[78-L] Acoustic/electrical recordings on same disc

[Julian Vein]

Dan Van Landingham wrote:
> You're right regarding the sound of those acoustic Brunswicks.I felt that their recordings in
> the mid to late thirties were horrible-I mentioned a 1937 Brunswick I have of Gus Arnheim's
> orchestra doing Shubert's "Serenade" and it was truly awful.Those recordings from the mid
> twenties were so much better.However,I do remember a Duke Ellington date where some
> engineer put a speaker and mike in the men's room to give it an echo chamber like sound.
> This was around 1936.Can anyone give me some input regarding the rather high quality 
> sound OKeh recordings from the twenties? I can cite a few Bix Beiderbecke-Frank Trumb-
> auer for examples such as "Three Blind Mice" and "Krazy Kat".
====================
I used to believe that Harmony acoustic was the only studio sound that 
one could immediately identify. But, of course, there are the late 30s' 
Brunswicks with their mushy sound. It made Eddie De Lange and Fletcher 
Henderson sound the same!

It puzzles me how a record company could adopt such poor recording 
equipment. Did reviewers of the day comment on the poor sound? If a 
recording company is considering updating their equipment, either by 
their own development or buying in, wouldn't they make some test 
recordings first?

      Julian Vein


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