Let’s talk Sam Fox/ Synchro-Fox stuff

[Your Pal Doug]

I was working on Sam Fox 1017 today.
I finished Side 1 in FLAC
Side 2 skips and is pretty scratchy.

Record Cleaning:
Any suggestions on maybe soaking the record or using a sponge?
The solution and record cleaning tools weren't enough.

[roope]

I have sometimes deep cleaned a record with wood glue, which usually works beautifully. A couple of times it didn't help at all and I'm not sure if the records ended up even noisier than before. But about 100 times I've turned a horrible looking and sounding record into EX. Some people will probably scream in terror seeing someone suggesting this, but maybe you want to consider. Google a bit before trying so you'll know the basic tips and the right stuff to use.

[Uncle Michael]

I thought I'd follow through and list the Sam Fox titles I acquired in my recent haul. They are as follows:

1001
1002
1003 (2)
1004 (2)
1006
1007 (2)
1008
1009
1010
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025

Also, the following Synchro Fox Golden Group:

2001
2002

[Upgrade]

I found the interview I mentioned a while back.

magneticmusic.ws/Frame.htm

Electronic Music for Commercial Radio and TV Spots

Hale Smith is a black American composer who had a day job at Sam Fox Film Rights, publisher of background music for commercials. In 1968 Hale asked his friend Donald Erb to compose some electronic music for Sam Fox’s library. Don was not interested but passed along Hale’s request to me. I went to New York, met Hale, and learned that the most successful music was the easiest to use: tailored to precise 30- or 60-second durations and containing “little holes” for ease of editing. He told me that this library was known as “needle-drop” music, because it was charged at a flat rate per drop of the turntable needle onto the LP disk (i.e., for use in one commercial) without further royalties no matter how often the commercial was broadcast. It was also low-budget music, the fees ranging from about $7.50 to $45.00 or so (I would be paid 50%). It was directed towards the very large market of recording studios and radio stations that wanted hassle-free stock music for simple local commercial spots, without having to hire a composer. Sam Fox was a long-established company and their earliest libraries were issued on 78 rpm records. Now they were engaged in publishing two libraries of 33 1/3 rpm LP disks, Sam Fox for ASCAP music and Demeter for BMI music. Hale said that most of their music came from scores for films that had been produced but then encountered problems and were never released. Sam Fox wanted to release some electronic music, which was then in the public eye, but at that time there were no distressed films with electronic scores available.

Working for a few weeks in the R.A. Moog Co. studio in Trumansburg, I composed enough music for both sides of an LP disk, and gave the tunes suitably dopey titles (some of which were changed to dopier ones by Sam Fox Film Rights). The disk was released in 1968 with the title “Electronic Effects” shortly before I moved to Cleveland. In mid-1969 I began to hear my music on local TV commercials, so I hooked up a tape recorder to my TV. I used an old low-end half-track Webcor recorder (a prize for playing the opening to “Rhapsody in Blue” and winning the Michigan division of the “Music Man” contest in 1960) at 3 ¾ ips; I was looking for only the most basic quality, just to prove the use of my music if necessary.

Hale Smith seems to be describing SF 1022 which has yet to be added to the discogs listing for the Sam Fox label.

chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/Smith.html

This site also gives SF 1022 with a date of 1968. I wonder what the original dopey titles were.

There's another description for Sam Fox SF 1020 which was also released in 1968 for Reynold Weidenaar.

He describes SF 1025 released in 1970.

   
My second production for Sam Fox was one side of an LP in late 1970. I was then working full-time at Audio Recording Studios, Inc., and also using the electronic music studio at the Cleveland Institute of Music while taking composition lessons there from Donald Erb. I recorded the synth parts at CIM on an Ampex 300 4-track recorder. The drum parts were later overdubbed at ARS and were performed by George Stage, a recording engineer at the studio (cuts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11).

