[78-L] 14 inch Victor Special DeLuxe

[Michael Biel]

neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com wrote:
> I do not believe it is playing at the correct speed. Or Von Karajan is 
> conducting (joke). On the subject of key/speed, since this is a band 
> transcription it may not be in the original key, or it may. If I had the 
> time I would Xfer to a bigger box and shift the pitch up for comparison. 
> I believe the side ends in E-flat. I believe it should be in C Major, a 
> sixth higher.
>   
Now we're getting somewhere.  We do need a brass band expert to tell us 
for sure what keys a band would most likely play in.  This was one of 
Fred Williams' specialties, and he might even have this particular 
record so he would have pitched it when I dubbed it 35 years ago.  I 
don't have time to pull out the tape right now, and I could only play 
this over the phone for him and I know that would not be good enough to 
make out the pitch of the different instruments.  Maybe I might be able 
to find our band director at the university tomorrow, but I do have a 
cardiologist appointment in the afternoon. 

> So how does he know that he is playing it at 60? 

C'mon Joe.  As Royal Pemberton wrote:
>>> You'd think 60 rpm would be easy to set, one revolution per second.
>>>   
>>>       
All you need is a clock or watch with a second hand.  After all, that is 
how Victor told you to set your speed at 78.  And Columbia told you to 
count 20 revs in 15 seconds.  It's not rocket science.  It makes me 
sorry I answered Royal:

>> Yes we realize that,

> Were there numbers on the speed control? His may be inaccurate
> as well as needing a gear or two. 


Later Victors had numbers on the control knob plate, and later they had 
a pointer mechanism, but they all needed to be calibrated by the user.  
And how would you calibrate it?  By counting revs, that's how!!

> He does not document his setting of the table speed, only what it 
> says on the back of the record.


After he got pissed off by people telling him the truth about his speed setting, he added a label to the video saying that he did set the turntable to 60. But as I said, he thought he ran it at 60 but then admitted he changed it so it sounded better.


> It is likely that he is not a musician.  joe salerno


I can almost GUARANTEE he isn't!!! 

So my quest continues -- what key would the band have played this in, 
and is this an appropriate key?

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com