Recorded WW1 Sounds

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phonogfp
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Re: Recorded WW1 Sounds

Post by phonogfp »

drh wrote: Incidentally, I know of one other "recreation" from WW I, but it was not promoted as anything else--Victor issued a record called "A Submarine Attack." Anybody here heard it? If I have, it was so long ago I don't remember much about it other than its existence.
Edison issued this on disc also. Billy Murray and the American Quartet if I remember right. But yes, this was a "Descriptive Specialty" done entirely in the studio, like the ca.1901 "Departure of a Troopship" and numerous other "specialties."

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Re: Recorded WW1 Sounds

Post by bfinan11 »

CarlosV wrote:
Marco Gilardetti wrote: As a side note, I have a WWII propaganda record issued by the RAF with a bomber crew in the raid over Essen. This record was reported as genuine, and, despite the lack of spectacular blast sounds, what impresses me is the cool attitude of the commander reporting that the plane could have been hit and asking one of the crew members to confirm. No screams, no frantic orders, no panic. They made it back safely, as well as the recording, but certainly such composed behavior would not make a Hollywood script.
Radio was very much known by 1943, as was the ability to make records, both master and instant, electrically from the radio. Might it have been easier to bring a transmitter up there than a recording lathe?

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Re: Recorded WW1 Sounds

Post by Wolfe »

drh wrote:
Wolfe wrote:^ Wouldn't have needed a warming oven, acetate / lacquer recordings discs were in use by WWII.

Otherwise, it still seems unlikely that they could cut a disc master under those conditions.
For "instant"/"home" recording, certainly, but for commercial disk mastering? (Not doubting you, but if so I'm learning something!)
By the mid-1930's started the transiton from wax to lacquer. An early example would be the recordings (issued on Vocalion) of Robert Johnson, cut to lacquer in 1936 or so - professional recordings. But by the early 40's, companies like Columbia (part of the ARC family) were regulary cutting takes in studio to 16 " 33 ⅓ rpm lacquer masters, later to be dubbed to 78 rpm masters down the line. Many of those masters that were used for dubbing survive and are used today to make very clean sounding CD transfers, versus using shellac 78's.

Benny Goodman's famous 1936 Carnegie Hall concert was recorded to lacquer disc.

I don't know exactly when wax was finally abandoned. Lacquer has it all over wax in any case. It's lighter, doesn't need to be heated, more stable. etc. It would have made sense to convert pretty quickly.

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Re: Recorded WW1 Sounds

Post by Curt A »

"Incidentally, I know of one other "recreation" from WW I, but it was not promoted as anything else--Victor issued a record called "A Submarine Attack." Anybody here heard it?"

Yes, I have heard it, it was recorded by Billy Murray on Diamond Disc. If anyone is interested in purchasing one, it's for sale on Discogs for $7.99.
https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/399432352
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Re: Recorded WW1 Sounds

Post by drh »

bfinan11 wrote:
CarlosV wrote:
Marco Gilardetti wrote: As a side note, I have a WWII propaganda record issued by the RAF with a bomber crew in the raid over Essen. This record was reported as genuine, and, despite the lack of spectacular blast sounds, what impresses me is the cool attitude of the commander reporting that the plane could have been hit and asking one of the crew members to confirm. No screams, no frantic orders, no panic. They made it back safely, as well as the recording, but certainly such composed behavior would not make a Hollywood script.
Radio was very much known by 1943, as was the ability to make records, both master and instant, electrically from the radio. Might it have been easier to bring a transmitter up there than a recording lathe?
It would, but I can't imagine the RAF would have wanted to put a flight of bombers at risk by having one broadcasting its position by transmitting radio signals back to England to cut records--assuming radio would have had that kind of range at the time.

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Re: Recorded WW1 Sounds

Post by Marco Gilardetti »

I ignore which specific medium was used to record that WWII audio we digressed about, however practical magnetic wire (not tape) recorders were available since the '20s, and by the '40s wire aircraft recorders were in broad use.

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Re: Recorded WW1 Sounds

Post by estott »

Possibly transferred from a wire recording?

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Re: Recorded WW1 Sounds

Post by epigramophone »

Returning to the original question, here is the first advertisement for the "Gas Shell Bombardment" record :
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