Posted on 05/28/2010 11:41:34 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
...an e-mail fell into the inbox from Allegra Hawksmoor who told us about a band called The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. One track of their next album, called Now That's What I Call Steampunk - Volume One, will be available on a wax cylinder. The CD album and single wax cylinder track will be available from 1 June.
"As far as we're aware, it's the first album to be sold with (at least a partial) wax cylinder release for the best part of a century," she said.
Anyone buying one of the 40 copies of the track on wax will also get instructions for building a phonograph to play the cylinder...
...The internet helped Ms Hawksmoor find Adrian Tuddenham of Poppy Records, one of the few souls in the land that can put digital recordings onto wax cylinders.
Finding Mr Tuddenham solved one problem. The other, bigger, task was to draw up plans for a home-brew phonograph that would cost about £20 to make.
...This led him to a career in hi-tech and a lifelong interest in making stuff. As a result creating a phonograph from scratch was no stretch, even though he had never actually done it before.
"I remember playing an Andy Williams LP using a paper cone and sewing needle as a kid," he said. "That's about as close as I got to this project before."
...One thing to keep in mind throughout is the tiny size of your signal.
Even if mechanically everything turns and moves as it should, the phonograph needs to carry a minuscule vibration from the stylus through to a resonator and then out a tube and into a horn....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Video at the link
The recording technology itself is not so hard to come by as Edison’s original concept was to use the players to record as well. Originally he intended the machines to be used to take dictation, etc.
Selling songs was not the original idea.
Steampunk ping
This is really quite cool.
There is a program on WFMU radio in NY/NJ (archived for streaming on the web) that airs pre-LP recordings.
Since they are a listener sponsored radio station, they have fundraising and have offered a “new” Edison cylinder recording as a “gift”.
Edison’s Attic:
The audio curator at Edison National Historic Site rummages through the archives of the legendary Edison Laboratory of West Orange, New Jersey. Tune in for Edison cylinder and disc record rarities, many not heard since “the old man” himself stashed them away, featuring: Tin Pan Alley pop songs, ragtime, vaudeville comedy sketches, flapper dance bands, old-time country tunes, historic classical music, laboratory experiments and other artifacts - all dating from 1888 through 1929.
Steampunk appears to be rather cool.
What are the odds of an Allegra Hawksmoor? LoL
Last week I got around to putting a few platters on the ole Bang&Olufsen
I was amazed at how good it still sounds. Yes, you get more ambient noise, a few pops and clicks. But the harmonics from a true analog recording cannot be beat by digital.
There’s a pretty decent chance that she’s the only one. LOL
“Originally he intended the machines to be used to take dictation, etc.”
One of the Nero Wolfe detective stories hinges on some kind of dictation cylinders used by a business man. I can’t remember if they are made of wax, or paper, or what.
It seems to me this was some very short lived technology I’ve never heard of them other than their (crucial) appearance in this story.
I’m thinking it takes place in the late 40s, early 50s.
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