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Re: [ARSCLIST] Modern Cylinder Phonograph



The idea of recording off a horn seems completely perverse to me.

Horn design was empirical and, at various frequencies, created nodes during recording. Those are inevitable. Adding those inherent in the playback mechanism increases distortion needlessly when electrical reproduction is available. Using elecrical reproduction in an uncalbrated or uncontrolled manner and using the results to claim equality with acoustical reproduction ignores that, properly done, electrical results are superior, i.e., do not create additional bad sound.

That it is so expensive is unfortunate (good word here) but using less good sound - electrical or acoustical- because it is less expensive violates the purpose of the transfer process- to give as faithful a reproduction of the original as possible.

Steven Smolian


----- Original Message ----- From: "David Breneman" <david_breneman@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 7:14 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Modern Cylinder Phonograph



--- Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 My dad had a
few tricks on recording from
Edison horns, but I don't know any of them.

I think the main goal, if you're doing it accoustically, is to have as little air mass between the diaphragm of the reproducer and the diaphragm of the microphone as possible. I picked up a couple old Shure lavs a few years ago. (These are the "old school" lavalier mics that hang around your neck on a cord, not the modern type that clip to a necktie, collar, etc.) Each one is about the size of a small felt tip marker, and I'd imagine they'd be just about the right diameter to plug into the rubber hose in place of the horn, which would provide the mic with vibration isolation as well as close coupling to the reproducer diaphragm. The only thing that's kept me from trying this is that the TV studio I got them from cut the cords off to make cords for other mics! I need to take the time to get a mic cord, cut the female end off it and solder it to the terminals of the mic (the cord is permanently attached for compactness). Perpetually deferred project.


David Breneman david_breneman@xxxxxxxxx


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