Indestructible 4 Minute Cylinder Question

Discussions on Talking Machines & Accessories
Post Reply
VictorVV-X
Victor II
Posts: 208
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 7:57 pm
Location: Connecticut

Indestructible 4 Minute Cylinder Question

Post by VictorVV-X »

Hello all,

I’ve been having a great time listening to all of the cylinders I have, but have noticed something odd when I am playing some 4 minute indestructible cylinders with the Diamond B reproducer. Occasionally, I will hear an echo, something I do not hear when playing Blue Amberols. Could this have to go with the cylinders shrinking and wearing with age? I’ve also noticed some skipping/mis-tracking when playing some of the 4 minute indestructibles. Never seem to have this issue with Blue Amberols unless there is visually damaged groove.

Has anyone else noticed these issues with 4 minute indestructibles?

VictorVV-X
Victor II
Posts: 208
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 7:57 pm
Location: Connecticut

Re: Indestructible 4 Minute Cylinder Question

Post by VictorVV-X »

Just a quick update.

I tried one of the echoing cylinders with my model H reproducer and also got a faint echo. The issue does seem to be with the recording itself.

recordmaker
Victor I
Posts: 170
Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:50 am

Re: Indestructible 4 Minute Cylinder Question

Post by recordmaker »

In my general experience of these records and in cutting 4 Min records the very critical nature of the 4 minute groove depth make it difficult to record compared with 2 Minute tracks.
The result is that if you have recorder that records more of the bass end of the audio and set the cutter depth a little too deep the you will get echo as one groove modulates the adjacent one, and that echo would probably more obvious on a diamond B than a model H due to the frequency response of each.
The indestructibles were often cut using an advance ball recorder and test grooves w before the start of the recording do show up on some where the depth setting was checked.
For a recording engineer a little echo was probably a small price to pay for a deep groove and no blasting.

The Edison quality control was however much higher and the bass end somewhat reduced to avoid the problem.

I think the skipping is more a function of the shrinkage on the card core then on the plaster of the blue amberols.

VictorVV-X
Victor II
Posts: 208
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 7:57 pm
Location: Connecticut

Re: Indestructible 4 Minute Cylinder Question

Post by VictorVV-X »

recordmaker wrote:In my general experience of these records and in cutting 4 Min records the very critical nature of the 4 minute groove depth make it difficult to record compared with 2 Minute tracks.
The result is that if you have recorder that records more of the bass end of the audio and set the cutter depth a little too deep the you will get echo as one groove modulates the adjacent one, and that echo would probably more obvious on a diamond B than a model H due to the frequency response of each.
The indestructibles were often cut using an advance ball recorder and test grooves w before the start of the recording do show up on some where the depth setting was checked.
For a recording engineer a little echo was probably a small price to pay for a deep groove and no blasting.

The Edison quality control was however much higher and the bass end somewhat reduced to avoid the problem.

I think the skipping is more a function of the shrinkage on the card core then on the plaster of the blue amberols.
Recordmaker,
Thank you for explaining this. It makes a lot of sense to me.

Post Reply