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

[David Lennick]

Picky, picky, picky.

dl

Michael Biel wrote:
> 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
>