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

Sun Sep 6 10:30:40 PDT 2009

Don't forget Decelith and Decatone one sided and two sided black or 
translucent vinyl 3 layers sandwiched foil blanks (10" and 12") used widely 
in Europe (especially in Germany, but also in countries they were marketing 
and selling their cutting machines, i.e. Hungary), 78rpm and perhaps 33rpm 
(not confirmed as used speed for recording exactly). These foils were used 
for recording purposes mainly in radio stations, but also on amateurish 
machines from around 1937 till 1948. and later on. When, after the war in 
short of such blanks, amateur recording enthusiast used thick X-ray films, 
and the othes side of Decelith foils marked as one sided (were also 
recordable, but in worse sound, unless marked as two sided recordeable).

Few photographs of Decelith foil:
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180080.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180076-1.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180078-1.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180081.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180084.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/scan1.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/scan2.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180079.jpg

Milan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
To: "78-l" <78-l at 78online.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 5:35 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] A Folk Music Playlist covering ALL recording formats! 
WORTH reading!

> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> 78-L mailing list
> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l 