The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello gentlemen and ladies--

As it's way too late for my brain to logically function, I have decided to start a record label. Say a quick hello to the Carolina Talking Machine Company.

The intent is to release good modern music, in whatever genres one feels are appropriate. Recording will be done electric-process, moulded and released to a composite. I am outsourcing mastering to a different company (a real one, LOL) and am going to be building the moulds myself for the pressing.

Discs will be single-sided at present. I found a mastering company to cut the copies:

At present I am looking for the finest artists. I know where an antique 1930s microphone is sitting that I am pressing back into service--as much equipment as possible will be period because I am a horrible Scotch cheapskate.

Thanks a lot!

Charles
Lake City SC

This is great! I personally would love to have a few custom 78s made, but will they be pressed in shellac (and therefore playable on an antique wind-up phonograph) or pressed in vinyl?

I collect shellac because vinyl scratches too easily. So no vinyl.

Shellac, regrettably, finds more utility as a varnish than a recording medium. I plan to do like the illustrious Don Wilson and use modern materials.

Vinyl or lacquer (depending on cost) standard-groove cuts will be used as master discs, from which I will cast a silicone mould and go from there with a regular polyurethane resin. I'm thinking about adding fine silica or mica to the mix to make them playable with steel under the weight of traditional acoustic reproducers.

After all, I wouldn't call it "Carolina Talking Machine" if I weren't making talking-machine records!

That sounds great, please keep us posted and let us know the price per record once you have "set up shop" and are ready for business!

This is fantastic to read, I'm super excited and hope you're able to put all the equipment together.

Ps. I've had a really hard time finding someone who can cut a proper 78. Most of them, even standard groove, seem to cause steel needles to skate. I hope you have better luck than me in that regard.

Keep us posted. I would love to have some modern jazz on 78.

UPDATE:

The plan lingers. Right now, I want YOUR suggestions! Your DJ is taking reqests.

C'mon, there have GOT to be some modern songs that would fit the 78. I can go as long as four minutes.


I haven't gone into production yet--money is needed in savings, as well as to fix some of my phonographs, a couple of century-old typewriters, a 1930s telephone, and the car.

But this has given me time for researching and I am deciding that the most cost-effective way to do this is to stipple silicone onto the master recording with a paintbrush, then pour over a heavier coat. Then I'll be ready to mix polyurethane resin, colorant, and an abrasive (finest mica powder or, as a true South Carolinian, some red hill clay for that Vocalion look) and cast the records.

What good is a record, though, without some great music? Go on ahead and get me some titles before I start releasing nothing but Arthur Pryor or the Victor Symphony Orchestra!

Finding new music is tough. Bands that are any good don't want to talk to someone (like me) who's only ever going to sell 10 - 20 copies of their best songs. And anyone who will talk may not be so great. It took me about a year to finally get a band to sit down and talk with me, I found them at a local venue.

PS. There's no need to stipple, you just de-gas the mixed silicone and slowly pour it onto the record. The hardest part of that part of the process is getting everything flat, clean and level.

Thanks DonnieJ,

I found out the newer options--lightweight vacuum outfits designed for de-gassing silicone.

If I can do it then the first release will be "Alcoholic Blues" recorded 1919 by Billy Murray, as a test of the process. Newer recordings will be drawn as I find them...until then I must dig up some weird old stuff just to see if I can do the process.


Also, I hope you aren't upset that someone else wanted to make resin records as well. If so, then let me know--you have done much, not just for the hobby, but for posterity, by preserving GRAMOPHONE records rather than digital soundbites to be heard through sterile Bluetooth speakers...as long as there is a Victrola then we can know what it felt like to hear music 110 years ago.

VanEpsFan1914 wrote:
Also, I hope you aren't upset that someone else wanted to make resin records as well. If so, then let me know--you have done much, not just for the hobby, but for posterity, by preserving GRAMOPHONE records rather than digital soundbites.......

I sincerely wish you the best of luck. At present I believe there are two or three people making cylinders and just myself making discs. Some more innovation and competition would be a very good thing!