Anyone creating 78 records with modern music?

[Menophanes]

The Science Museum Journal

Here is a link to a pdf of the Beethoven project in 2014

http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/pdf/ ... -recording

Thank you! This is enormously interesting to me. I hope it will also interest the original poster, since it confirms that both the recording device and the wax blanks have been reconstructed and successfully used in recent years.

The article mentions the set of recordings of extracts from Wagner's Parsifal made by the Berlin Philharmonic under Alfred Hertz shortly before the Nikisch recording; the first illustration in the article shows the conductor and players in the studio. I have just digitised the Prelude from this set; see http://www.horologia.me.uk/discs_1911_1925.html, third item on the page.

Oliver Mundy.

[Mormon S]

"I am super curious as to what a song out of Biggie's "ready to die" album would sound like being played on an HMV 163."

It would sound just as bad as the original and might destroy the machine... The album title is kind of prophetic, considering...

I had a feeling you would comment about it. It's easy to assume that you've never listened to it and are just basing you're comment on the genre and title. That aside, the album is about how he was born into crime, and how much he hated the life he was trapped in, which is why the last track is titled "suicidal thoughts".

His following album "life after death" started off where the last one ended, and is about looking back at his life in retrospect after her had escaped crime, his past resentments and angers.

All I'm saying is that all genres can have deep meaning, and theres no validity in jumping to conclusions

Martin

[Mormon S]

As for, "...order[ing] a record from this guy and try to make copies of it on my own." I kind of hope that those copies won't be resold. That could be construed as unfair to the guy who makes them and who invested in the process.

I see what you mean, I was thinking of it more for keeping a clean copy and for personal enjoyment.

Martin

[recordmaker]

pm sent

[Menophanes]

The article about the 2014 acoustic-recording experiment posted last week by recordmaker (http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/brow ... recording/) includes an audio sample of the actual results obtained on that occasion. (Scroll down to just under half-way through the file; the link to the sound file is beneath figure 18.) Ironically, this is noticeably less loud and full than the original recording of 1913, part of which can also be found near the beginning of the same document (following figure 1). I think this shows that recording in those days was less haphazard, more of a skill, than one might think!

I have now heard from Aleks Kolkowski, who tells me that the Hochschule für Musik (High School for Music) in Detmold, Germany (http://www.hfm-detmold.de/en/) also possesses reconstructions of early recording equipment and uses them in courses on audio engineering.

Oliver Mundy.

[melvind]

The article about the 2014 acoustic-recording experiment posted last week by recordmaker (http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/brow ... recording/) includes an audio sample of the actual results obtained on that occasion. (Scroll down to just under half-way through the file; the link to the sound file is beneath figure 18.) Ironically, this is noticeably less loud and full than the original recording of 1913, part of which can also be found near the beginning of the same document (following figure 1). I think this shows that recording in those days was less haphazard, more of a skill, than one might think!

I have now heard from Aleks Kolkowski, who tells me that the Hochschule für Musik (High School for Music) in Detmold, Germany (http://www.hfm-detmold.de/en/) also possesses reconstructions of early recording equipment and uses them in courses on audio engineering.

Oliver Mundy.

A terrific article and the musical examples are very interesting. Thanks for posting it!

[edisonphonoworks]

Have some projects like this in the works, keep you posted, by my partners in other areas of the country. It is sad though that Appollo masters are no longer around due to the fire. The only other lacquer maker is in Japan. The strange thing is, the best lacquers I ever used were Presto lacquers I think they were better than Audio disc or Appollo, even when over 50 years old they cut a nice continuous quiet chip. Will be getting some more advanced laboratory-grade wax making equipment in, in a few days.

[donniej]

Ironically, this is noticeably less loud and full than the original recording of 1913, part of which can also be found near the beginning of the same document (following figure 1). I think this shows that recording in those days was less haphazard, more of a skill, than one might think!

One should never discount the 10,000 hour rule. There are probably <5(?) people in the world today who have that kind of experience cutting wax.

[WDC]

To my understanding, the most crucial factor in the equation are people who initiate a project to hire someone to do it as an event but completely lack of the necessary understanding that an acoustic recording session will require much more preparation than we are used to nowadays. Many of them expect them to simply put a horn in front the musicians and start to record. Can't be too hard, eh?

While most soloists are relatively easy to capture, a whole band or even an orchestra is a totally different thing and usually will demand several re-arrangements until the desired results are accomplished. You cannot expect to achieve a technically flawless acoustic recording in an unfamiliar environment (room) without including the extra time for trials into the calculation. Therefore, the full potential was simply not exhausted.

IMHO the 2014 recording project was an outstanding achievement given the lack of sufficient funding and time that would have been required to conduct recording test sessions in advance.