The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/arts ... dison.html

The above link is to a New York Times
article that features two Metropolitan Opera singers
cutting some cylinders
using Richards Laboratories recording blanks.

Lovely. Quite good recordings all things considered.

Fantastic article, video and music selections. It is fun to hear some of today's Met stars find out how challenging the recordings of 100 years ago really were. Lots of fun. Thanks for posting the article!

boy, those are two great opera singers! I'd love to go to the Met someday. I occasionally go to the San Diego Opera, but they have come on hard times in the last few years. Also I really miss the San Diego Comic Opera. That was the only place to see Gilbert and Sullivan, and other operetta shows in my area. But tastes change and the younger generations just don't groove to operetta or opera anymore. Sad.

That's a wonderful story and video. Thanks for posting that!

Very nice article and initiative to have some fun with old technology! it also shows that the acoustic recording required skills from singer and recording engineer that vanished with the times.

How wonderful! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Best,
Fran

52089 wrote:Lovely. Quite good recordings all things considered.

There's quite a bit of flutter on those newly recorded cylinders.

Wolfe wrote:

52089 wrote:Lovely. Quite good recordings all things considered.

There's quite a bit of flutter on those newly recorded cylinders.

The Studio recording machines were a bit more sophisticated in that they had a flywheel to smooth out the motor flutter, and they had a more sophisticated cutter head with a facility to accurately adjust depth of cut (advance ball). What they appear to be using here are standard models such as one could buy for home use.

I know that Peter Dilg has an original flywheel lathe, and replica studio recording head and trunnion. I may have the only partially original studio recording head, that is in working condition. (if you look at my you tube channel it is in operation. The electric motor is only for temp use as I am replacing all three springs in the triumph motor, and doing some more machining, such as a larger upper mandrel pulley (it has a flywheel.) And to make a replica of my 97 ⅓ original Edison studio recording freedscrew, this was used to make masters for the Master, Mother, Working mold method. I had suggested that we construct a working model studio recorder for the Edison Historical Park.