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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc. |
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18th Mar 2006, 12:16 am | #1 |
Retired Dormant Member
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Location: london
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Wire recorder project - success!
Hi,
I recently recovered many hours of audio from some wire spools that my Grandfather recorded on a homebrew wire recorder back in the late forties/early fifties. I just put up a web page about it where you can see the old Webster wire recorder that I used, and hear some of the sounds. http://www.gentweb.co.uk/wirerecorder.htm I'm not sure how common wire recorderes were in the UK - I've found very little evidence of their widespread use here. If anyone has any information, I'd love to hear it. Thanks, Nick |
18th Mar 2006, 11:27 am | #2 |
Octode
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Hampton Vale, Peterborough, UK.
Posts: 1,698
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
This is by way of a personal comment - I hope you won't mind. My knowledge of wire recorders is zero, but I found your site very interesting indeed. Oh, sorry again - I don't know the piece of piano music, either.
As far as a family archive is concerned, your recovery and cataloguing of these memories from a vanished time must be seen as a very good thing for yourself and for the future generations of your family. Very well done indeed. You should be proud. I would be. -Tony |
18th Mar 2006, 11:49 am | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
Hello Nick,
Incerdible work there, it's amazing to hear what's on those spools, and must be even more so for you. By the way, I've looked up the piano piece in my copy of Barlow & Morgenstern's "A dictionary of musical themes" (1948), and tracked it down as the 1st movement from Beethoven's Piano Sonata no. 19 in G minor, op.49 Not bad playing at all, so it's a shame that your grandfather's piano was so out of tune I like your great grandfather's storytelling, and the way he complains that you can't telll the boys from the girls these days Where in the country did your relatives live, by the way? Nick |
18th Mar 2006, 11:57 am | #4 |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Antwerp, Belgium
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
Very well done ! Very much worth doing !
The old "noises" are a delight, especially the personal ones. The radio comedian's material is very like Al Read, but it doesn't sound like his voice. |
19th Mar 2006, 12:01 am | #5 | |
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
Quote:
My grandfather and all the family were in London. You can perhaps guess that from his father's accent! I also love that story - unfortunately my Grandad cut off the end of the story by recording over it. I suspect he did this because it had a rude ending . BTW someone told me they think the comedian is Ken Platt. I'm trying to check this out... Nick. |
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19th Mar 2006, 12:09 am | #6 | |
Dekatron
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
Quote:
Nick. |
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19th Mar 2006, 12:48 am | #7 | |
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
Quote:
BTW I just found a midi of that sonata in Gm. The clip of my Grandfather playing may sound more out of tune than it really was - as I probably got the speed wrong! On the clip he seems to be playing in about Fm . I can correct it in software, but I suspect (from other tunes) that actually his piano was a little flat! |
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19th Mar 2006, 11:03 am | #8 |
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
I think that piano is really out of tune. Just getting the absolute pitch or speed wrong doesn't change the relative pitches. Most of the notes are out of tune within themselves which indicates that the 3 strings for each note (over the treble range) are not in tune with each other.
I would love to have a copy of Barlow and Morgenstern. The great thing about it is that's it's perfectly usable even if you can't read music. My music reading is poor; I'm sure that Nick's is pretty good. I wonder if there's an internet equivalent to B & M. |
19th Mar 2006, 1:36 pm | #9 | ||
Dekatron
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
Quote:
Quote:
Nick. Last edited by Nickthedentist; 19th Mar 2006 at 1:43 pm. |
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19th Mar 2006, 7:00 pm | #10 |
Hexode
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Hertfordshire, UK
Posts: 258
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
In the absence of a copy of Barlow and Morgenstern, the Parsons Code can be useful for identifying tunes (for those of us with or without perfect pitch)
There is an explanation of it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A860663 and an online code search facility here: http://www.melodyhound.com/melodic_contour.0.html If you try typing in the code for the first few bars of the Beethoven Sonata (*UDDUUDDDUUDUUDDUUD) it does identify it correctly. Roy |
19th Mar 2006, 7:18 pm | #11 | |
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
Quote:
Many thanks to Roy who has resolved my confusion between Barlow & Morgenstern and Parsons. The Parsons method works well unless you are absolutely tone deaf and requires no formal musical knowledge at all. It's great that it's available on line. |
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20th Mar 2006, 2:08 pm | #12 | |
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
Quote:
There are also recordings on the wires of him playing home-made electronic keyboards, way back in the early 50s. Unfortunately non of the instruments survived, mainly because he cannibalised them for his later models. Nick (the other Nick...) |
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20th Mar 2006, 2:37 pm | #13 | |
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
Quote:
A bit OT but related to the comment on drawing pins. I was at the Wigmore Hall last week to hear piano trios played by a young ensemble called DIMENSION (they use capital letters). The encore was an arrangement of the waltz from Shostakovich's 1st Jazz Suite. At one point the pianist placed a stick (a conductor's baton?) on the strings of the Steinway to give a passable honky tonk effect. |
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20th Mar 2006, 5:47 pm | #14 |
Dekatron
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Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Wire recorder project - success!
I played that Comic to my other half, and she said...
'It's Ken Platt. When I was a kid there was a programme on the radio at lunchtime called 'Workers Playtime'. Every programme came from a different factory canteen. It had Singers and Comics and Ken Platt was a regular comic on the show. I think his catchphrase was 'I'll not take my coat off, I'm not stopping' but I'm not sure. I associate that phrase with Workers Playtime but can't remember Al Reed on that programme.' As for the date, she started school in the Late 50s. Cheers, Dilys + Steve
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