Working as a recording engineer in a studio which had purchased the Sam Fox Library gave me an insight into how the royalty process worked (or didn't work, to be more precise). ARS subscribed to the Sam Fox Library by paying a fee for each disk and also a basic yearly usage fee. ARS would then bill clients a needle-drop fee (per-use synchronization) when a Sam Fox tune was recorded on a commercial or some other soundtrack, typically $25. ARS was then supposed to file a form with Sam Fox, showing which music had been used and paying a scheduled per-use license fee, typically $7.50-$15--half of which was then to be reported and paid by Sam Fox to the composer. When I started working as Traffic Manager at ARS in April 1969, I saw that the required forms were not going out to Sam Fox. Naturally in my new position of responsibility I was able to rectify this little oversight. My colleagues and the owners at ARS were very supportive of this new policy; the money was minimal and they were happy that someone other than them was taking care of the paperwork.

The number of forms from ARS citing my music could not have been more than six or eight over the course of the year. For any one composer it is a high-volume business only when his or her music is widely used and faithfully reported at recording studios and radio stations all across the country. This proved to be unlikely. By mid-1970, a year's worth of royalty statements from Sam Fox to me showed precisely NONE of the needle-drops reported to them by ARS. The nice folks at Sam Fox had the good sense to be embarrassed by this and managed to "find" some hundreds of dollars in missing royalties. However, without a way to research uses of my music in local markets around the U.S., most such uses probably escaped royalty payments to the composer.

The use of music in national TV commercials, however, is another matter entirely. ASCAP monitored the broadcasts of TV Guide and other commercials, and paid royalties to Sam Fox and to me. Needle-drop fees in this context were irrelevant.

SF 1028 is described as finally having official cover art and released in 1973.

   
The third and final production for Sam Fox was released in 1973. FOr the first time it was dignified by a printed cover, in color! My friend and colleague David Peelle collaborated with me on this project. By this time there were hundreds of electronic-music studios, thousands of composers, and millions of MiniMoogs, so the competition was fierce. There were just a few brief uses reported by the ASCAP survey and Sam Fox.

[stackjackson]

Very interesting info, Upgrade. Thanks for sharing this.
It confirms something I've thought for a long while about the U.S. library business, which seems to have been a bit loose about synchronization records. Not as diligent and regulated as it was in the U.K.

[Retronic]

Great insights.

[Pegbars]

I am very late discovering this thread.  Can anyone please re-up:

SF 1011
SF 1028
SF 2001

Thanks for your good help.   

[cesser000]

I am very late discovering this thread.  Can anyone please re-up:

SF 1011
SF 1028
SF 2001

Thanks for your good help. 

Here is Andrew's rip of 1011 -- hxxps://mega.nz/#!gfoAmSIR!Q9w02qsXphoEp4BCpJgWy-XZPdLBMxicIFJpl5rBOCI

[Pegbars]

Thank you, so much.  I re-posted in Requests, for anyone else who might need these.

[Upgrade]

I noticed that a8detective mentioned in the submission notes for SF 1010 that the Sam Fox listings could be dated using RCA master serial number codes.

discogs.com/release/2367759-Untitled/history#latest

An RCA pressing from Rockaway is apparently indicated by the small R in the matrix mentioned here. As far as I can tell from my Sam Fox issues at least the early ones have a small R.

discogs.com/label/461373-RCA-Records-Pressing-Plant-Rockaway




Going off of the mentioned link under the subheading of:

"III. 1963 - 1990's
Upon RCA's adoption of the infamous "Dynagroove" system for cutting records, they instituted their third and last revision of matrix number codes"

discogs.com/forum/thread/694503


Unfortunately, the Discogs submissions do not all have the matrix numbers for the main SF catalog though the images appear to have them printed under the RPM indicator. The last four digits are kind of arbitrary and seem to indicate the individual ID number for the each side's master.

