Klarinet Archive - Posting 000203.txt from 1998/09

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Short barrels
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 19:53:21 -0400

On Sun, 6 Sep 1998, Edwin V. Lacy wrote:

> I don't think anything at all can be proven by the pitch levels at which
> recordings play. You would have to know the pitch at which the music was
> first played, whether the speed of the tape recorder which recorded it
> matched the speed of the one which played it back for producing the master
> disk, and whether your own turntable turns at exactly 33 1/3 rpm, or
> whatever speed was intended by the record's engineer. Sometimes even
> fairly expensive turntables and tape decks are notoriously mis-adjusted
> with regard to the speed at which they rotate or move the tape past the
> playback head.

I'm sorry to disagree with you Ed, but not only are remastered versions
available on CD (done on the original machinces - huge Ampex machines that
weigh a ton), they match up with their vinyl counterparts. The enormous
number of of surviving recordings that play at the same pitch on the
numerous machines I have and the school has is evidence enough. You don't
have to believe it if you don't want to - but that's the way it is.

> If the suggestion is that the older recordings of European orchestras
> normally play back at higher pitches than those of American orchestras, I
> rather doubt it, and in any event, I can't see how that could be taken as
> proof of anything concerning the pitch at which the music was originally
> played. For all of my life in music, I have heard people complain about
> turntables turning too fast, thereby making the music sharper than it was
> when it was recorded, without regard to the geography of the orchestra
> involved.

When an American orchestra and a the Vienna Philharmonic are played back
on the same machine, why is the European orchestra A446 and the American
orchestra A441?

> I have a turntable with a speed/pitch adjustment, but don't often use it.
> It just takes too much time to get out a tuner and try to adjust the speed
> in order to make the orchestra play at the proper pitch level, even
> assuming you can determine what that pitch level is. And, in the case of
> many records, if you get the pitch adjusted for the beginning of the
> music, it will be out of tune again by the end.

Are you using a top of the line machine? If not, try it with one and see
what happens!

Roger Garrett
IWU

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