Philip Poburka on wed 12 feb 03
Now...'Needles' and...Ghosts of the Crimea, return'd...
.....ohhhhhhhhhh!
David !
You must forsake them 'steel' Needles...!
Your Accoustical pick-up head ought have for itself a little
'triangular' hole...as yes, does accept the dreaded 'steel'
Needles...but also accepts the polite and happy 'Cactus
Thorn' or the 'Bamboo' Needle as are kind to the old
Records...and shall wear them least of all...
These were the preferred choices in their day, and remain
very viable now to play these Recordings with.
When these Records were in their hay-day, one tended to have
a little device as resembles rather the pliers-cutters one
may use to trim a Dogs nails...
One placed the Bamboo Needle in the end of the thing, and
squeezed the Handles, and a little blade advanced to trim or
sharpen the Needle's end. The Bamboo's skin, or outer rind,
would form the apex of the 'point' and the triangular Bamboo
piece would be placed in the device with that orientation in
mind...
'Juke-Boxes' ( ie: such Record-Players as were originally
understood to be associated with 'Juke-Joints', being a way
of saying a Negro or Colored establishment in those days...)
are Record 'killers'...
The electrical pick-ups of some early of them DO take the
Bamboo needles, and...may then be 'tamed' somewhat from
their voracity to eat them grooves. Or too, certain 'modern'
Needles as a polished 'Ruby' or similar kind, made for the
old Pick-Ups may be had and used with nice results...
As the steel needle wears even IN one playing...it 'wears'
the grooves of the Record....and does so the worse as it
advances in the arc of it's trail to the Record's
end...hence the 'hiss' is noticed to increase as the Record
gets toward it's song's completion...
The 'hiss' one may notice as increase toward the latter or
end of a recording...is the wear of steel needles wearing,
or having worn the record, as wear it...
Anyway...I wish I did have a nice old Reproduceing Machine.
I had allways wanted a Victor 'Orthophonic', but for all the
opportunities passed, I did not ever get one.
They to my recollection were about the Last-Word in
Accoustical Reproduction. I had heard them many times at
friend's homes as a teenager, and they WERE superb!
I do have a couple portable Accoustical Machines as are well
suited for the odd Pic-Nic or 'Auto Camping' occasions, but
they need some attentions to be in working order, and I have
not got to them yet...sigh...
There is an occasional remarkable brilliance and depth in
some of the Accoustical Records...even on my little 'Sears'
Stereo ( from the '70's, I'd guess) as will play the 78s.
One can almost feel as IF one IS there!
Especially the 'teens and early to mid 'twenties records it
seems...and some a little later than that too...
Some incredible lucidity in them off and on...as depended, I
gather, on some elusive compliment of the configuration of
the form and resonance of the Horn as gathered the sounds as
the recording was made.Certain passages sometimes...take my
breath away...so very vivid...
Emil Berliner had the Patent on the 'disc' system in the
1880s, whilst Edison had the 'cylider', and later ( in the
'00s I think) the 'Edison Diamond Disc' , which we sometimes
may see as being the 'thick' ones. These, or rather some of
these, were approximately 'Long Playing' and 'microgroove',
and would not play on Machines of other make and design.
I think Edison's Records were 'hill-and-dale', while the
Berliner method was of having the sides of the grooves
contain the signal-texture...
The 'Berliner' records I remember seeing and getting to hear
sometimes, were small, as about six inches in diameter.
These were seldom 'Music', but more often, Bird-Imitations,
Oratory, Selections of Shakespear, comic skits, odd
things...and stayed that size I think into the first few
years of the 20th Century.
I do not have any of these anymore, but I have a few
'Monarchs' as from 1902 and '03...and they are haunting, if
I may say...
I did get to hear one time, a copy of I think a 'Zonophone'
or maybe 'Pathe' as was an early record.
It recorded the Trumpet Call, played again by the fellow who
had played it in it's fame...he announced himself as
'Trumpeter Langfrey' ( I think it was), and in his short
introduction, mentions he shall play now, the Trumpet Call
as he had played it, to signal the Advance of the English
Light Brigade, at Balaklava, the Crimea, in1854...
The he plays it...
And...
Wow...
Oh...
Blows me away...
Phil
Las Vegas
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Hendley"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:36 PM
Subject: BACK IN THE SADDLE and the history of recorded
music
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
>
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