The unsteady lathes of early Victor

[Lenoirstreetguy]

I finally played this, but what struck me is that the record is being played too fast. Calvin G Childs, who did most of the announced Victors, sounds like Minnie Mouse.
The cutter " thing" that afflicted Victor up till the end of the acoustic era, and which drives me insane, are sides where the cutter slowed down as the side progressed. Consquently the pitch and tempo increase towards the end of the selection. The Montreal studio had the same disease. I just played a dance side from 1925 on 216486 (Oh Joseph by the Venetian Gardens Dance Orch) that is almost a full tone higher by the end of the side. ( Okay, it's a piano tuner thing, but it drives me nuts! )
Jim

[Wolfe]

I wonder if the wow-laden Victor lathe(s?) was left over from the Berliner era

I wonder!

I've been doing some intensive listening to the real early ('00 - '02) Victors on the EDVR and these spots keep showing up where the pitch seems to bobble and lurch around in places.

I don't have many Victors in my own collection that go back before 1905 or so. So, it's a "new" phenomena to me.

[Rastus10]

I finally played this, but what struck me is that the record is being played too fast. Calvin G Childs, who did most of the announced Victors, sounds like Minnie Mouse.
The cutter " thing" that afflicted Victor up till the end of the acoustic era, and which drives me insane, are sides where the cutter slowed down as the side progressed. Consquently the pitch and tempo increase towards the end of the selection. The Montreal studio had the same disease. I just played a dance side from 1925 on 216486 (Oh Joseph by the Venetian Gardens Dance Orch) that is almost a full tone higher by the end of the side. ( Okay, it's a piano tuner thing, but it drives me nuts! )
Jim

I've wondered for years whose steady voice that was announcing early Victors, up until 1902 or thereabouts?

Having read read about his position within the company, I never made the connexion.

I see that he retired circa 1923. I always thought that "the voice" sounded middle-aged, so he might have been considerably younger than I thought when doing the announcements, but I lack biographical data to confirm or deny that supposition.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

I've always wanted to find out more about him. He played a central role in the " Artists and Repertoire" Department, if Victor called it that. Here's a picture of him with with McCormack and Bori taken at the time of the first Victor radio broadcast on New Year's Day , 1925. He announced this broadcast, I am told, so it would seem his association with the company continued after his formal retirement. Western Electric recorded excerpts from this broadcast. I have never heard these, but they do exist, as do recordings of the "repeat performance" using the same artists on Jan 1, 1926. I don't believe Childs took part in this one, but I will check. I have bad dubs of parts of that broadcast.
He was a perspicacious old boy: he was the one who arranged for the Whiteman Orchestra to make it's first tests, according to Whiteman's autobiography, Jazz.

J.R.T.