Amateur talking pictures and recording (1933)

Record Details:

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66 AMATEUR TALKING PICTURES vibrate at certain notes. The best way to check this is to run over the piano scale operating the keys heavily. It is not within the scope of this work to deal with the subject of acoustics, but it can be stated that rooms possessing heavy curtains, draperies, etc., are dead to sound, while others more or less free from impediments are reverberant. In recording this difference is appreciated in that rooms having a high sound absorption produce sharp, clear cut vocal effects, but lack brilliance. On the other hand, reverberant rooms are inclined to produce sound of a "ringing" type. One way out of the loud speaker difficulty is to employ headphones for monitoring purposes after the style shown in Fig. 32, which illustrates the process of recording by the Cairmor system previously described. The distance of the artist from the microphone should be noted, as it is typical for this class of work. The most difficult thing to learn in connection with home recording is how to achieve balance between vocal performers and various musical instruments. Usually best results are obtained when vocal performance is at a sound level above that of the accompaniment which is in the nature of a background. Another one of the difficulties particularly associated with carbon microphones is "blasting." It is no use shouting at a microphone to obtain greater volume, since this merely overloads and creates recording similar to, but very much worse than, overloaded amplifiers. One of the best tests so soon as you have your equipment in working order is to switch on microphone and amplifier and standing directly in front of the microphone with the amplifier volume control set to maximum and the microphone control set to the same level, to pronounce numerically the distance you are from the front of the instrument. Thus at 1 ft. you pronounce "One foot," at 2 ft. "Two feet," and so on gradually walking backwards. The same type of procedure can be followed for instruments, and these when played back will help you place various performers. It is absolutely useless to endeavour to make a record