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Horn bumps / thunks do turn up here and there.OrthoSean wrote:I can think of a couple not mentioned yet. The Caruso / Melba recording of "O Soave Fanciulla" originally recorded for Victor but not issued until after both had died on IRCC (pressed by Victor in the early 30s) contains a distinct "thunk" where one of them bumped into the recording horn. It's otherwise a fantastic recording.
Another Caruso "blooper" is the early G&T (1902) recording of "Dai Campi Dai Prati" where he comes in and starts singing too early in the piano introduction then abruptly stops and starts again at the right point. The original G&T issue is pretty pricy, but you can find it repressed from original parts on HMV VA 7.
There's also a Galli-Curci issued 10 inch Victor red seal (title escapes me) where the nearby Campbell's soup factory whistle can be heard blowing distinctly.
Some Gennett's have the sounds of trains faintly audible in the background also, which makes sense since the recording studio was right next to the tracks.
I've also heard quite a few Victors where car horns can be heard "oogling" in the background.
One of the early 7 inch Zonophones our own donniej reproduced from my copy of "Sadie Won't You Say Nay" by Will F. Denny has a few seconds of unintelligible babbling going on during the piano intro, it's clearly Denny, but you can't hear what he's saying.
I should start setting these aside when I find them so I could cite certain examples, but it's not that uncommon to hear things like that on recordings.
Sean
I have several early electric Brunswick and Vocalion issues that suffer from this malady. It seems I've read that the early "Light Ray" recording method was troublesome.howardpgh wrote:I have a 15000 series Vocalion of Irving Kaufman that has a 60 cycle hum all through it.
Yes! Really quite distorted. But it's interesting how it pumps the excitement up, rather like tape saturation and compression effects in rock and pop music from from the 50s and 60s onwards.gramophone-georg wrote:The other problem these early Brunswick electrics had was blasting from way too much input. King Oliver's "Wa-Da-Da" is a great record that suffers from that.
Yes, like Hendrix only 40 years earlier. Wonder if King Joe ever lit his trumpet on fire?Orchorsol wrote:Yes! Really quite distorted. But it's interesting how it pumps the excitement up, rather like tape saturation and compression effects in rock and pop music from from the 50s and 60s onwards.gramophone-georg wrote:The other problem these early Brunswick electrics had was blasting from way too much input. King Oliver's "Wa-Da-Da" is a great record that suffers from that.