2003 JUNE 11 #162
John Lotas Productions - Sound Effects
When I was a teenager, I did a lot of experimenting with tape recorders and oscillators and the like. My "studio" had the following devices: a mono MASCO tape recorder, capable of 3 3/4 ips and 7 1/2 (which was thrilling to me at the time), a Craig 212 portable tape recorder, made famous by the opening sequences of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, a Lafayette mixer with a spring reverb and lots of hand built radio Shack oscillators. I spent a lot of time recording things at the "wrong" speed, playing them backward, bouncing tracks from one machine to another and playing with all the usual tricks of the recording trade.
My father used to have a Public Relations firm in Hartford, CT, and from time to time he'd bring home old commercials that were no longer in circulation or demo reels of various production houses for me to listen to or tape over.
Today's feature is from one of those reels, a John Lotas Associates Presentation Reel from around 1972 or 1973. On this tape, a lot of the famous voice over talents of the day are presented in tiny snippets from completed ads, and this sound effects collage was presented to showcase their effects and music libraries. This collage, "Revolution #9" and the Firesign Theatre were probably my main influences at the time.
- Henry Lowengard
TT-2:38 / 3MB / 160kbps 44.1khz (MONO)
(Image courtesy of Henry Lowengard)