Fred- I think it would have made sense to him. He had used a phonautograph, a French invention that made visible tracings of sound waves, but could not play back a recording. Then he had invented an automatic telegraph machine which used embossed tape to move an electric switch. When the speed control on the tape machine went haywire, the embossed tape made a warbling tone. Put it all together and you've got "Mary had a little lamb..." [His machinist built the prototype from Edison's sketch. Edison turned the crank and shouted the nursery rhyme into the mouthpiece. It worked on the very first try!] A web search of "Brahms wax recording" will lead to explanations of the technology, and an example of how a musical signal (of sorts) can be retrieved from an unintelligible hiss on a badly worn cylinder. I hope they'll develop that technology for old brain waves before it's too late for me. ;-) Ed Sutton > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu> > To: "Ed Sutton" <ed440 at mindspring.com>; "College and University > Technicians" <caut at ptg.org> > Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 9:50 AM > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Grieg Experiment > > > Ah, so a visual image is analyzed and, through some complex > algorithm, made into a sound file. And somehow the static and popping > is part of the visual image, I suppose. What would Edison think of > this translation of his invention<G>? > Regards, > Fred Sturm > University of New Mexico > fssturm at unm.edu > > > > On Apr 24, 2008, at 6:20 PM, Ed Sutton wrote: > >> Fred- >> >> Nowadays wax recordings are read by microscope and then digitally >> converted to sound. >> No needles, trumpets or mikes! >> >> Ed Sutton >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu> >> To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org> >> Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 7:51 PM >> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Grieg Experiment >> >> >>> Hi Ric, >>> Fascinating! Amazing job of matching both style of playing and timber >>> of the instrument. It certainly sounds convincingly like a re-creation >>> from the past. Do you know to what extent the digitized version of the >>> wax cylinder recording was manipulated electronically, if at all? (I >>> guess there is bound to be some manipulation, even if not intentional, >>> in the mechanical process of cylinder to needle to "trumpet" and then >>> placement of mikes and setting gain and whatnot). >>> Regards, >>> Fred Sturm >>> University of New Mexico >>> fssturm at unm.edu >>> >>> >>> >>> On Apr 23, 2008, at 11:45 AM, Richard Brekne wrote: >>> >>>> Hi Folks >>>> >>>> I recently was privileged to be the technician for a very special >>>> recording on Edward Griegs own old Steinway B. To make a long story >>>> short... old wax roles of Edvard Grieg himself were used to reference >>>> his playing style so that a present day pianist could recreate his >>>> exact style on Griegs own instrument. There has been some controversy >>>> as to how fast to play these old roles. One thing that came clear >>>> was that playing them so as to achieve present day pitch results in >>>> the music being very fast and rather makes Grieg the pianist sound a >>>> bit comical. The folks behind this project were convinced that Grieg >>>> was adamant about using a much lower concert pitch... 434-436 and >>>> when playing these roles so as to achieve that pitch the playing >>>> becomes much more lyrical and beautiful... more what one might expect >>>> from a musical genius such as Edvard Grieg. So we tuned his >>>> instrument down from its present day usual 442 to 436... which had a >>>> dramatic affect on the sound of the instrument as well... virtually >>>> eliminating a very prevalent killer octave area. >>>> In anycase... the link below is a sample clip which interlaces the >>>> new recording with digital copies of the old wax roles of Edvard >>>> Grieg himself playing. I hope you enjoy this little taste of the >>>> project. Interesting to be sure. The segments where the wax roles >>>> come in are easily distinquished because of all the static that could >>>> not be filtered out. The rest is our recording on Griegs Piano. Hope >>>> you like it ! >>>> >>>> Pianists Sigurd Slåttebrekk / Edvard Grieg >>>> Producer and Sound Technician Tony Harrison >>>> Pianotechnician Richard Brekne >>>> >>>> http://www.pianostemmer.no/music/Grieg.wav >>>> >>>> Cheers >>>> Richard Brekne >>>> >>>> >>> >> >
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