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1963

Taiwan’s First Stereo Record Released

台灣第一張立體聲唱片《孝婦淚》

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  • The “Golden Ear” of Ya Hsien Recording Studio — Mr. Chen Chien-ping
    From: Leader’s Cultivation Blog
    Date: May 30, 2015Author: Wu Chien-hung

    During the Japanese colonial period, Taiwan lacked recording equipment and record-pressing technology; recordings had to be made by taking a four-day, three-night sea voyage to Japan, with the finished records then imported and sold by Taiwanese distributors. These records were made from shellac, rosin, carbon powder, and yellow clay — materials that became viscous when heated. Taiwanese record manufacturers of that era would collect used records, melt them down, press them into molds engraved with new tracks, and run them through heated pressing machines to produce what were called “shellac records” spinning at 78 RPM. It was not until 1945 that the speed changed from 78 to 45 RPM. In 1957, a Mr. Yeh Jin-tai developed a variable-speed device that could accommodate both formats, though the manufacturing process remained entirely manual, production was slow, and the breakage rate was high. It was only in 1962, with the introduction of “hydraulic semi-automatic machinery” and the switch to vinyl resin, that the yield rate improved dramatically. In 1963, Yeh Jin-tai developed a record capable of producing stereo sound, resulting in Taiwan’s first domestically recorded stereo album, Hsiao-fu Tears.

    Tags

  • Record Industry
  • Sound Media
  • Vinyl Records
Taiwan’s First Stereo Record Released
#Record Industry#Sound Medium#Vinyl Records

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