The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

As promised yesterday, here´s (Ben) Selvin's Orchestra doing "Canadian Capers" on Brunswick 2164-B, recorded November 1921. Richardh, I hope you can tell me if I got the speed right. I did this one by ear and landed at almost exactly 78 rpm.

The 3rd note from the intro (jadida, jadida, jadidadidadidadidadida) should be a G according to the sheet music, but on my transfer it is an F. In order to make it a G I had to speed up the record to almost 85 rpm, and that seemed a little too fast to me. So I decided to go with the slower one.

Enjoy!

http://www.box.net/shared/p6isld8amp

Excellent transfer on your part and amazing fidelity on Brunswick's!

bart1927 wrote:The 3rd note from the intro (jadida, jadida, jadidadidadidadidadida) should be a G according to the sheet music, but on my transfer it is an F. In order to make it a G I had to speed up the record to almost 85 rpm, and that seemed a little too fast to me. So I decided to go with the slower one.

Bart,

You know you take your transfers seriously when this is a concern.

Thanks for sharing this with us!

— MordEth

I'm not perfectly sure about this, but I think I've heard that early Brunswicks should be played at 80 rpm (just like early Columbias). Might that explain the change in key?

Fredrik

Fredrik wrote:I'm not perfectly sure about this, but I think I've heard that early Brunswicks should be played at 80 rpm (just like early Columbias). Might that explain the change in key?

Fredrik

Hi Frederik, as a matter of fact we recently discussed that subject. I also heard that 80 rpm was the standard speed for acoustic Brunswicks and Columbias (and even some early electric Columbia´s from the UK) but in reality speeds are all over the place. Unfortunately I don´t have perfect pitch, but I can play the piano a little, so I sometimes use original sheet music to determine if the speed is right. This doesn´t always help, because sometimes orchestra´s used a transposed arrangement. If I play this record at 80 rpm the orchestra plays about 1 semitone higher, but that´s still not a G. At 78.26 rpm it sounds good to me, but I will wait for richardh`s response, because he does have perfect pitch.

YAY! Thank you so much! By the way, the F/G is most likely from which score you have. I found one that was in the key of C and one that I think was in B-flat. Bands play mostly in flat keys, while orchestras play in sharp keys, for the most part. Anyways, thanks again for posting this!

antiquekid3 wrote:YAY! Thank you so much! By the way, the F/G is most likely from which score you have. I found one that was in the key of C and one that I think was in B-flat. Bands play mostly in flat keys, while orchestras play in sharp keys, for the most part. Anyways, thanks again for posting this!

I'm glad I could be of assistance. But what do you think, should that 3rd note be an F or a G. (jadida, jadida, jadidadidadidadidadida).
And what exactly is the difference between an orchestra and a band? Or do you mean "orchestra" as in classical music?

bart1927 wrote:

antiquekid3 wrote:YAY! Thank you so much! By the way, the F/G is most likely from which score you have. I found one that was in the key of C and one that I think was in B-flat. Bands play mostly in flat keys, while orchestras play in sharp keys, for the most part. Anyways, thanks again for posting this!

I'm glad I could be of assistance. But what do you think, should that 3rd note be an F or a G. (jadida, jadida, jadidadidadidadidadida).
And what exactly is the difference between an orchestra and a band? Or do you mean "orchestra" as in classical music?

Alright, on my version the third melody note is a G. After the intro, the first note of the melody is an E.

Check out my better explanation on the orchestra thing here: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 1&start=10. Basically, an orchestra includes violins, violas, cellos, double basses, etc. while a band only has wind and percussion. Well, our band has one double bass, but that's it.

Hi Bart,

Ive been busy this last week and am now catching up...I'm just about to listen to your transfer now....


RJ

Bart,

I have listened to the recording a few times and although the value of that third note may not be quite what the muisc says it should be I think that the instuments sound "natural" and the pace of the music feels right.

If you speeded it up I think it would just sound too fast. I have some software that enables me to digitally alter the speed of mps recordings by very small incriments...I haven't had an oppotunity to do this yet....but to me the transfer you have done feels right. Well done. It sounds great.

But to be really sure I still need to hear more!

RJ