 cm/sec.). Notwithstanding the fact that the sound quality recorded with professional and semi-progessional machines was of a relatively high standard, Donald Gabor transferred the original tapes to a simpler tape recorder. And from that "master" the lacquer was cut.
I suspect that he did this to "create" a sound character which would make his records playable on relative simple radio systems and cheap portable gramophones with ceramic cartridges or crystal pick ups, and the so important variable treble and bass controls. He was interested in manufacturing records with "music for millions" as far as the prices of the discs were concerned. If recorders like the Magnecord were not used by Gabor, they or similar machines of other brands were in use by the Mastertone Studios or by any other sound recordist like Robert E. Blake. The specs at right give an indication of the technical standards in those days. These were published in High Fidelity magazine of October, 1954. The frequency response at 15 ips is 20 to 20.000 cycles. Wow and flutter is less than 0.1 %, the distortion better than 0.53 %. The tubes used are of the types 6BK7, 12AU7, 5Y3GT and 12 AX7.