[78-L] Royal Wedding - not OT

[Michael Biel]

On 5/2/2011 6:46 AM, Kristjan Saag wrote:
> Julian Vein asked:
>
>   >  How come that recordings of "celebrities" from the early days of the
> industry are of such poor quality, whereas commercial recordings were
> generally fine?
> --
> "The Victoria cylinder", if genuine, had probably been used several
> times for recording.

The same problems beset the Brahms cylinder, but most of the other 1888 
and later celebrity cylinders are great!  In some cases the BBC and 
Swedish archive copies are dubs, the original cylinders being sent to 
Edison in New Jersey.  The transfers I heard from Walter Welch in the 
70s have a presence that you can hear the room acoustics on some.  As 
noted, these cylinders were originals that were played directly.  
Commercial recordings might not have been played as much.

Once we get into the 20th century in both disc and cylinders the 
celebrity cylinders, such as those by the Presidential candidates in 
1908 and 1912, these recordings are loud, bright, and clear.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com