Re: [ARSCLIST] Cedar - acoustical recordings

[George Brock-Nannestad <pattac@xxxxxxxx>]

From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

Hello, 

Joe Salerno asked:

> Is there any reference to the piano being placed on 
> a system of rails or some such to move it closer to 
> or farther from the horn?
> 

----- I have not seen any reference to this. But I have seen a letter 
describing that the Gramophone Company for some records (and I suspect only 
for a period, which IIRC would have been before 1910) used two pianos for 
accompaniment. I have no information whether they played in unison or four-
hand. I suspect unison.

Kind regards,


George

> 
> Don Cox wrote:
> > On 28/05/07, George Brock-Nannestad wrote:
> > 
> >> From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad
> >>
> >> Don Cox asked:
> >>
> >>
> >>> On 27/05/07, George Brock-Nannestad wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> I would guess that in most cases, if not all, the original room was
> >>>> not designed at all, apart from such things as putting the piano up
> >>>> on a platform.
> >>> The Gramophone Company
> >>> in their recording rooms in Hayes (post 1912) had ceilings that
> >>> could be raised or lowered by rack and pinion according to the task.
> >>>
> >>> Interesting. Do you have a reference for that?
> >> ----- I have seen it with my own eyes, both from below and from the
> >> loft. It would have been in the early 1980s, when I spent quite some
> >> time in the archives, before their move. The "studio" had been
> >> restored some time prior to that, and in itself it was a hard room,
> >> with pine panelling. I would be surprised if there were no
> >> contemporary reports of the restoration.
> > 
> > Your eyes are good enough for me. 
> >>>> ----- Edison also performed experiments with performers placed on
> >>>> squares drawn on the floor (Harvith & Harvith).
> >>>>
> >>> Distance from the horn is obviously critical, but that isn't the same
> >>> as the design of the studio. Nowadays, everyone is aware of things
> >>> like live and dead ends, etc.
> >> ----- now, we cannot draw a direct line from amateur recording on
> >> cylinder machines to record companies, but in the manuals for amateurs
> >> they already then described how to use screens and cubicles for some
> >> instruments.
> >>
> > 
> > Regards