The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I'm sure they'd sound even better with a 2.8 mil elliptical truncated diamond stylus, a modern pick-up, and proper EQ...I know mine does!

Henry wrote:I was fortunate to acquire, among many albums given to me over time by friends who were emptying their closets (gee, wish I had kept track of who and when), Columbia Records C-29, "album #2 in a series of re-issues of the original records that made jazz history," "Hot Jazz Classics," "Jazz as it should be played by Bix Beiderbecke" (all quotes from the album cover). This consists of four 10" (8 sides) with such Bix standards as "Royal Garden Blues," "Goose Pimples," "Thou Swell," "Louisiana," "Ol' Man River," "Wa-Da-Da," "For No Reason At All In C," and "Sweet Sue--Just You," the complete 4' 28" version w/intro (yes, they could and did get four-and-a-half minutes on one side of a 10"), this latter with Bix and Paul Whiteman's Orchestra.The other tunes feature Bix Beiderbecke and His New Orleans Lucky Seven, Bix Beiderbecke and His Gang, or Bix, Tram, and Lang (Whiteman sidemen in all cases). All of these titles have been re-issued since on LP and CD by Columbia (back when it *was* Columbia), and feature a good many of Bix's most famous solos. They sure sound good on my XI!

!

By "ear" is often the best way to go. My KAB mono preamp / EQ has presets and there are six different preset curves for electrics. I usually do a quick sample of each with the disc in question and pick the one which sounds the most natural to my ears. There was a website somewhere that gave rolloff and tunrover settings for various record labels, but again, I'd only use it as a starting guide. Once you start messing with EQ a bit, you get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Here's an ARSC article with one such guide:

http://www.arsc-audio.org/journals/v20/v20n1p14-23.pdf

Sean

!

beaumonde wrote:I'm sure they'd sound even better with a 2.8 mil elliptical truncated diamond stylus, a modern pick-up, and proper EQ...I know mine does!

Henry wrote:I was fortunate to acquire, among many albums given to me over time by friends who were emptying their closets (gee, wish I had kept track of who and when), Columbia Records C-29, "album #2 in a series of re-issues of the original records that made jazz history," "Hot Jazz Classics," "Jazz as it should be played by Bix Beiderbecke" (all quotes from the album cover). This consists of four 10" (8 sides) with such Bix standards as "Royal Garden Blues," "Goose Pimples," "Thou Swell," "Louisiana," "Ol' Man River," "Wa-Da-Da," "For No Reason At All In C," and "Sweet Sue--Just You," the complete 4' 28" version w/intro (yes, they could and did get four-and-a-half minutes on one side of a 10"), this latter with Bix and Paul Whiteman's Orchestra.The other tunes feature Bix Beiderbecke and His New Orleans Lucky Seven, Bix Beiderbecke and His Gang, or Bix, Tram, and Lang (Whiteman sidemen in all cases). All of these titles have been re-issued since on LP and CD by Columbia (back when it *was* Columbia), and feature a good many of Bix's most famous solos. They sure sound good on my XI!

Hi Adam,

Contributions gratefully accepted!

Henry

The early electric Victors [with VE in an oval pressed in the area between the grooves and the label], need the bass cut back considerably. While I cannot give you the exact settings, I can from experience let you know that when that is done, they no longer sound "tubby" and the clarity is usually quite good. Some years ago, when I was broadcasting my collection in St. Louis, Mo., I had quite a time when I found an orthophonic victrola and heard these records as they had been heard when new for the first time. Records that had the balance all wrong, and sounded muddy and tubby suddenly were remarkably lifelike and the advertising claims I had read for so many years were no longer outlandish.
The settings are different for each brand of record, and you'll find the Columbias are most lifelike, but after about 1930 in the U.S and about 1950 elsewhere, the recording response curve was changed and you have to experiment with each one. The later Victors have the VE in a diamond, and then no such mark at all! The English Decca [London in the U.S.] ffrr 78s sounded wonderful on my Revere orthophonic. Bob Ault