                                                 
0(Sam Fox Catalog No.)               1(Year Code), 2(Label Designation), 3(Size and Speed), 4(Groove)


SF1001 R 4RM - 4494        =>      1964      Re-recorded from client's furnished tapes      12" - 33⅓ RPM      Mono (Fine)

SF1002 R 4RM - 4909        =>      1964      "                                                                                                            "

SF1003 R R4M - 0226        =>      1964      Transpose typo?                                        "                                             "

SF1004 R R4M - 4665        =>      1964     "                                                                                                             "

SF1005 R R4M - 5536        =>      1964     "                                                                                                             "

SF1006 CO 5999                                       (doesn't follow RCA convention?)

SF1007 S 4RM - 0530        =>      1965     Re-recorded from client's furnished tapes      12" - 33⅓ RPM      Mono (Fine)

SF1008 S 4RM - 6250        =>      1965      "                                                                                                            "

SF1009 S 4RM - 6411        =>      1965      "                                                                                                            "

SF1010 S 4RM - 9092        =>      1965      "                                                                                                            "

SF1011 T R4M - 1203        =>      1966      Transpose typo?                                        "                                             "

SF1012 T R4M - 1664        =>      1966      "                                                                                                            "

SF1013

SF1014

SF1015 T R4M - 5940        =>      1966      "                                                                                                            "

SF1016 U 4RM - 8794        =>      1967     Re-recorded from client's furnished tapes      12" - 33⅓ RPM      Mono (Fine)

SF1017 W 4RM - 0274        =>     1968      "                                                                                                            "

SF1018 W 4RM - 1150        =>     1968      "                                                                                                            "

SF1019 W 4RM - 1901        =>     1968      "                                                                                                            "

SF1020 W 4RM - 2138        =>     1968      "                                                                                                            "

SF1021 X 4RM - 0751        =>      1969      "                                                                                                             "

SF1022 X 4RM - 0809        =>      1969      "                                                                                                             "

SF1023 X R4M - 1726        =>      1969      Transpose typo?                                        "                                             "

SF1024 Z 4RS - 448-2        =>     1970     Re-recorded from client's furnished tapes      12" - 33⅓ RPM      Stereo

SF1025 Z 4RM - 1151        =>      1970     "                                                                                        "    Mono (Fine)

SF1026 B 4RS - 0051        =>      1972     Re-recorded from client's furnished tapes      12" - 33⅓ RPM      Stereo

SF1027 B 4RS - 0008        =>      1972      "                                                                                                             "

SF1028 CO 5493A                        (Printed date of 1973)

SF1029 CO 6134A                        (Printed date of 1973)

SF1030                                       (Printed date of 1974)



SF2001 W 4RM - 1645        =>      1967     Re-recorded from client's furnished tapes      12" - 33⅓ RPM      Mono (Fine)

SF2002 N O8P - 0910                                       (doesn't follow RCA convention?)


And a random Demeter for good measure.

D 17     T R4M - 1373        =>      1966      Transpose typo?                                        "                                             "



A lot of the matrix numbers switch the second character matrix numbers 4RM to R4M. According to the discogs thread, "RCA Victor Master Serial Number Codes - 1942-1980's":

4RM would indicate "Re-recorded from client's furnished tapes" and "12" - 33⅓ RPM".

R4M latter indicates RCA Red Seal Release and nothing viable for a "4" as the third character.

It would be very strange that a number of Sam Fox releases would be associated with the celebrated RCA Victor Red Seal title. It could be a typo for the R4M or some style change which causes the letters to become swapped once a year?




Anecdotally, from the magneticmusic.ws/Frame.htm link above, there are dates for

SF1020 => 1968

SF1022 => 1968

SF1025 => 1970

SF1028 => 1973

These dates do match up with the RCA matrix codes except for SF1022 which is off by a year.



