[78-L] Long playing early lacquer

[David Lennick]

On 10/6/2010 12:48 PM, Elizabeth McLeod wrote:
> on 10/6/10 12:27 PM David Lennick wrote:
>
>> I've just played an early lacquer 78RPM aircheck (July 1934) that runs four
>> minutes and fifty seconds AND has a large label, meaning that at least
>> another
>> minute could have been accommodated. It looks almost microgroove. This was
>> cut
>> by Sound Reproductions, 67 West 44th Street, New York. Was anyone using a
>> really small groove experimentally at that time? Edward Wallerstein says
>> this
>> was happening, in a memoir that a few people have questioned for credibility
>> and timelines.
>
> I have a 12" lacquer aircheck from "Super Sound Recording Studios" in New
> York from March of 1935 which packs a full fifteen minutes onto one side
> at 33 1/3, which seems to be pretty tightly grooved -- the sound isn't
> especially Super, however, and gets positively fuzzy as it approaches the
> center of the disc. It's not microgroove in the modern sense, but it
> plays best with a 2.0 stylus.
>
> Elizabeth
> ____________________________

Viotor got 15 minutes per side on Program Transcription L7001, Stokowski 
conducting Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The early "Red, White and Blue" programs 
(pre-AFRS) ran a very tight 15 minutes a side, usually at low level and with no 
bass. This disc sounds very good indeed at 78. Its owner would have played it 
on a normal record player of the day but didn't manage to wear out the grooves.

I notice a bunch of Titan Transcriptions in Kurt's current auction, listed as 
12-inch and which look to contain a lot more audio than you'd expect (the 
equivalent of 16-inch discs).

dl