Re: [ARSCLIST] Modern Cylinder Phonograph

[Roger and Allison Kulp <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>]

What's so odd about putting a microphone into the horn ? Some of the results I have heard from WFMU have been pretty good.

                                     Roger

alessandro bellafiore <alessandrobellafiore@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Hi!
I think there is a piece oh truth in any of your different opinions.
>From a point of view it looks fascinating to play old records or cylinders
with old reproducer, in a way (it's quite a semiotic problem) you have an
experience analogue to the old listeners one.
But the main goal is retrieving the original use experience or original
information recorded on carriers?
I think the right position is a mix of both the approaches, because final
information it's given by recording techniques nut also by reproduction way.
Briefly, (just for acoustic recordings) I think it may be interesting to use
acoustic reproduction but using a player which can satisfy today needs about
sound quality.
Nimbus record working way it's quite interesting because they try to
"reverse" the recording process with a good level of approximation.
If the recording horn was quite an exact exponential curve, using an
analogue horn for reproduction may be quite logical.
Common gramophone horns are not true exponential curves and they are too
short to amplify in a correct way all the frequencies recorded in the disc,
and they are often too resonant and prone to distortion.
Someone may say: so you introduce one other signal alteration over the
original distortion introduced by recording techniques. Is it true? or a
correct playback may in a way, reversing physical situation,  reduce the
distortion?
Obviously it's a work to be done with a great care: the horn hasn't to be
too resonant or similar thing and has to be of the right dimension (e.g.
Nimbus has a special built exponential curve horn six meters long).
One other observation about recording from horn...
I think to put a microphone into the horn or link directly it to the
soundbox it's a strange idea.
Why using acoustic repro (with it's complex sound amplification) if you
capture the signal before it's "ready" to be heard? in my experience in any
point of a horn the sound it's different!!?
The choice of needle and soundbox it's relevant too but it's not a main
problem in this moment.
Last but not least: at the present time I work in a recording studio and I
know how important is the recording room.
Recording from a horn, without putting the microphone inside, obviously,
it's a delicate thing. I think it's important to use a room with a neutral
response (at least a little bit of reverberation? but not too much). A good
sounding room may change definitively the result of a recording session
that, in this way, became an ambient recording.

I speak often with my friends and colleagues about this discussion group
saying I think it's a good example of what scientific knowledge sharing has
to be; a little prayer which is born from a personal opinion: do not loose
the value of this group and of a truly scientific approach.

Thank you
have a nice day
Alessandro Bellafiore


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