Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 1, No. 11 (1927-08)

The Phonograph Monthly Review 459 sided work leading from the horn, and blast from the upsetting of the diaphragm. Spoken records nearly always exhibited terrible megaphone effect, pianoforte and other percussion records tunnel effect, and the 'cello, the French horn and high vocal notes generally succeeded in upsetting the diaphragm so as to produce heavy blast. I never could see the least necessity for these faults nor the use of those parts of the recording apparatus that caused them. I should be ever so pleased even now if some recording enterprise, perhaps too poor to record electrically, would record acoustically using a 6 foot concave glass reflector (it might be built up from relatively small segments) instead of a horn, with a pallet of thin aluminum (mechani- cally stiffened) situated in the focus of the re- flector instead of the old-fashioned diaphragm. I believe this simple apparatus capable of giving far truer representation either of simple or of ensemble effects than can possibly be got with any microphone I have yet seen. If necessary a short hollow cone frustum might be used to bring the tone directed over as large an area as perhaps 8 or 9 square inches on the pallet. A Recent Fault The greatest and commonest fault on electrical recordings is recording room (or hall) resonance. It often makes a pungent toned instrument sound like two such instruments playing a fraction out of tune with one another. It makes a grand orchestra playing in an empty theatre produce a meaningless and most annoying jumble of tone by the time the music comes out of the gramo- phone. This fault was rarely present very badly except in one make on the old acoustic recordings, but now I regret to say it is coming very much to the fore and increasingly so, and needs the im- mediate attention of directors of recording or it may get for electrically recorded music a thor- oughly bad name. The Credenza Mr. Harold Brainerd was good enough to send me some “phantom” drawings of this instrument. On studying them, while liking the shortness of the acoustic and its open construction, I feared that the double baffling of the tone would produce some confusion in the sound waves and that this would be increased by cross reflection in the angles of the square section expansion. By the courtesy of a friend who brought one of these machines to London I have had an oppor- tunity to test it. I have nothing but praise for it. The amplifier, starting at £4 inch, is even more open in character than I had supposed. The second baffle seems to neutralize the effect one might have expected the first baffle to produce. The curve of flare in the horn is too rapid for there to be any cross reflection in the angles. The tone of the machine is great in volume, free from tunnel, megaphone, interference and all other false effects and the scale balance is correct. The 32 foot organ tone is not quite so convincingly vibrant as that which I get from the flexible horn of the Peridulce, but that is positively the only minus factor to set against the great tone volume. I hope the machine will be issued in England; it is enormously superior to any machine of the saxophone horn type. The sound-box of the machine I heard had a noise like a mouse fight going on within it when reproducing pungent tone, no doubt that was due to a mechanical defect that had developed, it must be a very difficult box to manufacture under com- mercial conditions. I should expect to get better results with a Peridulce sound-box. The Prismatone It is difficult to credit that the design of the Credenza leaves any loophole for improvement if an absolutely truthful reproduction with great volume is demanded, but since the high praise accorded the Prismatone in the May issue of this magazine I have been full of desire to hear it. Will some good American bring one over and show it to me, please? Ultra-Brilliant-Recording Quite in the early days of electrical recording— eighteen months ago I should think—Columbia in America recorded a three disc rendering of a Chopin pianoforte sonata played by Percy Grain- ger. It has never since been equalled for tone, vol- ume, brilliance, clearness and the perfection of the scale balance from the highest note in the treble to the lowest note in the bass. I suppose every- body who is anybody has this record; I shall be greatly obliged if readers who have what they suppose to be correct reproducing apparatus will write and tell me how this record is wearing. There must have been something quite unique about the method of recording, and the fact that I have heard nothing comparable with it since seems to indicate that the makers may have been afraid of excessive wear taking place. My own record has been played 65 times and is in every way better than new; I should much like to hear how other folk are faring. * * * * Since writing the above I have obtained four recent Parlophone records. They are: Pianoforte, Soiree de Nicune (4/6) ; Violin and Piano, Son- ata, Paganini (4/6) ; Orchestral, I Love You (Waltz) (4/6) ; and Cavalleria Rusticana (selec- tion) (4/6). The piano record is in a class with the wonderful Percy Grainger, and each of the other three is in a class at entirely by itself and quiet comparable in quality with the pianforte recording. The violin recording is extraordinary, the instrument seems to be a foot in front of the gramophone and every note rings dead true in musical tone right up the scale to the highest note on my piano. My experience has taught me that undoubtedly all these records will improve when proper reproducing apparatus is used with them. May good fortune grant that we get at least a few each month in the future having as great bril- liance and truth. I will mention them all and I hope that sooner or later they may be obtainable in America. Even as I write there are two letters from thoughtful tranatlantic correspondents, one in