Dave Stubbs Site Admin
Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 174 Location: Manchester, UK (Tel: 0161 794 5558/ Mob: 07985 437940)
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Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 3:55 pm Post subject: Edison Cylinder Digitization |
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For anyone with an interest in mechanical music history, the University of California are digitizing a large collection of Edison Phonograph cylinders and have produced a website with the results.
These recordings are available either to play from a 'Quicktime' player control on the page, or download as an MP3 or a 'raw' wave file.
The MP3 files have been 'cleaned' to remove snap, crackles and pops. The raw files are huge - so are probably best avoided, unless you are interested in hearing the recording as it sounded on the cylinder.
There is also some interesting information about the history of this recording medium.
You will find such information as the cost of a 5 inch diameter 'Concert' cylinder was about $5 in the late 1800s - the equivalent of over $100 at todays prices...and you thought that CDs were a rip-off! (standard cylinders were 35 to 50 cents)...and that the recordings were made using sound horns - Microphone's only appeared in 1924.
The address is: http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php
If you are using a regularly updated version of Microsoft Internet Explorer, you will find a very irritating "Click to run an ActiveX control on this webpage" message keeps popping up. You are probably better using Firefox Browser, as this doesn't have any content blocking paranoia.
You can obtain Firefox from: http://www.mozilla.com
Regards
Dave Stubbs |
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