Drums and acoustic recordings

[TonyJ]

I've been listening to a few acoustic recordings on my VV-XI and one thing I've noticed on them is that there seems to be a lack of drums on the recordings, and most likely a woodblock is used instead. Does anyone know if that was just the style of the music in the 1910's, or is this because of a limitation of acoustic recording where a woodblock 'cut through' better than a drum kit? I have a few Original Dixieland Jazz Band recordings and have seen old publicity photos were a drum kit is shown, but sounds like just woodblock on the disc.

[Viva-Tonal]

Yes, they had great difficulty with trying to record drums on the early equipment. The drummers were forced to use woodblocks instead of their actual kits. Bass drums, for example, would send vibrations through the floor that would cause the cutter to lift off the wax surface, spoiling a master take.

[Big Beat]

As a drummer, I can shed a little light on this. While recording drums was indeed technically difficult in those days, one must also remember that the drum set as we know it today simply didn't exist then. It only really came together towards the early 1930's with guys like Gene Krupa. The first practical bass drum pedal, which is what allows a single musician to play a set of "traps", was only invented by William Ludwig in 1909. It didn't become commonplace until the late teens. So for much of the acoustic era, the only drums on record could only be military and orchestral, not real drum sets at all.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

This is an interesting topic. I have often thought that the lack of drums in recording sessions gives us the wrong impression of the way dance music sounded in live performance. If you go to Youtube and look up those Ben Bernie musical shorts that he did for DeForest in 1925 you will hear the drummer playing as he would in performance. You'll also hear why they didn't usually play on recordings: the bass drum muddies the sound. It wasn't really until the 30's that the drummers played in the dance sides ...except for the omnipresent cymbal. I will say that one hears more percussion on the Edison acoustic sides. Some of the Judas Society Orchestra diamond discs dating from the ' teens..actually use a significant amount of percussion.
I'm attaching a pic I got off the Bane site. There is no commentary about it. It is in the Columbia studio and I suspect this is was taken because they were experimenting with percussion and had made a breakthrough...although this is ONLY supposition on my part. But otherwise why would they have the recording engineer in his lab coat?

Jim

[Henry]

What Big Beat said. Also, keep in mind that the earliest "Dixieland" recordings reflect the music's origin as street music (think parades and funerals) in New Orleans. In that context, the use of percussion would have been limited mostly to snare and bass drums in that era.

[edisonphonoworks]

Drums are very loud instruments, and in my countless experiments recording, which I have cut from three to five thousand cylinders, drums are probmatic, They over power everything, You could place them 25 feet back and have them play normally, but there is always that bass drum, it does record, fine on the cylinders, and discs, it just does not REPRODUCE on the acoustic machines very well, causes the playback stylus to skip on cylinders, or thud on lateral discs, or causes the cutting stylus on lateral aoustic cutters to run into the next groove. If you notice, on most acoustic recordings, when there is drums or a cymbol, the band pauses for the cymbol then plays, you rarely hear the cymbol play with instruments. They did record drums on cylinders from 1889-1894, as they were used for listening tubes, and sound fine on them, when they went to horn reproducing, less drums used. I have recorded at rock concerts, drums and they do not sound good when reproduced acoustically, but when transcribed electrically are full .You can hear these experiments on my myspace. http://www.myspace.com/thenorthamerican ... aphcompany Listen to the Joan Osbourn recordings with the Greateful Dead, has lots of drums, so does Crazy Baby by small appliances. Recored 75 feet from stage live in concert with 1898 automatic with glass diaphragm, Triumph Phonograph, 36" brass horn.

[wjw]

An exception to the foregoing are the Victor recordings of the ODJB. One of the louder recordings in my stock is Ostrich Walk and whatever is on the other side.Drums are all there and the bass drum does knock a little dust off the Victrola!

[Wolfe]

Certain acoustical classical records will have the tympani, but never played at forte, you'll just hear them make their presence known, at best, as a sort of low rumble.

One of the fun parts of Enrico Caruso's famous recording of 'Over There' is that that big bass drum playing with the snare drum and trumpet during the middle of the song, but that's only when the rest of the band (and Caruso) have paused.

[hillndalefan]

I used to have two takes of a Wagner excerpt played by Arthur Pryor's Band, the only difference being the lack of percussion in the later take. You couldn't hear hardly anything else but the drums and cymbals in the earlier take, making me wonder why Victor ever issued it. The use of drums almost had
to be relegated to isolated solo passages [such as the introduction to Caruso's version of "Over There"] until electrical recording came in. As said above, drummers usually had to use wood blocks or not show up at all.
Bob Ault

[Roaring20s]

I found this WFMU Thomas Edison's Attic program from 2005. It demonstrates the limitations of the acoustic recording process and testing done in 1923.

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/15231

James.