[78-L] Speaking About Really Early Film Sound Technology -- Read This. Whoa!

[Michael Biel]

From: Vincent Fitzpatrick <jvftzjvftz at gmail.com>
> B.A. Rolfe???
> DROOL!!!!
> Where are you going to post the recordings?

I'll be playing a few excerpts on YesterdayUSA.com in a couple of weeks,
I'll post when.  But they're really not listenable yet.  The sound
quality is great but the machine they built to play them gives so much
wow that you get seasick and some of the melodies are hard to recognize.
 They first had to prove that there was important sound on the films and
now maybe they can get their benefactors to put some money in developing
a GOOD machine.  

You can hear what I mean if you check out the first of these two YouTube
videos from the demonstration I attended in May. The guy you see is the
one who built the machine, and he admits he knows very little about
sound recording and reproduction.  He was a computer switching engineer.
 He did not really know much about how real players really work--I don't
think there are any flywheels and stabilizers in this machine, he just
relied on a servo on the motor.  He says that he does not know how the
recordings were made, right up to the end of the reel.  They just found
the patent and a photograph last week which tells them what I had told
them -- the film was in a continuous loop.   


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUm_mPizQFk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHL9Clw5yfI&feature=related

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  


On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 12:30 PM, Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com> wrote:

> This is NOT the only recording of the Light's Golden Jubilee broadcast
> that exists. There is a MORE COMPLETE recording of the broadcast at the
> Edison Site that was recorded on the Rayediphone 30 RPM disc system. I
> have had a copy of the disc recording for thirty years, issued parts of
> it on the Mark 56 LP "Edison Speaks", and David Giovionni made a new
> transfer of a set of the discs last month.
>
> I have been involved with the Schenectady Museum Pallophotophone recordings
> for several years since the films were first discovered, I attended the
> "unveiling" of the recordings last month, and I have the full set of
> recordings of the films. It is unfortunate the reporter chose to
> emphasize this particular recording as if the broadcast would not exist
> if not for this film. I think the 78-L would be more interested in the
> several programs of the B.A. Rolfe Lucky Strike Orchestra that are part
> of this collection. Actually, the most important find is part of a 1929
> basketball game called by Graham McNamee of which there is no other
> example.
>
> Mike Biel mbiel at mbiel.com