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Does my recorder look alright?

I failed to record any sound today. My recording horn is made out of posterboard, a copper fitting, vinyl tube secured with hot glue and tape. I tried to find rubber tubing but was unsuccessful. The copper fitting was also too large for the recorder. It was 3/4th of an inch. The other copper fitting I bought was ½ of an inch and it was too small to fit on the recorder. So I had no choice. At the hardware store I tried desperately to find one that was a size inbetween but I had no luck. So I decided to buy them anyway and give it a shot.

Another problem was when I realized the recording horn I had made was very horizontal. When I tried recording on I couldn't hear anything on playback.

Finally I decided it was a long shot but I attempted to record with the brass horn that came with the edison. No luck either.

Where do I find copper connectors slightly bigger than ½ of an inch wide? How do I make a functional recording horn?

What were you recording on to ?

In the picture you provided I see a nickeled mandrel, but no wax blank upon it.

You might like to watch this !

https://youtu.be/aeXaFAuhLfE

Oh in the picture I put the recording horn on a model c with no blank just as an example

In real life I used a Paul morris blank

soundgen wrote:You might like to watch this !

https://youtu.be/aeXaFAuhLfE

So he has a half inch rubber tube connected directly to the recorder. I could not find any of these at the hardware store

You local Wal-Mart automotive department sells a long plastic funnel designed for transmission fluid for about $3. You'll need to snip the narrow end a bit to fit your reproducer or connector. Not perfect, but good for first attempts and certainly better than poster board.

Paul's blank recording cylinders are very good but I have on occasion had ones which were too thin to record on ! Also was it a new blank or one that had been shaved several times ? Again this may make it to thin to record on .


Incidentally you can record on old black trash cylinders ,you can shave them and then record on the new surface

How ? put the mouldy cylinder on the mandrel and using a hair dryer heat the wax till it shaves . likewise record on the heated shaved cylinder . heating with a hair dryer softens it enough to work well , also when you have recorded and the cylinder cools down it is a hard 2 minute cylinder again and will play many times , a friend of mine puts Elvis Presley on cylinders this way !

Was the recorder actually making contact with the cylinder? You should see some of the material being cut off "Swarf" as the cutter goes across the face of the cylinder. Make sure the cylinder is warm, at least 85 degrees, and be sure to speak very loud.

"Incidentally you can record on old black trash cylinders ,you can shave them and then record on the new surface"


If anyone is interested, I have several candidates for this. Just cover the cost of shipping them.

PM me if interested.

Ken Brekke