David Hendley on tue 11 feb 03
Phyllis, I enjoyed reading about your diverse musical tastes. I listen
to just about everything you mention, and more.
My hobby is to try to play music in the format it was originally
issued, and on the machine that it was likely played on at the time.
That means I have everything from a wind-up Victrola to a 300-disc
CD player.
Here is a short history of recorded music and the music machines
used to play back the music, for any who might be interested:
Acoustically recorded 78 RPM records should be played on the Victrola.
These records were made before microphones. Everyone just sang
or played into a reversed megaphone, where the sound waves were
concentrated, to move the cutting needle, to cut the record.
Non-electric in production, non-electric in playback.
In the 1930's, records began to be electrically recorded (with microphones).
They do have a different sound. I like to play them on one of my
78 RPM jukeboxes.
78 RPM records are so fragile that it is hard to find them in good
condition. The needle pressure required to play the records is so great
that the sound deteriorates after just a dozen playings.
Micro-groove records were invented in the late 1940's. Columbia and
RCA couldn't agree on a format, so for years RCA made only 45 RPM
records and Columbia made only 33 1/3 RPM records. Eventually, they
both capitulated and 45 became the most popular for pop music and
33 1/3 for classical music. There is no rhyme or reason as to the speeds
chosen, or the sizes of records, or the sizes of the holes in the center.
Of course, I play my 45's on my Seeburg M100C jukebox (the "Happy
Days" TV show jukebox). Albums, on the home stereo turntable.
Yes, I do have a collection 8-track tapes. They sound so bad.
Terrible range of sound, wow and flutter, and long songs are
interrupted so the player can CLICK to the next tracks on the tape
loop. The 8-tracks live in the pottery shop. I'm not worried about the
dust hurting them.
Cassette tapes are also acoustically pretty bad and inconvenient to
play. They will be totally dead and forgotten soon, but I will no doubt
keep my collection.
An interesting phenomenon I have recently noticed it that some new
digitally recorded CDs made by hip bands have "record noise" added
to the sound mix. I put a new one on last week as I was pugging some
clay and was taken aback by the sound of a record dropping onto a
turntable, the needle hitting the grooves, and the pops of background
record noise. You old-timers know the sound. I had to stop the pug
mill and play it again.
Of course, the first "record players" used cylinders, not flat records,
and the earliest cylinders were covered with foil, which easily
accepted the squiggles of sound waves, but were extremely fragile.
I don't have a cylinder-playing machine, but I bet Phil in Las Vegas
does.
Remember Craig Clark's Clayart CD project. You send him a CD with
your favorite track noted, a couple of bucks for return postage, and
he will return your CD as well as a "Clayarts Favorites" CD which will
include your contribution.
The address is:
Craig Dunn Clark
619 East 11 1/2 St.
Houston, Texas 77008
questions to:
mudman@hal-pc.org
Thanks for listening,
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
david@farmpots.com
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
> One of my sons was in radio that played oldies--60's etc. He made a cd of
the old tapes for me. California Girls, Chantilly Lace with the Big Bopper,
Sweet Home Alabama with Lenard, Baby Love, Hand Jive, and Tony Clennell can
help me with who made El Dorado Cafe and She's Tough-blues stuff.. Just the
tip of the iceberg with all the tapes.. I also played Rod Stewart's trip
back into my generation with:It Had to be You, You go to my head--and all of
the sweet sentimental things that we danced cheek to cheek with (some called
them belly rubbers (:>) . Sometimes I play Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra.,
Palter and Jackson, Stan Kenton, Ella, The Duke, some Eubie Blake,Tony
Orlando, Windom Hill, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman,. If I don't play these, I
have the radio on. I have a radio in every room except the living room(we
could do without it because we don't use it much). We play quite a bit of
classical---and enjoy it. I do not play that in my studio. Those we play in
the family room. All t
> his music is just a way of life. I have a 78 RPM record player and quite a
few 78s. They are pretty scratchy and fun to play but not in the studio. A
different era that started in the 20's and here I a
> m loving a different century.
> Into music and clay!!!!!
> Phyllis Tilton
> daisypet1@yahoo.com
>
Carl Finch on tue 11 feb 03
At 05:36 PM 2/11/03 -0600, David Hendley wrote:
>Columbia and
>RCA couldn't agree on a format, so for years RCA made only 45 RPM
>records and Columbia made only 33 1/3 RPM records. Eventually, they
>both capitulated and 45 became the most popular for pop music and
>33 1/3 for classical music. There is no rhyme or reason as to the speeds
>chosen, or the sizes of records, or the sizes of the holes in the center.
No rhyme maybe, but this (perhaps apocryphal) reason: 12 inch 33's were so
designed that Beethoven's 9th might be contained on a single one!
Does your turntable do 16 2/3 rpm for Talking Book records?! Though I
guess you could retrofit an old Shimpo for that (plus handle any of those
16 inch radio station discs that might be lying around). :-)
--Carl
Bear Creek Puttery
Medford, Oregon
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