trio.mpg

Short descriptions & audio samples of three old '78s' - two of which are not actually 78s, sorry! Indeed, one of them is a rare 'constant velocity groove' disc dating from ~1923. It starts at about 40-odd rpm, and progressively increases to something like 65 or 70 rpm. In theory, these should be easy to transfer, as the increase in groove velocity should be linear - assuming a constant groove pitch - and this can easily be catered for by many programs. Unfortunately, I have had little success with this disc - the only one I possess. If one establishes a plausible pitch for the commencement of this disc, it should follow that if the pitch is increased in a linear fashion, the whole disc should play 'true'. Alas, this has not worked with this record. Back to the drawing board!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• constant velocity
• constant velocity groove
• 78
• Pathé
• Edison Bell
• Little Champion
• World Record

[agfamatic91]

one other thing you can do if you want to play a vertical (hill and dale) record is to re wire the cartridge i know that they are some videos here on youtube aboute how to do that.

[bixanorak]

@agfamatic91 Yes; thanks for posting that. With Shure stereo cartridges, you connect the two positives (L & R) and take the signal from the two negatives (LG & RG) - which is slightly counter-intuitive. But as there are very few vertically cut records in the collection here, I have not got a cartridge dedicated to them. This is not good... I must save up some more money somehow! 8^)

[78rpmblog]

Yes, I've heard about these constant velocity groove records, but I've never quite understood how the gramophones one would have to use to be able to playing those would work. Also I can't imagine how you'd transfer it to the computer and getting it to play the right pitch all through.

About the Pathé disc. I seem to recall reading somewhere that they were supposed to be played with a special needle that worked a bit like a ballpoint?

Thanks for interesting vids. Cheers.

[bixanorak]

Hi. World discs all played *below* 78, via a mechanical device, which they called a 'Controller'. This was driven by a wheel that went across the disc while it was playing. It had its own spinning 'governor', which progressively allowed the turntable to go faster. There must be web-pages devoted to this... I am not clever enough to write one! The Pathés should, as you say, be played with a 'ball sapphire' stylus, quite large. I don't have one, so my 'transfer' was very bad! 8^)

[transformingArt]

A Constant velocity groove disc! I heard about it many times, and even had a chance to look at it, but this is the first time that I actually hear a sound from it. Many thanks for posting this.