[78-L] Acoustical 78s in Spectra-Sonic Sound^

[Royal Pemberton]

I bought a copy of THE BIX BEIDERBECKE STORY, VOLUME 3:  WHITEMAN DAYS
(Columbia CL 846) in the early 1980s that was definitely a recent pressing,
obviously mastered with their celebrated DisComputer pitch control.
('COLUMBIA NY' stamped into the dead wax on side 1 as well.)  The tape
transfer was obviously done in stereo as the 'image' wanders a little now
and again, and is usually a bit right of centre!  (Someone didn't know how
to handle 1952-vintage tapes....)  And the sleeve was dodgy as well, one
corner chewed off, and the title and catalogue number print normally seen
on the sleeve's spine omitted.

I'd hate to see the state the tapes to INTRODUCING PETE RUGOLO are in,
based on the transfers in the Collectables CD that has that album plus his
ADVENTURES IN RHYTHM LP material (Collectables COL 5893; also labelled
'Sony A-28821').  More than a few of the IPR cuts have that strange effect
of the high frequencies rapidly fading in and out that are due to trying to
play back furiously skewing cupped acetate tapes with a stereo playback
head stack with both channels summed to mono.  And even more criminal, most
of the trombone solo section of 'Poinciana' is simply not there--there's a
bizarre jump in the music I can't account for.  I don't know if it was a
hiccup in the digital transfer process or the result of a tape that had
been snarled or destroyed due to an engineer's mishap that had simply had
the damaged part cut out of the tape and the remaining bits spliced
together with the hope no-one would notice....

On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 8:35 PM, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Hey, I've heard some London CD reissues of old monaural material with a
> neat
> depth effect, achieved simply by playing the old tapes in stereo and
> probably
> not cleaning the playback heads. I remember ATCO actually boasted about
> doing
> this on their Coasters and other R&B reissues. And of course there are
> those
> odd Columbia Special Products issues from the very earliest ML 4000 tapes,
> where the tapes were not only played in stereo, they were twisted and
> spliced
> all to ratshit and tone got onto at least one of the lps.
>
> dl
>
> On 11/9/2011 3:28 PM, bradc944 at comcast.net wrote:
> > When I was having the delirious thoughts about acoustic 78s in
> StereoAction, I had the mental image of a player set on a trolley-on-tracks
> (similar to a camera trolley setup), the tracks laid in the pattern of
> Billy-in-Family-Circus fashion, with boom mics throughout the room (and of
> course the recording console set upon a waterbed so that quick L-R-L-R pans
> could be wonderfully unpredictable).
> >
> > ...or some kind of computerized simulation.
> >
> > hm.
> >
> > COULD it be done, if only as a VERY limited edition joke? Or, better
> done with Jesse Crawford discs or (wait for it)... Frances Craig on Bullet?
> >
> > I think it's time for my meds, I hear "Charmaine" playing in the
> distance...
> >
> > Brad
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Michael Biel<mbiel at mbiel.com>
> > To: 78-L Mail List<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> > Sent: Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:15:21 -0000 (UTC)
> > Subject: Re: [78-L] Acoustical 78s in Spectra-Sonic Sound
> >
> > From: bradc944 at comcast.net
> >> Here's a thought for an April First gift: Music of a Golden Era - 78s
> in StereoAction
> >> Haven't ruin across the set you mentioned, but will keep my eyes open
> for it.
> >> Maybe Design was using the records to smuggle something in? (reference
> to the
> >> slang verbage of 'camel poop')    juuuuuuust KIDDING!   Brad
> >
> > NOT just kidding!  In the early 80s the Everest Group's Olympic label
> > issue their George M. Cohan and Al Jolson LPs -- both from acoustical
> > Victors in the early teens -- in QUAD!!!!!!!!!!
> >
> > And of course, there are those Prime Voce CDs on Nimbus which were
> > recorded from an acoustical EMG Expert gramophone in the Crazy Count's
> > Castle dining room in Ambisonic surround sound quad with a multi-element
> > matrix microphone.  I used to carry around the sampler CD to ARSC
> > meetings and other collector meetings and called it the Nimbus Laughing
> > Record, because it was usually greeted with gales of laughter.  It set
> > the art of reissues and restoration back over thirty years.
> >
> > So, Brad, your idea is not as off-base as you thought!  Dumb, but not
> > really any different from what the record industry has already done!
> >
> > Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: David Lennick
> >
> > Here's an odd one..a Design LP of great operatic voices, GREAT VOICES OF
> > A
> > GOLDEN ERA VOLUME 1. McCormack, Ponselle, Caruso, Garden, Chaliapin,
> > Schipa,
> > Destinn, Tauber, Melba and Slezak. Surface noise intact, no filtering,
> > no echo
> > (amazing!)..and probably no attempt at proper playback speed (Ponselle
> > sounds
> > like Clara Butt here). Of course it's pressed on the usual frozen camel
> > poop
> > Design always used, but still..! Anyone ever run across this, or a
> > Volume II?
> >
> > dl
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