Recording Equipment

Back in the 1970s, it was not uncommon for a rock band making an album at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles to be treated to free champagne and a catered meal at the start and finish of a recording session. "We even used to pick up their hotel bills and rent-a-cars, which is totally out of the question now," said studio manager Nick Smerigan. Nowadays, the bands get cookies and soft drinks, and the cost is added directly to their bill, Smerigan said.

Setting the stage for a major battle over the next generation of tape recording equipment, Philips Consumer Electronics Co. publicly demonstrated its digital compact cassette at the Consumer Electronics show here this week and disclosed that a major Japanese hardware company will support the new system.

A revolution is underway in Hollywood's sound industry, but you have to be listening closely to hear it. As movie studios and post-production houses quietly make the transition from analog to digital equipment, film sound is getting clearer and, in some cases, louder because the new technology allows greater volume without distortion.

Within a maze of cubicles at a Hughes Aircraft Co. division here is a laboratory that employees have nicknamed Arnold's Sandbox. Inside, Arnold Klayman has been playing with his invention, the AK-100. The AK-100 conjures up visions of a new assault rifle from a company whose reputation was built over four decades as a manufacturer of sophisticated weapons ranging from radar systems to missiles. But the AK-100, which bears Klayman's initials, has nothing to do with the weapons industry.

In his West Los Angeles living room, Joseph Armillas presses on the black and white keys of his synthesizer and the machine sings like a violin. With a flip of a switch, the same keyboard will produce the low, brassy sound of a trombone. Press another button and out comes a steady percussion beat. Single-handedly, Armillas builds his orchestra, layer by layer, using a handful of sophisticated machines capable of perfectly imitating any musical instrument.

A little before 11 one evening last november, 76-year-old Jean Eames of Glendora was sitting up in bed watching television when a Chevrolet Tahoe abruptly joined her. The Tahoe, which had skewed off a major road and into the backyard of Eames' cul-de-sac home, slammed through a fence, uprooted a tree and took down a concrete-anchored play set before it rammed through her bedroom wall.

Boeing Co. said it has given a $100-million, 15-year contract to a Sony Corp. unit here that will develop a passenger stereo system for the Boeing 777 airliner that has compact-disc sound quality. The contract is the first time Boeing has enlisted Sony to develop an entertainment system that will be a standard part of its aircraft. Sony Trans Com, which has 350 employees in Irvine, normally makes passenger entertainment systems that are customized for each airline.

A cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage gives no clear indication why a USAir commuter jet crashed as it attempted to take off Sunday night from La Guardia Airport, killing 27 people, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday. Dr. John Lauber, the NTSB member heading the investigation into the crash of Flight 405, said that his team is studying a wide range of possible crash causes, including ice buildup on the Fokker 28-4000 twin-engine jet as it waited for takeoff.

What exactly is sampling? "A sample is a digital recording of a sound, 'an event,' " explained Barry Rudolph, a Los Angeles producer/recording engineer who writes for various music publications on technical aspects of the industry. "That event--for example, hitting a snare drum--is held in memory just like computer data." The sampler is a digital recorder that records sounds onto computer discs. But recording a sample isn't as simple as punching the record button on a regular tape recorder.

Tom Leetch, 19, was doing as teen-agers do, cruising along the Esplanade in Redondo Beach on Saturday night, swaying to tunes that blared from the three-foot-long speakers he had installed in the back seat of his Thunderbird. All of a sudden, the lights and siren of a traffic cop ruined his party. Leetch left Redondo Beach with a traffic citation that could cost him up to $150. He also left without the key components of his mobile music machine.