Victor Long-Playing Records
1931-1939
Since the beginning of recorded sound the limitations of playing time that could fit on a disc or cylinder hindered their full enjoyment by the listener who had to attend to the machine every few minutes should an extended session be desired. Two to four minutes was the best a cylinder could offer while the largest commercially-acceptable disc of twelve-inches diameter could hold about four minutes of music on each side. Classical music in particular could only be provided in snippets and many pieces had to be abridged to the likely loss of the original composer's vision. One could also even argue that the modern idea of a popular-music song lasting three minutes comes from the maximum a ten-inch disc can hold on one side. Because of all this and more, the development of longer-playing records was pursued by inventors since the beginning but did not find much success or marketability until Columbia introduced the modern LP in 1948.

However, there were some attempts at it starting in the late 1920s. Edison tried in 1926 but the whole oddity of his approach combined with his offerings doomed it to a small and short life. Another was RCA Victor's 33 1/3 rpm disc introduced in 1931 which followed more mainstream technologies and compatibilities, not to mention musical tastes. Nonetheless, it was the worst possible time to market anything new as the Great Depression was just getting into full swing. Phonographs capable of playing them as well as standard 78 rpm records were sold along with a small but respectable musical cross-section of ten and twelve-inch discs for the next few years. New releases pretty much ended in 1933 but LPs remained in the Victor catalog until 1939.

The grooves on the discs were not microgroove like Columbia's but are still smaller and closer together than on regular 78s. This makes them playable with the same stylus, even though one slightly smaller like a 2.0 or 2.5 mil will likely make them sound better on the turntable of today's collector. Most were also pressed with a new material called Vitrolac which was developed specifically for them. However, it failed in its mission to reduce surface noise and was actually a step back as far as slowing wear is concerned. Some discs are also one-sided, perhaps a throwback to Victor's stinginess in offering double-sided discs in 1908 and its archaic continuation in the Red Seal line. Many of the discs in the long-playing catalog were also dubs of earlier material sold years earlier in the 78-format going back to 1925, a practice that Edison had also exclusively followed (though his technology required it). These were not shining examples of this promising but largely misused technology, but a few do defy the trend like a pair of Duke Ellington discs issued in 1932.
Encoded Speed: 192 Kbps

Ten-Inch Discs

Carneval Overture	Fairy Tales - Folk Dance Slavonic Dance No. 8 in G Minor (Not "No. 1" as the label says)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Conducted by Frederick Stock)	Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Conducted by Frederick Stock)
Victor L-1004-A	Victor L-1004-B
Matrix# LBVE-69773, Take 1	Matrix# LBVE-69774, Take 1
December 19, 1925	December 22, 1926
Chicago, Illinois. Orchestra Hall.	Chicago, Illinois. Orchestra Hall.
Note: Dubbed to LP on August 27, 1931 with CVE-34049, Take 4 and CVE-34050, Take 2.	Note: Dubbed to LP on August 27, 1931 with CVE-34069, Take 2 and CVE-37284, Take 2.

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