Blue Amberol molds and takes marked on rim

[mjbarnes]

Dethlefson writes that the number of takes is indicated by a line of little dots on the rim of the cylinder. What exactly is a take? Is it the number of times the performers performed the same song, each a different master? Is a take a master? Or later, when dubbing was done from diamond disks, was a take the version of the transfer from disk to cylinder?

Why do more than one take if the first result was good?

[recordmaker]

A take is a specific performance and since you cant playback a master take without possible damage you will not know if it was OK until it is converted into a mould and a then a record ( a few days process) , By then the artist may be unavailable and would need to be booked and paid again to re-record , so it is good to have at least 2 takes that everyone in the studio time thinks were OK. In the processing of the wax to mould a percentage of moulds fail due to pinholes or damage during plating so a spare take is a good back up and may also be plated and held in case the first take mould was damaged. Even when dubbing it would make sense to set up to dub a particular disc in one session and have spare take for similar reasons so the best dubbing could be chosen, returning to the disc could add a a week or two to the process of issuing a popular song in a timely manner.
Also note
The Edison disc mould making process was slow in comparison with the cylinder that I understand that all good masters would be used to make master moulds to provide enough stampers. The slow pressing/moulding process 20 records per day per stamper as opposed to about 160 records per day per stamper pressing shellac.
I hope someone else know for sure but the disc to cylinder dubbings would probably have tracked the disc take number that was used and may have added a dubbing take number the selected disc I assume being the "best take" of the disc session.

[mjbarnes]

Thanks, recordmaker.

[52089]

The take number can be found by counting the dots after the "Pat'd" on the rim. For example, "Pat'd..." would be take 3. In general, the number of takes is usually low. However, in the very late cylinders that were dubbed from electrically recorded Diamon Discs, you can sometimes see 6 or more dots. That does not mean all those takes were released.