Featured Phonograph № 52 - Multi-Groove / Puzzle Record
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:44 pm
How 'bout this?
Featured Phonograph <record / accessory / other / misc > to spice things up? These things deserve to be 'showcased' and discussed, no?
If you don't like it, change the name of this thread to a non-Featured Phonograph.
Re: Featured Phonograph № 52 - Multi-Groove / Puzzle Record
This mutiple-groove record is a type of record which has more than one groove per side. This technique allows hidden tracks or "alternate endings" to be encoded on LPs, 45 rpms and 78 rpms. On a record that has a "multi-groove," what is played depends on where one cues the stylus.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85q2Vk0Qons[/youtube]
This principle was used to make a horse race game in which the winner would vary each game.
In this video, I play four of the different endings. Listen for:
1) Man of War wins
2) Twenty Grand wins
3) Gallant Fox wins
4) Omaha wins
From Wikipedia:
Parallel grooves
Also known as concentric grooves, it is possible to master recordings with two or more separate, interlaced spiral grooves on a side. Such records have occasionally been made as novelties. Victor made one as early as 1901 [2]. Depending on where the needle is dropped in the lead-in area, it will catch more or less randomly in one of the grooves. Each groove can contain a different recording, so that you have a record which "magically" plays one of several different recordings. Victor marketed a couple of 10" 78's with two concentric grooves (called 'Puzzle Record'). Columbia also issued a few 10" 78's in 1931 with concentric grooves for their cheap Harmony, Clarion and Velvet Tone labels. In the blank edge of the record, there was a stamp 'A' and 'B', which indicated where each of the concentric grooves started.
A more recent example is Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief. Also Tool's 1992 EP release, Opiate featured on the second side a double groove that would either play the first track of side two or the hidden song that was found at the end of the CD version. In 2005 a 7" single titled "The Road leads where it's led" by The Secret Machines was released in UK, that contained both tracks on one side on parallel grooves. The Summer 1980 issue of Mad Magazine Super Special included a one-sided sound sheet (see "flexidisc" above), playable on a standard turntable. It had eight interlaced grooves, each track having the same introduction song but a different ending. In the 1980's, Rhino Records re-released the Henny Youngman comedy album as a series of concentric grooves. Each side of the album has at least 6 grooves. In the 1980's, the band, Pink Slip Daddy released a 10-inch single called, "LSD", on clear pink vinyl with pink glitter inside the vinyl. One side of the single had one song that played from inside out and, on the other side, there were two songs that were pressed as concentric grooves. Many of The Shins' 7" records have Parallel grooves. (Such as their 2007 single "Phantom Limb", which has "Nothing at All" and "Split Needles (Alt. Version)" on the b-side.) The band None of Your [effing] Business released a one-sided 7" called "Escapes from Hell" (side 2 has a groove, but there is no audio encoded in the groove), with 2 grooves that started from the center and ended on the outside of the disc. One groove ran at 45rpm, while the other ran at 33rpm. UK punk rocker, Johnny Moped's debut album Cycledelic has a lead track with a parallel groove listed on the label as "0. Mystery Track", which runs parallel to the track. The 12" single for rap group De La Soul's 1989 song Me Myself and I has 2 different tracks in a parallel groove on the B-side. One groove has two remixes of the "Me Myself and I" song from the A-side, while the other has "Brain Washed Follower". [4]
In 1975 Ronco UK released a parallel groove game called "They're Off", which featured three 12" discs each containing eight possible outcomes on a horse race. It featured Noel Whitcomb, a well-known horse-racing commentator of the day and the game revolved around betting which "horse" would win the race on that occasion. This appears to have been based on a Canadian product called "They're at the Post" by Maas Marketing, which is more or less the same game with different recordings on the discs to reflect the target market.
Featured Phonograph <record / accessory / other / misc > to spice things up? These things deserve to be 'showcased' and discussed, no?
If you don't like it, change the name of this thread to a non-Featured Phonograph.
Re: Featured Phonograph № 52 - Multi-Groove / Puzzle Record
This mutiple-groove record is a type of record which has more than one groove per side. This technique allows hidden tracks or "alternate endings" to be encoded on LPs, 45 rpms and 78 rpms. On a record that has a "multi-groove," what is played depends on where one cues the stylus.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85q2Vk0Qons[/youtube]
This principle was used to make a horse race game in which the winner would vary each game.
In this video, I play four of the different endings. Listen for:
1) Man of War wins
2) Twenty Grand wins
3) Gallant Fox wins
4) Omaha wins
From Wikipedia:
Parallel grooves
Also known as concentric grooves, it is possible to master recordings with two or more separate, interlaced spiral grooves on a side. Such records have occasionally been made as novelties. Victor made one as early as 1901 [2]. Depending on where the needle is dropped in the lead-in area, it will catch more or less randomly in one of the grooves. Each groove can contain a different recording, so that you have a record which "magically" plays one of several different recordings. Victor marketed a couple of 10" 78's with two concentric grooves (called 'Puzzle Record'). Columbia also issued a few 10" 78's in 1931 with concentric grooves for their cheap Harmony, Clarion and Velvet Tone labels. In the blank edge of the record, there was a stamp 'A' and 'B', which indicated where each of the concentric grooves started.
A more recent example is Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief. Also Tool's 1992 EP release, Opiate featured on the second side a double groove that would either play the first track of side two or the hidden song that was found at the end of the CD version. In 2005 a 7" single titled "The Road leads where it's led" by The Secret Machines was released in UK, that contained both tracks on one side on parallel grooves. The Summer 1980 issue of Mad Magazine Super Special included a one-sided sound sheet (see "flexidisc" above), playable on a standard turntable. It had eight interlaced grooves, each track having the same introduction song but a different ending. In the 1980's, Rhino Records re-released the Henny Youngman comedy album as a series of concentric grooves. Each side of the album has at least 6 grooves. In the 1980's, the band, Pink Slip Daddy released a 10-inch single called, "LSD", on clear pink vinyl with pink glitter inside the vinyl. One side of the single had one song that played from inside out and, on the other side, there were two songs that were pressed as concentric grooves. Many of The Shins' 7" records have Parallel grooves. (Such as their 2007 single "Phantom Limb", which has "Nothing at All" and "Split Needles (Alt. Version)" on the b-side.) The band None of Your [effing] Business released a one-sided 7" called "Escapes from Hell" (side 2 has a groove, but there is no audio encoded in the groove), with 2 grooves that started from the center and ended on the outside of the disc. One groove ran at 45rpm, while the other ran at 33rpm. UK punk rocker, Johnny Moped's debut album Cycledelic has a lead track with a parallel groove listed on the label as "0. Mystery Track", which runs parallel to the track. The 12" single for rap group De La Soul's 1989 song Me Myself and I has 2 different tracks in a parallel groove on the B-side. One groove has two remixes of the "Me Myself and I" song from the A-side, while the other has "Brain Washed Follower". [4]
In 1975 Ronco UK released a parallel groove game called "They're Off", which featured three 12" discs each containing eight possible outcomes on a horse race. It featured Noel Whitcomb, a well-known horse-racing commentator of the day and the game revolved around betting which "horse" would win the race on that occasion. This appears to have been based on a Canadian product called "They're at the Post" by Maas Marketing, which is more or less the same game with different recordings on the discs to reflect the target market.