Klarinet Archive - Posting 000423.txt from 2005/01

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: Edison recordings
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:21:15 -0500

At 12:05 PM 1/25/2005 -0600, Ed Lacy wrote:
>It is indeed fascinating. I applaud their attempt to preserve the old
>recordings just the way they existed in the beginning. However, I wish
>they also would make available some versions which would try to restore
>the music to the way it originally sounded before being processed by the
>recording process. For example, the recording of "Stars and Stripes
>Forever" is at about 132 beats per minute, and as a result it is in the
>keys of E Major and A Major, rather then the original D and G. If
>slowed to the tempo that Sousa would have taken, which would have been
>no faster than 120, the keys would be correct, and the instruments would
>sound more like what actually would have been heard in the beginning.

Now that is an inexcusable error. Certainly they can adjust the playback
speed to be correct. Early disk phonographs had speed controls as a matter
of course, as the 78rpm speed was common, but hardly standard, until the
electrical recording era. I have a computer program that has digital
filters to clean up old recordings, and it can also compensate for
incorrect playback speeds.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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