The "VE", at the top and bottom of the record label indicating a Victor electrical recording
The "VE", at the top and bottom of the record label indicating a Victor electrical recording
Detail map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Overview map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

A: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The Victor Talking Machine Company Makes the First Electrical Sound Recording

1924 to 4/1925
Victor "scroll" label from 1930, featuring the company's house band directed by Nathaniel Shilkret
Victor "scroll" label from 1930, featuring the company's house band directed by Nathaniel Shilkret, The VE at the top and bottom of the label indicating an Electrical Recording

In 1924 Henry C. Harrison at Bell Labs developed a matched-impedance recorder, which improved the frequency range from the previous narrow 250-2,500 Hertz range of acoustic recorders to a wider range of 50-6,000 Hertz using the condenser microphone, tube amplifier, balanced-armature speaker, and a rubber-line acoustic recorder with a long tapered horn. This system was licensed to the Victor Talking Machine Company which used it in April, 1925 to make the first electrical recording of a symphony orchestra: the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski, performing 'Danse macabre' by Camille Saint-Saëns: 

The new system was sold in October by Victor as the Orthophonic phonograph capable of playing back acoustically-produced and electrically-produced records. It extended the reproducible sound range by more than an octave on the high and low end.

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