Re: [ARSCLIST] Cedar - acoustical recordings

[George Brock-Nannestad <pattac@xxxxxxxx>]

From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

Joe Salerno said:

> Interesting.
> 
> The reason I ask is that I have a tape of an 
> acoustical Columbia side by Josef Hofmann. The piano 
> sounds quite distant from the horn at the beginning 
> but by the end of the side the sound is much closer. 
> The pianist plays continuously.
> 
> I have wondered how this came to be.
> 
------ that sounds interesting, and the explanation logical. Columbia made 
some quite good "distant" recordings. But if moving the piano (or the 
recording machine for that matter was used - I have never seen it.

Kind regards,

George


> 
> George Brock-Nannestad wrote:
> > 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
> > 
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> >