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Posted: |
Jul 18, 2016 - 2:04 AM
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By: |
Jim Doherty
(Member)
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When my family bought a cassette recorder in 1969 or 1970, I started taping all my my favorite themes from films off TV. I started out using a microphone, but that gave you a huge buzzing sound if you held the mic too close to the TV. Later, I actually took the front off of a small portable B&W TV we had and attached alligator clips to the speaker leads inside the TV and led the cord out of the set so I could plug it into the auxiliary input of the cassette recorder. Back then, you really didn't have a choice. There were almost NO classic Golden Age soundtracks available on LP; even many silver age classics (like THE TIME MACHINE or MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, for instance), or many current film releases had no LP releases. You either got 'em from TV or didn't have them at all.
Yeah, I still have a ton of those cassettes, but only rarely listen to them, as most of those much-loved scores thankfully were released on CD many years later.
But still, I remember those days, and was so happy to be able to capture the scores I liked, even if they were mixed with dialogue and effects. On the other hand, sometime films were only shown perhaps once a year and you didn't have home video in those days, so having the dialogue and effects was almost a way of re-living your favorite films, even if you didn't have the picture to go with it.
Film music fans, and indeed. film fans in general, now live in a time when they easily can get the scores they want and the films they want. I am so happy about that. I look back on a time not so very long ago (at least compared to my lifetime -like 34 years ago-), when recordings of all of these scores were totally out of reach, and you couldn't even get A VHS of a film you loved.
I'm so glad we have so many better sources now.
Jim
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Posted: |
Jul 23, 2016 - 1:04 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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When my family bought a cassette recorder in 1969 or 1970, I started taping all my my favorite themes from films off TV. I started out using a microphone, but that gave you a huge buzzing sound if you held the mic too close to the TV. Later, I actually took the front off of a small portable B&W TV we had and attached alligator clips to the speaker leads inside the TV and led the cord out of the set so I could plug it into the auxiliary input of the cassette recorder. Back then, you really didn't have a choice. There were almost NO classic Golden Age soundtracks available on LP; even many silver age classics (like THE TIME MACHINE or MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, for instance), or many current film releases had no LP releases. You either got 'em from TV or didn't have them at all.
Yeah, I still have a ton of those cassettes, but only rarely listen to them, as most of those much-loved scores thankfully were released on CD many years later.
But still, I remember those days, and was so happy to be able to capture the scores I liked, even if they were mixed with dialogue and effects. On the other hand, sometime films were only shown perhaps once a year and you didn't have home video in those days, so having the dialogue and effects was almost a way of re-living your favorite films, even if you didn't have the picture to go with it.
Film music fans, and indeed. film fans in general, now live in a time when they easily can get the scores they want and the films they want. I am so happy about that. I look back on a time not so very long ago (at least compared to my lifetime -like 34 years ago-), when recordings of all of these scores were totally out of reach, and you couldn't even get A VHS of a film you loved.
I'm so glad we have so many better sources now.
Jim
Ha, I started recording in 1971 off the TV with my first Compact Cassette recorder bought from paper route money. Got it just before the Bucs beat the Orioles in the World Series. Still have some cassettes, too. Remember taping the opening to Story Theatre.
As for VHS, at least 25 years ago I started compiling scenes and filled a VCR tape with tons of snippets mostly recorded by happenstance. Some TV, some movies; some 4:3, some letterboxed. Even did a second tape. They remain very entertaining. In another life I produce a Ken Burns-style film music documentary and those tapes serve as a template.
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WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE (Fried) and MURDER IN TEXAS (Rosenman) are ones I still listen to, done this way.
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