[78-L] 14" Pathes and weird noises

[James Tennyson]

Message: 14
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 12:21:58 -0500
From: James Tennyson <jtennyson at sympatico.ca>
Subject: Re: [78-L] 14" Pathes and weird noises
To: <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
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Okay, I did my homework on this  and for bibliographic correctness the 
article is  " A Ghostly Knock that Spoiled an Expensive Record"  by Allison 
Gray. It appeaed in the May May 1922 issue of  The American Magazine.  Her 
source for the story was  the  excellent Reinald Werrenrath. The article was 
reprinted in  The New Amberola Graphic for Summer 1986.  It is one of the 
best contemporary articles on  life in the studios in the acoustic era.

JRT

I understand that the thumping noise you described in the Victor acoustics
was traced to the  recording engineer blowing wax shavings away from the
recording stylus. When you listen to it , it sounds like just that.  There
was  am article about this which appeared  about 1923  called " How a
Ghostly Knock Spoiled a Costly Phonograph " record. It was reprinted in the
Amberola Graphic. I 'll see if I can find it later.
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:13:10 -0500
From: "DanKj" <MLK402 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [78-L] 14" Pathes and weird noises
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
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 I wonder if buyers were advised to slow their machines to 68 or 70.  Pathe
seemed to make a point of using prominently
mounted, large speed dials on many disc machines; a couple of mine are about
2" across - they obviously expected the
customer to use it.  (Same as the one on this -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2IoUtImvKE  .. and if one srew is removed
from the arm rest at the rear, 14" discs can be played on this machine)
Their "90-100 tours" note was a bit unhelpful,
leaving you to guess.

 After listening to many transfers of Pathe records, I decided that one of
the noises was an elevator in their building,
and that the master cylinders were recorded at (or near) 160rpm.     Early
'20s Victor records also have low-pitched
noises - a sort of heavy blowing, brushing, or metal-parts-dragging-heavily
noise, within the first minute on dozens of
discs recorded in NYC.  An especially loud example has been claimed to be a
thunderstorm, but it's the same noise as on the
others.  Whiteman's "April Showers" has a good example at 4-5 seconds.