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Since I got a new turntable (AT 1240) that has variable speed I started playing my acoustic Victors at 76.6 rpm.
What a difference having the correct speed makes, the music sounds less frenetic and the vocals sound more natural.
My question is, are all Victor acoustic records recorded at the 76.6 speed? I'm sure there are exceptions.
Other question is are some of the Orthophonics at the 76.6 speed also? If so where is the borderline for a change to 78.26 rpm.

As long as I have your attention, what speed are some of the other labels that are lateral cut.
I'm concerned with some of the "dime store" labels of the 20s.

I think the bottom line is that for the duration of the first 30 years of disc recording, mechanical weight-driven lathe turntables were used and a mechanical tachometer was used to set speed. There are minor variations all over the place.

If you are a music student (or have studied music) you can (if you can find it) compare the key signature of the sheet music of a given piece to the pitch of the record and adjust accordingly. Of course some artists had a song transposed to better fit their range, so you have to consider that also.

Playing and transferring my records at the correct playback speed is a bit of an obsession for me. A very informative website about this subject is http://www.normanfield.com/pitch1.htm

I've been using this method for quite some time now, and I found that record speed is pretty much a mixed bag, and even as late as 1932 the correct speed could vary.

But I found some general rules that can serve as a starting point. There are, however, many exceptions to these rules.

76.59 is a good starting point for acoustic Victors. In fact, in many cases this is still too fast. I have many acoustic Victors that play around 75 rpm.

The same goes for early electric Victors. Most of those recorded in 1925 or 1926 play too fast at 78.26 rpm, and should be played at 76.59 rpm or even slower. In 1927 it's about 50-50%, and from 1928 onwards 78.26 is usually correcty.

Many acoustic Brunswicks play around 80 rpm, electric Brunswicks usually play at 78.26 rpm, but there are some exceptions. I have George White's Scandals on Brunswick 105 (recorded in 1932) and I believe it should be played at 77 rpm. And Bing Crosby's "Please" is about right at 76.5 rpm.

Those budget label records (Banner, Perfect, Imperial, etc) were often recorded at 80 rpm. Not always, though.

I hope this helps a little.

Phototone wrote:I think the bottom line is that for the duration of the first 30 years of disc recording, mechanical weight-driven lathe turntables were used and a mechanical tachometer was used to set speed. There are minor variations all over the place.

If you are a music student (or have studied music) you can (if you can find it) compare the key signature of the sheet music of a given piece to the pitch of the record and adjust accordingly. Of course some artists had a song transposed to better fit their range, so you have to consider that also.

hmmm! in some cases yes the original scores can make you figure out the original pitch but not always purist tent to forget that the key was to get the darn thing on the record in the first place so for longer pieces something hat to go sometimes you'll find longer clasical pieces played at a frantic speed just to make it fit to make that easyer they sometimes even changed the darn key of the whole thing!!
you'll find this a lot in cylinder recordings and on pre 1903 discs i have boccherini's menuet on a berliner record played in such a way that it only can be described as boccherini's polka!!! (at the right key it doesn't sound like its right either)



tino