[78-L] BACKGROUND ARTIFACTS (WAS Hal Kemp record question)

[Royal Pemberton]

On 4/17/09, Michael Shoshani <mshoshani at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-04-17 at 21:45 +0100, Royal Pemberton wrote:
>
>> After the last chord dies away on Frank Luther's 'The big rock candy
>> mountain'  (Banner 6251 and others, matrix 8369, recorded 28 November
>> 1928) there's a weird boomy 'clunk' like the acoustic guitar banged
>> into a music stand, just before the leadout spiral.
>
> I have an American-made Pathe Actuelle record of 'Abide With Me', sung a
> cappella by a male quartet whose name escapes me. After the song is
> finished there is a rhythmic THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP, like the plucking
> of a bass string or something, about two beats per second. There are
> about a dozen plucks before the leadout spiral takes over.
>
> I have yet to figure out whether someone was monkeying around near the
> recording horn, or whether this was some sort of cue to the listener to
> get up off the easy chair and take the damn record off the turntable.

Sounds like the typical thumps from their infamous pantographic
cylinder-to-disc mastering.  I hear them a little on the vertical
discs, but on the laterals it's much worse.

Which reminds me of 'Second regiment Connecticut guard march' as
played by the American Regimental Band on Pathe 20253.  The music dies
away, there's several seconds of quiet in the studio, then you hear a
few seconds of chatter begin among the musicians just before the
recorded groove hits the stop groove.   (I only have the vertical
disc; I wonder if this may be heard on the lateral version too?)