The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I just bought a copy of Norman's new cylinder Tiger Rag.
WOW! It is fabulous:

https://m.youtube.com/results?q=uBSp7XFIyMk&sm=12

Thank you, I hope it will get in before Christmas. You can also play it with a Diamond B reproducer, which will give an interesting smoothness. The recording session took place in an ancient cellar in Bolzano, Italy this summer. It was quite a hassle as due to traffic problems I arrived three hours late. We had about 60 people in the audience witnessing the event.
This is the only photo that I managed to take myself during one of the test recordings. We made four test recordings and four masters. For the final issue, we instantly agreed on take C or recording no. 7. The musicians were fantastic and would always stay within the 2-minute limit like a Swiss clockwork. Due to the fact that I had to receive special oversized master blanks, this cylinder turned out to be the most expensive one after the Barnacle Bill 6" cylinder. So it will be a long time if it ever pays off at all. Nevertheless it was lots of fun to do this. The Tiger Dixie Band is about to issue a 7" 45rpm single with this recording as well.

Exciting news and a mighty fine jass band on that record--might have to pick up a copy one day.

Glad to see so many new records coming out! The way this is all going, when will they make Talking Machines again?

Yes,you are so right, VanEps,
It is great but still a very small part of the hobby.
I see nothing wrong with buying the high quality new recordings. The old, rare ones are getting very expensive and harder to find and fewer younger people will get into the hobby if they can't afford the records, cylinder or disc.
The new ones also, being indestructible, will also be around a lot longer.

And therein lies the rub.

This "Young collectors" stuff is a little old. Do I collect? Sort of, yeah--a couple hundred 78s and a little stash of Cylinders I hope to enlarge. But these records get played heavily, and my machines end up taking a ton of usage. The division between this and "collecting," is that the phonographs & records are my only means of entertainment technology--short of a good book, which is great as well.

Thank goodness for the Vulcan Popular Series and DonnieJ's disc copying and re-recording lab (That Maple Leaf Rag disc, while it came with a few defects, has a full sound probably able to whip a 1920s Victor Electric, IMHO.) Those records are expensive but I'm sure looking forward to collecting them slowly over the next few years.


Wish they weren't so expensive. That's the only thing keeping me from a great record haul...

Do what you like! Isn't that what a hobby is all about?

Btw. Jean-Paul Agnard once made a new Puck style phonograph - or better - acoustic cylinder player. But the labor that is involved it pretty intense. Thus, we are still waiting for that working $200 reproduction Multiphone.

WDC wrote:Btw. Jean-Paul Agnard once made a new Puck style phonograph - or better - acoustic cylinder player. But the labor that is involved it pretty intense. Thus, we are still waiting for that working $200 reproduction Multiphone.

Not to mention an affordable shaving device, for the benefit of those of us who do not live on a continent where (as we are told just a little too often) Ediphone and Dictaphone equipment can still be picked up for $50 or so.

I have heard Norman's cylinder. If I had not known what it was (and without the evidence of the announcement), I would have taken it for an expert restoration of a well-made commercial recording of the early 1920s; and yet I understand that the technology was entirely that of twenty or more years earlier. An outstanding achievement!

Oliver Mundy.

Can't wait to receive mine and play it!!

I will order my copy Friday.

Norman keep up the good work.