Over-dubbing.

[Wolfe]

I have another one (I forget which, because I've only played it once) and the "new" orchestra is out of tune with the old one and Caruso himself!

As I've posted here before, the "correct" playing speeds of a lot of those dubbings doesn't even conform to the playing speed of the original in the finished result. They're often several RPM's apart. And not landing square on 78 either, i.e. you have a Caruso original that played properly at 74 RPM, resulting in a dub that played at 76, at least to retain Caruso's voice at the proper pitch.

A few of those dubs sound okay, but they're largely a mess, and probably not worth discussing at great length.

[Wolfe]

Off topic meandering.

Here's an organ on a very early acoustic.

http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.ph ... bbath_morn

[estott]

Off topic meandering.

Here's an organ on a very early acoustic. Kind of sounds like a hurdy gurdy.

http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.ph ... bbath_morn

That is most definitely a reed organ.

[Wolfe]

It's definitely something.

That is a poor approximation of a pipe organ, true.

[estott]

Actually, a fine reed organ played well is capable of an impressive sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMBrUu-M ... ploademail

[epigramophone]

I have another one (I forget which, because I've only played it once) and the "new" orchestra is out of tune with the old one and Caruso himself!

As I've posted here before, the "correct" playing speeds of a lot of those dubbings doesn't even conform to the playing speed of the original in the finished result. They're often several RPM's apart. And not landing square on 78 either, i.e. you have a Caruso original that played properly at 74 RPM, resulting in a dub that played at 76, at least to retain Caruso's voice at the proper pitch.

A few of those dubs sound okay, but they're largely a mess, and probably not worth discussing at great length.

The "dubbings" in my father's collection were my introduction to Caruso, and for that I will always be grateful.

I have them still, but when I started my own collection over 50 years ago I discovered the originals and never looked back.