Comments on: Contemporary wax cylinder recordings

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:56:00 +0000

kinda like the way people paint with egg-tempera instead of a digital tablet.

By: bibulb

bibulb — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 04:50:00 +0000

That’s where I IMMEDIATELY went to.

By: blueelm

blueelm — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:53:00 +0000

Thanks!

By: robdobbs

robdobbs — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:01:00 +0000

You can buy a Maker Kit: http://blog.makezine.com/2008/11/13/building-the-gakken-cup-p/

By: robdobbs

robdobbs — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:53:00 +0000

Why is that guy wearing a dress?
Oh… I see it now, never mind.

By: Kaleberg

Kaleberg — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:48:00 +0000

If this is about physical sound artifacts, why not take the maker route, and fabricate plastic sound cylinders of short MP3 (or lossless) files. You could even fabricate the player. It would be a great DIY hack, and probably have better sound quality.

By: Alex Carlson

Alex Carlson — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Thanks. I was looking for some actual music in the above project, but found none. This is much more like it.

By: myopiczeal

myopiczeal — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:46:00 +0000

I’m an acoustical engineer by training. While the history of recorded sound is indeed interesting, and worth studying, I don’t need to actually inscribe an archaic wax cylinder to understand it. There’s a reason that technology was replaced. I can’t imagine getting much joy from pain-stakingly recording a sound source with a needlessly complicated rig, and producing a recording with terrible fidelity. This sounds more like recycling old tech due to crushing boredom and an excess of spare time.

By: Tim Drage

Tim Drage — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:43:00 +0000

They Might be Giants did it already
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY7OWOUKH0k

By: Tim Drage

Tim Drage — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:42:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiB5QC3UOGk

By: Tim Drage

Tim Drage — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:41:00 +0000

jacking off in to a cylinder and calling it awesome.
Now I’m sad (and also kind of surprised) that The Gerogerigegege never released a wax cylinder recording.

By: Tim Drage

Tim Drage — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:40:00 +0000

Yes they are.

By: Charlie B

Charlie B — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:52:00 +0000

I’ll just leave this here, for anyone wanting to know what real cylinder recordings sounded like…

http://google.com/search?q=al+duvall+on+wax+cylinder

By: blueelm

blueelm — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:41:00 +0000

I was actually thinking it would be interesting to hear contemporary pop music recorded this way to hear the difference, but perhaps it would just come off as another weird effect layered on top of the other 20 thousand? Somehow I feel like the combination of wax cylinder and autotune overdose could be interesting though. I’d rather hear it with Kesha than Bieber though) I think.

By: Cunning

Cunning — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:10:00 +0000

That dude looks like Stephen King. Also, the clicks were disappointing.

By: johndonna

johndonna — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:22:00 +0000

Edison invented the phonograph with the foil cylinder but because it was not very effective (foil wore out easily, had to be operated by hand so very uneven sound, etc.) he did not see any potential in it and abandoned it to work on the light bulb. Alexander Graham Bell acquired the rights, changed the name from phonograph to graphophone and went on to invent (with Charles Sumner Tainter & Chichester Bell, the other members of his Volta Laboratories) the wax cylinder (which was made on a spiral cardboard tube – think toilet paper roll – invented by Tainter), the wax disc, the floating stylus, all made much more listenable with a speed regulator. They then sold the rights back to Edison. Credit where credit is due! :o)

By: Chentzilla

Chentzilla — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:34:00 +0000

Posting those on the Internet kinda misses the point.

By: oswarez

oswarez — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:28:00 +0000

Yes this utter crap. I was hoping to hear actual music not some retrophile jacking off in to a cylinder and calling it awesome. I would like to hear some Bieber on wax cylinders just to hear how it would come out. Clicks aren’t enjoyable for anyone. Ever.

By: Adam Lawrence

Adam Lawrence — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 06:09:00 +0000

I love my vinyl collection as much as the next guy, but all of this “digital files are the nadir of sound reproduction” business is so much hogwash. Certainly there are digital files that are terrible, as there are digital examples that represent wonderfully well-played, well-engineered performances that sound really quite nice. Now, that having been said, there may be discussions to be had about relative enjoyment of digital reproduction vs vinyl – at least some of it stemming from euphonic (or pleasant-sounding) distortions – but as for digital vs. the enjoyability of wax cylinder reproduction, I’m not sure there’s an awful lot of room for discussion there. Certainly, the raw idea that actual, physical sound waves directly moved a series of physical items causing a direct result on recording media – that’s very cool, indeed. As for any pleasure gained from the experience of listening to it, as opposed to a digital reproduction – well, I don’t know about that.

By: copperwatt

copperwatt — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:22:00 +0000

Signal to noise ratio: Low. Very low.

By: Joe The Wizard

Joe The Wizard — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:20:00 +0000

I can’t help but think of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnsizkVjGm8 If only he hadn’t been so nervous to be on camera…

By: blueelm

blueelm — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:43:00 +0000

I want to like this but yikes. Maybe the sense of pristine sound is required to make the whole non-music thing seem intentional.

By: Palomino

Palomino — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:48:00 +0000

Maybe he should pick it up and give it a good shake, I think it’s broken.

By: Roy Trumbull

Roy Trumbull — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:34:00 +0000

Edison made a drawing for one of his machinists with a bonus figure on the drawing if it was done ahead of schedule. Edison wrapped foil around the hand cranked cylinder to make the first recording. He was somewhat upset when it worked from the get-go. He had a distrust of anything that worked right off.
http://archive.org/download/EdisonLifeAndInventions/08_The_Phonograph.mp3

By: taras

taras — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:13:00 +0000

I like it in principle, but do they have any examples of recording music or other identifiable sounds, or is it just clicks?

Edit: Disregard that, just heard two of the non-clicky ones. Ugh

By: David Pescovitz

David Pescovitz — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:59:00 +0000

Thanks, Stefan. I corrected my post.

By: Stefan Jones

Stefan Jones — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:57:00 +0000

Edison continued making cylinder recordings for niche markets — mostly in the South — until the late 1920.

By: westnerd

westnerd — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:56:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY7OWOUKH0k

By: Grebmar

Grebmar — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:52:00 +0000

Yup. Dead air is dead air regardless of how retro-cool the media is.

By: Clemoh

Clemoh — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:50:00 +0000

Ugghh. I couldn’t think of a more grating, annoying example of this media. Maybe something more ‘musical’ next time. I’m all for the John Cage bubblegum, but this is… indescribably bad. Recording something unlistenable for it’s own sake is a poor reason to support a dead format.