Acoustic recording

[pmartel]

Thank you to both John and Gordon.

John, I'll check out your podcasts.

I found that some American Columbia 78's after about 1941 sounded stunning. Les Brown, in particular, and his swing version of Blue Danube was a demo disc for my stereo.

I have gotten into 'restoration' of lp's on the computer and have come up with amazing results. Record at 192khz and take it from there.

Haven't tackled 78's yet.

It's fun spending an afternoon trying to get it right on my day off some times.

I stumbled into a site where someone had transferred 'orthophonic' 78's using an 'orthophonic' gramophone quite remarkable sound

[John Wright]

I think orthophonic refers to the American Victrola Orthophonic Credenza phonograph/gramophone, I've never seen/heard one, maybe not common in UK.

The 78's I restore are often not HMV nor Columbia nor Parlophone, I tend to work with records that have not had re-issue, often obscure labels so the restoration results can be variable, and each a week a few are 8" rather than standard 10" 78s , and although the 8" will have a narrower groove (still 3 minutes of music) the results from them can surpass an average HMV.

There was/is a classical CD company who record directly from a huge gramophone horn, can't recall the name right now, it'll come to me......

[PJPJ]

Nimbus

[hmvman]

I think orthophonic refers to the American Victrola Orthophonic Credenza phonograph/gramophone, I've never seen/heard one, maybe not common in UK.

The 'Orthophonic' machines were internal horn gramophones (Phonograph in the 'States) and the horn was of a complex design to give the long acoustic system needed for full reproduction of electrical recordings. In the UK the HMV equivalents to the Victor 'Orthophonics' appeared in 1927 and were called 'Re-entrant' gramophones after the way the acoustic system works. There were three models of 'Re-entrant' cabinet gramophones, ranging from the smallest, Model No.163 (the model that Elgar owned) up to the huge Model No.202/203. There was also a 'console' model, the Automatic 1A which was a massive beast that featured an automatic record changer and a remote control. There aren't many of those around today as I don't think many were sold - they cost an eye-watering £125 in 1929!

I think the Nimbus gramophone is an EMG Mark X.

[pmartel]

Yes, Nimbus used that technique, but never heard them, supposed to be quite amazing

[ardcarp]

I can't talk techie stuff, but I do like Elgar's spats. #4

[Ferretfancy]

Yes, Nimbus used that technique, but never heard them, supposed to be quite amazing

I'm afraid that they are not very amazing when compared to more recent methods of restoration. The trouble was that Nimbus did not just use a horn gramophone to play the discs and then employ a microphone to copy them. Instead they played the discs in a hall, and placed the microphone at a distance to add extra reverberation, claiming that this was how they would have been experienced originally. This is not re-mastering in any real sense of the term.

[PJPJ]

This transfer recorded the sound coming out of an HMV Royal gramophone, but not in a hall as Nimbus did: the results are interesting, though the pitch is wrong. Some acoustic, some electrical in the collection.

[salymap]

I remember reading that even as recently as the earlyish part of the 20th century Malcolm Sargent recorded RVW's opera Hugh the Drover standing on a ledge above the cast and various people had to step forward or retreat to get the sound balanced. The advances in recording are amazing but do we always get the true picture nowadays, or is it a patchwork quilt?

And thanks to whoever put the wonderful pics of Elgar and Henry Wood on this thread.

[Pabmusic]

I can't talk techie stuff, but I do like Elgar's spats. #4

This picture was taken at Elgar's very first recording session (February 1914 - 22nd, I think). One piece he recorded on that occasion was a new one, Carissima, which must be a good candidate for the first piece by a significant composer to have been given its premiere in a studio.