[78-L] Acoustic-era monitoring

[Malcolm Smith]

There is a distance test recording of Melba which illustrates one  
procedure. She sings, steps back from the horn repeats what she sang,  
steps back again, sings again etc. There are two sets of these short  
bits of singing on the 78. There are records that appear to be  
unpublished because they're recorded to far or near to the horn. Some  
of them play very well on modern equipment but are said to have  
presented a wear problem if played with the early heavy arms and  
steel needles. There are examples of singers stepping back and  
accounts of their being pulled back for high notes on very early  
recordings.

Photographs of early recording being made illustrate why some singers  
had great difficulty with the acoustic process, even giving up on it  
and some clearly had difficulty singing with out moving around which  
resulted in changes in volume. Singing in front of a horn with  
violins that had horns attached to them crowded around one was more  
uncomfortable for some singers than others. All that exists of some  
are one or two published records and a series of unpublished records.

Malcolm Smith.

On Aug 8, 2009, at 12:10 AM, 78-l-request at klickitat.78online.com wrote:

> Re: [78-L] Acoustic-era monitoring