[78-L] A Folk Music Playlist covering ALL recording formats! WORTH reading!

[Michael Biel]

These were my comments to the producer about the program Steve Ramm
mentioned yesterday. http://tinyurl.com/ysckyo

"Steve Ramm posted your program's info on the 78-L and I'll try to give
it a listen later today or tomorrow.  Looking thru your playlist there
are some formats that aren't included and I wonder how deeply the
graduate class you are taking is going. 
 
Wire was mentioned briefly, but the recording in question could not have
been recorded on wire in 1939.  You did not mention magnetic steel tape
such as the Blattnerphone and Marconi-Stille.  There also were several
wire systems such as the one marketed by GE and the other marketed by
Webster-Chicago, Bell, Magnacord and others.  There also were some other
wartime cartridge wire systems by various manufacturers. 
 
You mention aluminum discs a few times but do not note that there are
several different formats, starting with uncoated embossed aluminum used
from late 1927 into the mid-1930s, and lacquer-coated aluminum used from
late 1934 onwards.  Glass, steel, and fibre board were also used as
bases, especially during the war.  Here a groove was cut and material
was removed.  With uncoated aluminum the groove was embossed, not cut,
because you can't cut aluminum.  (By the way, NEVER call lacquer coated
discs "acetates."  They are not made with acetate, they are nitrate.) 
Grooves are cut into copper discs in the TelDec Neumann Direct Metal
Mastering system from the late 1980s onward. 
 
You did not mention cutting grooves on geletin and celluloid which was
used in the early 30s, nor X-Ray films which was used largely in Eastern
Europe from 1938 into the 60s.  You also did not mention embossing on
plastic discs such as the Gray Autograph, SoundScriber, Memovox, Edison,
and a few others, embossing on plastic belts like the Dictabelt,
embossing on endless loop film like the ARC Amertype Commando
Recordgraph, cutting a variable-area slit on coated film for optical
playback like the Philips-Miller Millertape, recording audio-only on
optical film like the Hoxie-GE Pallophotophone, and there was an
European system of pre-recorded embossed endless loop film sold in the
50s and early 60s which name escapes me. 

You mention not having any 8-track cartridges, but there were many folk
albums released on these Lear-Jet 8tracks.   But you do not mention the
Muntz 4-track cartridge system based on the Fidelipac cart which was
also used in background music systems, and in broadcasting as the
NAB-type cartridge.  There also was the PlayTape cartridge, as well as
the RCA Cartridge of 1959 and the CBS-Revere cartridge of 1961.  The
latter two were combined by Philips for their cassette, which also had
smaller versions of the Mini and Micro cassettes.  There also was the
Ampex Cue-Mat magnetic disc for broadcast, as well as several other disc
and rectangular sheet magnetic systems developed in the 50s and 60s.  As
well as the IBM MagnaBelt which looked like the Dictabelt but was
magnetic. 

You mention stereo tape, but there was both stacked and staggared track
systems in the early to mid 50s, and the 4-track (2 channel) format
introduced in 1958.  You mention the stereo LP but do not mention the
Cook Binaural dual-band stereo LPs introduced in 1953 by Cook and
Atlantic records.  Then comes 4-channel surround-sound Quad which was on
LP in the QS, SQ, and CD-4 systems, and on tape with the open reel
4-track and Quad-8 cartridges. 
You had acoustical discs but do not distinguish between Berliner-type
lateral, Pathe-type vertical, and Edison Diamond Disc type vertical. 
Broadcast Electrical Transcriptions also had both regular lateral and
the Western Electric Wide Range Vertical systems.  There were other
cylinder systems beyond 2 minute wax, 4 minute wax Amberol, and 4-minute
celluloid Blue Amberol.  There were wax Concert size cylinders by Edison
and Columbia, 6-inch long Columbia Century cylinders, slow-speed
Ediphone and Dictaphone wax cylinders, Blue Amberol-type Ediphone
cylinders of both 4 and 6 inch length, the  Salon or Inter-size Pathe
cylinders, and the various sizes of celluloid Liroit cylinders. 

You mentioned LPs and 45s, but there also were microgroove 78s used in
Germany by DGG, the USSR by their all-union company, and Audiophile in
the U.S.  There were regular 45s and Extended-Play 45s on 7-inch, as
well as Disco 45s on 12-inch.  There were Extra Long Play records on Vox
at 16 2/3 rpm on 12-inch, and Talking Books 16 2/3s on 7-inch, as well
as the Library of Congress talking books system of 16 2/3 on 10 and 12
inch vinyl and 8 1/3 rpm on Eva-Tone SoundSheets.  SoundSheet floppy
pressed discs were common here in the U.S. but floppy 7-inchers were
very popular in the USSR and also were part of a long-running monthly
magazine Horizon.  Pressed celluloid records were used as far back as
the 1920s with Emerson, Advertisers Recording Service, Flexo, Goodson,
and other companies.  Plastic coated fibreboard records were VERY
popular in the early 30s on Durium and Hit of the Week.  
And of course you can not forget the recordings made in the 1860s on the
Leon Scott Phonautograph now being reproduced, and Edison's tinfoil
phonograph of 1877 which I think will soon have some early foils played.


So, as you can see, you have just scratched the surface with recording
systems on your program.  I could also include many OTHER recording
systems that have been used over the years.  For the purposes of your
program which needs to have recordings of folk music genre, I think we
can find a folk or folk-related recording example on every one of the
systems I have mentioned.   For the purposes of your graduate class, I
wonder if your instructor or texts have anywhere near the number of
these formats I have listed here. 

I hope you have found this interesting, and am curious about how it was
received in you class if you introduced it. 
 
Michael Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com