Studies in variations of electric recording quality.

[Viva-Tonal]

I regret trying to play a copy of Brunswick 3407 ('Washboard blues' b/w 'That's no bargain' by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies) on that little Columbia Grafonola portable I have. It was recorded in December 1926 and has excellent sound for the era.

I'd found the record at an antique shop; it already had some strained grooves in places due to the high levels of bass in some passages (Vic Berton playing bass lines on chromatic tympani!) but a couple of passes under that heavy arm trashed the record in a couple of spots.

[Wolfe]

I don't have any idea what caused such a sudden shift in quality in the Light Ray sides. Assuming the equipment had been left as is between recordings.

Maybe the problem lay somewhere in the focus of the light beam between the mirror and photoelectric cell, a little too much (or too little) sound energy aimed at the mirror could have caused some kind of diffusion or smattering effect, just a wild guess.

The comparisons were certainly interesting, thanks for posting them.

[Schmaltz]

Thanks for starting this great discussion; I've wondered about this myself.

My own half-baked theory was the variation in line voltage from one day to the next. Maybe way off base, or maybe not; I just don't know if there was enough variation to throw the plate voltages out of tolerance.

[beaumonde]

Although I've never seen a mention by others of the following observation, I've noticed a great difference in the quality of Brunswick's "Light Ray" technique in their Chicago vs. New York studios. The earliest electric recordings by Isham Jones were in May or June of '25 in Chicago ("Ida I Do" e.g.; don't have the catalog handy here at the office), and were not bad, esp. in comparison to what Victor and Columbia were doing at the same time. However, by the late autumn/winter of that year, they were recording in the NY studio, and the results were distorted and in general atrocious, not to improve until sometime later in '26.

[Viva-Tonal]

I've got a pdf on my computer that I wish I knew how to convert into something that could go on this site. It's recollections and memoirs of a Brunswick recording engineer from the early electric era who had lots of insights and info about the 'Light-Ray' apparatus, and much more, from 1971.

[Schmaltz]

Speaking for myself, I'd love to read that article. Please post it.

Do you think you can upload it somewhere, like "box.net," and just make a link to it here? That would do the trick.

[Viva-Tonal]

I'll give that a shot!

Edit: Here it is!

[beaumonde]

Viva-tonal, that was an interesting read, indeed.

The writer had a somewhat faulty memory regarding artist's names (Vernon Delhart, Carson Robinson) were a couple); I wonder how many other details were fudged? Still fascinating stuff.