A 1962 Tidbinbilla recording

Moving forwards thirty years from the date of the epic Ray Littlejohns first Australian recording of a Superb Lyrebird in Sherbrooke Forest, Victoria, it is obvious that a vast improvement in sound recording technology has taken place. This 1962 recording was made at Tidbinbilla near Canberra, ACT, using a new Kudelski Nagra 111B full-track mono tape-recorder and a much better microphone. The recording was made in June of that year by Norman Robinson. After examining the tape archives of the Sound Library, ANWC (Australian National Wildlife Collection, Canberra), I tentatively suggest this recording was made on 25th June. If so, it was recorded on a 5" spool of BASF type LGS 52 tape at a tape speed of 7.5 ips (inches per second) and the microphone was a Beyerdynamic M100 at about 60 cm from the bird! If this is the recording then the catalogue number would be B371. I have not yet checked the original tape for a comparison but will do so sometime. Records show that Norman Robinson made lyrebird recordings at Tidbinbilla on no fewer than 15 days in June 1962, so there are a number of other possibilities! Although originally on magnetic tape a copy was archived by the BBC as an LP 33 (331/3 rpm) 7" disc and it is from this copy that the MP3 file above was taken. Running time of the BBC recording is 4' 02" and the disc looks like this:

The reverse side of the disc features three other Australian birds recorded by Norman Robinson: