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Billboard

November 15, 1969
Exec Has One-Track Mind on Studio; Sees Moog Imperiled

NEW YORK - There's a desperate need for standardization of tracks for recording studios feels Ward Byron, a man who has been connected with such recording studios as National, Gotham, and Broadway, in various capacities ranging from general manager to account executive.

"The inception of 12, 16, and 24-tracks is, in 90 percent of the cases, competely unnecessary. But the major problem is that studios are competing with each other to get more and more tracks. It's an enormous expenditure of money and driving studios into the ground."

Another problem in the studio field is the misuse of the Moog Synthesizer. The Moog, he said, is being used more and more as a novelty and if this trend continues it will lead to its disappearance in the music field. This would be a pity, he felt, because the Moog is a beautiful instrument especially in the hands of a producer-composer such as Walter Carlos.

Byron is a veteran of radio-TV. He wrote and produced such TV shows as "The Paul Whiteman Goodyear Review" and "Can You Top This?" He wrote, produced and directed the "Chesterfield Supper Club" 1946-49. He worked with the Biow C, on "The Philip Morris Show." And, something that musicians will remember, he created, wrote, and produced "Chamber Music of Lower Basin Street," one of the first radio shows to have an album issued from it.