Electrically recorded or not?

[Odeon]

I need your help

I found a record by the Paul Godwin Dance Orchestra, made for the german gramophone (Deutsche Grammophon = DG)

The DG used from summer 1925 on some recording session the Light Ray System from Brunswick. From late 1925 on, most of the records, after early 1926 all records by the DG are made by the Light Ray process.

But this record is made in spring 1925 - but it doesnt sound like a acoustic record to my ears. The bass is recorded down to 65cycles, the brass has the typicall boxy sound of the Light Ray System. Also the drums are recorded in a way I not heard before on a acoustic disc.
What do you think, could this be also a early Light Ray recording?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d2LN0NhuZY[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BJazuKuh_0[/youtube]


This record (issued on a cheap label) is a typical Light Ray recording by the DG, made in summer 1925

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h02qhRjogV4[/youtube]

[WDC]

Well, from what I can hear, the Godwin's do sound very much like those tinny electrics, pretty much like the 1927 Homocord electrics too. However, it is somewhat hard to tell as YouTube is a video platform and still only uses the low-bitrate AAC codec which has a poor audio quality.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

These recordings from DG are hard to tell. I have the Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra that was issued on Brunswick purple label in North America. It IS electric but it took me a minute or two of listening before I came to that realization.
The examples here do sound like Light Rays but it is hard to tell. The very last European and British acoustics did sound in some ways like electrics: the companies had radically improved the acoustic recording process in 1924-25, in the face of radio and possibly because they were all secretly experimenting with electrical cutting equipment( or at least HMV and Columbia were) I've got some late British Columbia acoustics that quite startling in terms of sound.
Jim

[syncopeter]

The first one I think is electric, about the second one I have serious doubts. Companies kept quite secret about releasing electrically recorded records in 1925 because they were afraid that their stock would become obsolete in one stroke. In many cases the difference was so huge that they ran a risk of big losses. Particularly in Europe, where we were still struggling with the after effects of the Great War (WW1) and the crisis of the early 20s. HMV weren't able to bring out their 'Ortophonic' range of gramophones until 1928, simply because they couldn't afford it.

[VintageTechnologies]

I have no knowledge of DG history, but both of these DG recordings sure do sound electric to me. I base my subjective opinion on the thousands of acoustic records I have listened to. I usually can tell the difference between acoustic and electric, but a few baffle me. Has anyone ever heard "Sweetness" on Edison 52055 by the Green Brothers? That catalog number falls just short of where electric Diamond Discs are thought to begin, 52093, but I wonder. If it is acoustic, it is darned good.