Checking by another method, I did directly find from SF1001 Loren Wilfong's "Colloquy For Bass And Bongos" registered in the 1964 edition of Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series in Google Books. A spot check of other titles did not turn up any other entries from the Copyright Catalogs in Google Books though I haven't yet checked the actual US Copyright Office. Still the 1964 date agrees with the matrix for SF 1001.



Other thoughts:

I am missing a handful of catalog numbers, but it can be interpolated.

5 LPs a year from 1964-1966. One LP in 1967. Slowly dwindles from 4 to 2 a year from 1968-1973. 1971 is skipped entirely.

The Golden Group (SF2001) LPs seem to have been produced during the lean year in 1967 with SF1016. It fits with the lower bound of Retronic's Sam Fox catalog shown further up the thread.

SF1006 is an early outlier and seemingly not pressed at RCA.

Sam Fox seems to have stopped using RCA by 1973 and SF1028.

The RCA matrix dates could be extended to Sam Fox's other labels: Demeter, OK Music if the small R appears in the matrix.

[Mr]

Great work! I'll add this to the label thread.

The same technique can be used to date most of Capitol's catalogue.

[stackjackson]

Fantastic work, Upgrade!

The same technique can be used to date most of Capitol's catalogue.

Mr, please tell us more! I'd love to be able to add *actual* dates to all those Capitols (Hi-Q, Media Music, etc.), rather than simply guessing the decade (e.g. 196x, 197x, etc.)

[Mr]

I noted this in the Hi-"Q" thread recently; the records produced at Capitol Custom - you'll often find this branded on the releases themselves - have a matrix/runout system that includes an indication of date of production.

1956 = FB-
1957 = GB-
1958 = HB-
1959 = JB-
1960 = KB-
1961 = LB-
1962 = MB-
1963 = OB-/PB-
1964 = RB-
1965 = TB-
1966 = UB-
1967 = WB-
1968 = XB-
1969 = YB-
1970 = ZB-

The post-1970 LPs are unfortunately less informative, including most of Media Music, though it might be possible to identify these from contemporary sources. Same with Media Music the Professional, some dates of which I've identified from copyright paperwork:

MMSE-7 - Prime-Time-Contempo (1984)
MMSE-17 - Spectrum (1984)
MMSE-18 - Many Faces (1984)
MMSE-19 - Software (1984)
MMSE-20 - Energy (1984)
MMSE-21 - Framework (1984)
MMSE-25 - Dimensions (1984)
MMSE-26 - New Ways (1984)
MMSE-27 - Primetime (1984)
MMSE-28 - Simple & Solo (1984)
MMSE-29 - Main Stream (1984)
MMSE-30 - Two on One (1984)
MMSE-31 - Dynamo (1984)
MMSE-32 - Labor Force (1984)
MMSE-34 - Mind Impact (1984)
MSEE-4 - Versatility (1984)
PSE-1 - Total Vision (1985)
PSE-5 - Connections (1987)
PSE-15 - Operation Link (1986)
PSE-17 - Breakdance-Kids-Fun (1984)
PSE-21 - Targets (1987)
PSE-23 - First Choice (1986)
PSE-40 - Class & Dignity (1984)
PSE-43 - Focus (1985)
PSE-49 - Counterpoints (1986)
PSE-50 - First Business Class (1986)
PSE-53 - Telesis (1987)
PSE-54 - Sci-Tech (1987)
PSE-55 - Date Line (1987)
PSE-56 - Human Display (1987)
PSE-60 - Performance (1988)
PSE-61 - Rock Currents (1988)

... the chronology and order here makes about as much sense as you'd expect.

[stackjackson]

That's helpful, Mr. Especially the Hi-Q pattern. Thanks.

But for MMSE-7 Primetime / Contempo, I have it as 1978... hmmm.
And MMSE-18 Many Faces and MMSE-19 Software as 1982...

[Mr]

Uh... 78 sounds a bit early, but may be the release date of the original Media Music release. Do you know where you have these dates from?