Roburt Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 (edited) There's an article up on the net about 12" singles -- 'Zoo Story: For The Longest Time' that includes this section .... ... 1974 .... Tom Moulton, an A&R rep for King Records, was about to make a mix of the Al Downing disco track "I'll Be Holding On". Like so many great innovations of the modern age, he invented the 12-inch single by accident. In the book 'Record Players: DJ Revolutionairies', Moulton simply tells the history of the first 12-inch single: “The seven-inch blanks, they were out of them. So he had to give me a twelve-inch. And I said, that’s ridiculous. So they said, I know what we’ll do: we’ll spread the grooves and make it louder. And, of course, when I heard it, I almost died.” This new format started to make the rounds with the DJs before any 12-inch singles were commercially available. It split the difference between the fidelity of the 40-minute, 12-inch 33-rpm LP and the brevity of the three-minute, 7-inch 45-rpm single. The 12-inch single emerged in the mid ’70s at the height of discotheques, as DJs called for longer songs to entertain the bell-bottomed girls who made the disco ball go ’round. As Moulton said, the grooves cut for a 12"³ record are wider, which makes the bass deeper and the sound louder. The benefit of the 12-inch single is simple physics: Not only do the wider grooves allow the record stylus to create wider sound waves for louder amplification and bigger bass; but also the further out the groove is from the center of the record, the more space there is for the stylus to move. Just try spinning the 10-minute live version of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Incident on 57th Street” from the B-side of the 1987 “Fire” 7-inch. You’ll hear what’s called “inner groove distortion” because the grooves on the 45 are so close the center. It sounds like shit. Eventually, the 12-inch single started to creep out of the disco clubs blasting Double Exposure’s 10-minute “Ten Percent” and Donna Summer’s 17-minute “Love to Love You Baby” and into the mainstream pop consciousness. Everything .... just about became available on 12" after that ........................... ........................ Apart from the fact that Tom Moulton was a freelance mixer (who was affiliated to King Records way back in 1963) and the Al Downing track was cut in 1974 for DCA Records out of Washington DC and released on Chess & Janus (via GRT), I guess most of the above rings true. Tom was getting success as a re-mixer with cuts by the likes of B T Express & (coincidently) Don Downing. He was soon to be in demand with every record label who wanted a disco hit (& was so influential in such matters back in 1975, the Billboard gave him his own weekly column). ANYWAY to my points .......... Was it a HAPPY ACCIDENT that the plant was out of 7" blanks when he needed one ? .... ALSO ...... I know (from my own collecting habits) that 12" singles can be a pain for a number of reasons ..... 1/ Because of the space they take up. 2/ Coz they mean a 3 min 30 track can be extended to infinity and thus 'lose the plot'. 3/ Coz for the last 20+ years, they have been putting out numerous remix versions on different 12"ers .... so findin the 12" that has the right soulful mix can be a right pain. BUT THAT APART ....... and especially as it states above, most tracks over 4 minutes long 'sound like shit' when pressed on 7" vinyl ... ....... why do NSers continue to be so against 12" singles (they ain't even too keen on LP's & CD's). Are they just 'dinosaurs' who bury their head in the sand & resist all technological progress ? Edited March 2, 2013 by Roburt
Mike Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 said it too many times now if you are going to post words from other web sites like in the above post then you are expected to post a link to the actual source ie the original author/website/artilce here is the link you should have posted https://consequenceof...e-longest-time/ there are reasons why ask and expect this to be done any future posts by yourself using other websites content without a link will be deleted
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