Re: [ARSCLIST] NY Times: Researchers Play Tune Recorded before Edison

[Aaron Z Snyder <azs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, yes, but Edison did fire Rachmaninoff shortly after his first Diamond Disk because the wizard of Menlo Park hated Rachy's playing -- that is, what he could hear of it.

From the sampling I've made of Diamond Disks compared to Victor laterals from the acoustic era, I'd say that the Victors were superior, especially when it comes to restorable bass. The Edisons in general have little below 200 Hz, whereas the Victors often have visible components down to 80 Hz and even below. There's nothing inherently limiting about vertical vs. lateral modulation, so apparently Edison's sonic deficiencies were mostly due to other details in their recording process. At least Edison tried to stick to a fixed and repeatable record speed, and I give him credit for this even if he wasn't always successful.

AZS



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List 
> [mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Lennick
> Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2008 1:11 AM
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] NY Times: Researchers Play Tune 
> Recorded before Edison
> 
> Yeah..Rachmaninoff? Who he?
> 
> dl
> 
> Howard Friedman wrote:
> > IF diamond discs WERE superior to Berliner's recordings, 
> AND I doubt it, they were twice as thick ─ ¼ inch, twice 
> as heavy ─ 2 pounds, maybe more, and bulky as the devil.  
> Who would want to lug around a stack of them?  Not to mention 
> that Diamond discs had NO Caruso, NO Chaliapin, NO Ruffo, NO 
> Farrar, NO Scotti, NO Tamagno, NO Plançon, NO anyone who was 
> really much of anybody!
> > 
> > Howard
> > 
> > 
>