[78-L] Playing reels backwards - separating myth from fact

[David Lennick]

In radio, we'd get tapes that were "head out" or "tails out" (i.e. rewind before playing). One operator thought he was smarter than everyone else (part-timer) and "assumed" that the music tape I'd left him, a dub from a direct-to-disc that we didn't want people to get covered with peanut butter, was tails because that was "the only way to do it". So he wound it and started playing it backwards on the air. Another time, I threaded a reel from Radio Nederland of a concert tape..cued it to ambience, started it on air, heard applause, then heard strange sounding words, and thought "Oops, they sent the Dutch language version". Turns out that the "rewind before use" tag was on the wrong side of the reel.

dl

> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2016 15:50:58 +0000
> From: dnjchi78 at live.com.invalid
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Playing reels backwards - separating myth from fact
> 
> 
> In 1954 I was a college student working at a record store on Long Island.  My job one day was sorting the discs that had arrived in the mail that day.  I overheard a woman complaining to the manager about a faulty 45 she's bought there the day before.  Naturally he played the 'faulty' disc, to determine its fault.  It was indeed faulty.  As I heard it from the back room, I immediately knew the problem.  I rushed to the counter and told the manager I'd find a replacement for her. I did, and she was happy.  So was I!  I noticed immediately that the 45, Frank Chacksfields "Ebb Tide" had been recorded backwards!
> The seagull's "Caw, Caw" came out "Awk, Awk", and the orchestra sounded like a pipe organ.  I found another similar 'faulty' record in the bin and bought them both.  I later sold one, but kept the other.  I figure, the London presser in the US had made the pressing master from a tape that hadn't been rewound, and to the operator it probably sounded ok.
> 
> Don Chichester
> 
> 
> From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com [78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] on behalf of David Lennick [dlennick at sympatico.ca.invalid]
> Sent: Monday, February 8, 2016 9:58 AM
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Playing reels backwards - separating myth from fact
> 
> Our first recorder was a big full track machine so this was literally child's play!
> 
> dl
> 
> > To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> > Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2016 08:20:47 -0600
> > From: jsalerno at collector.org.invalid
> > Subject: Re: [78-L] Playing reels backwards - separating myth from fact
> >
> >
> > I did something similar but with my first open reel toy machine. My
> > sister and  both got one for Christmas one year. I could play a tape
> > backwards easily enough without having to open a cassette shell. For the
> > good old days.....
> >
> > I started with simple words, like "cat" because of the hard consonants
> > at the head and the foot. After I learned it backwards I would record it
> > and reverse the tape, thus re-reversing it. I noticed the difference in
> > the attack altho the word made sense enuff.
> >
> > Then I would record 78s and listen to them backwards, and every once in
> > a while there would be a fragment of a melody that sounded melodious
> > backwards as well as forwards. There was a little fragment from the
> > Tchaikovsky Concerto #1 like that, about 5 notes long. F-F-Gb-F-Ab IIRC.
> > Then one day I Was listening to the radio and heard those 5 notes within
> > the context of some song! So now I wonder if industrial composers used
> > that kind of reverse technique for inspiration.
> >
> > Joe Salerno
> >
> > On 2/8/2016 2:23 AM, Iñigo Cubillo wrote:
> > >
> > > Talking about that, it reminds the old experiments I used to do with my old
> > > cassette player when child... I even got my father involved in the issue...
> > >
> > > Reassembling cassette tapes upside-down I managed to play them in reverse,
> > > by the opposite face, of course, with the unavoidable lack of treble,
> > > but... anyway it worked. I had lots of laugh listening to my favorites
> > > backwards... Of course, I used to do that with 78s too, moving the
> > > turntable with the finger. One of my favorites was Bing Crosby's "Amor
> > > Amor", which in reverse mode was a quiet strange song ending in a sort of
> > > Bing's braying "Romaaa... Romaaaa... Romaaa...". Very nice. But that's
> > > another story.
> > >
> > > The true thing with the reversed tapes arrived when I started to record
> > > backwards, then reassemble the tape in direct mode to hear the results...
> > > Nice...!
> > >
> > > The next idea was to read a text backwards (strange business in which I
> > > really got thoroughly trained) while recording backwards, then reverse the
> > > tape and listen to the results... Heavy uncontrolled laughing here...!
> > >
> > > And there I got my father involved... helping me to read poems backwards,
> > > one chorus each one, in turn... Bursts into laughter were unavoidable while
> > > reading backwards, which in reverse (direct mode) sounded like barking
> > > dogs... No need to say that, apart from the strange voices and
> > > vocalization, we sounded slow and clumsy... And when you made a mistake,
> > > then corrected it... the result was that you say it well first, then
> > > correct it to wrong...!
> > >
> > > ...
> > >
> > > I've played this too with my children, few years ago. We used the old
> > > Windows Sound Recorder that allowed reversing the WAV soundfiles, etc. They
> > > were amazed and we had a great time singing songs in reverse, which we
> > > learnt by heart. If you read it is easier... but if you learn by heart and
> > > then repeat from memory, mistakes are more frequent, which is much more
> > > funny. Imagine the difficulty tryin'g to learn a song in reverse, melody
> > > included...
> > >
> > > Inigo, from Madrid, SPAIN
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