[Dixielandjazz] More on "distortion" in early electrical recording

Richard Broadie rbroadie at dc.rr.com
Tue Jan 11 09:40:30 PST 2005


I hate to admit the possibility that I'm wrong and that the gurgling 
occurred in the original recording.  If it existed after John RT worked on 
it, then the noise was present in the original source.  John RT hated 
digital to the point that he rarely used his fingers!   :-)

Gurgling is a very common side effect in poorly applied single-ended noise 
reduction systems.  I'm somewhat surprised to find it in a Bessie Smith 
recording altho Bessie was known to gurgle a few liquids in her time. 
Hmmmmm?   I wonder.....  :-)

Dick
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fr M J (Mike) Logsdon" <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] More on "distortion" in early electrical 
recording


>>>>"Gurgling" - Mike used this term and I took it up. I agree that it is
> now
> best used to describe a digital artefact in noise reduction. However, this
> is not what can be heard on the May 1925 Columbias. John R T Davies, who
> did the Bessie transfers for Frog, worked only in the analogue domain and
> the Maggie Jones transfers that I have are also analogue (done by John
> Waddley for VJM in the late 1960s). I suggest that the audible problems
> that some of us hear are definitely a time-of-recording phenomenon.<<<
>
> Agreed, it definitely originated at the time of recording, and 
> after-the-fact noise reduction brought it to the fore (though not, 
> apparently, on all cleaned-up versions, as Mr Smith of Norway indicates he 
> cannot hear the "Cake Walking" gurgle).  But I'm confused as to Mr Davies' 
> working "only in the analogue domain."  Do you mean he did not use digital 
> technology to do his cleaning?  If so, I've been VERY confused, and he was 
> MORE of a god than I at first believed!,
>
> --
> Etc,
>
> Fr M J "Mike" Logsdon
> North American Old Roman Catholic Church (Utrecht Succession)
> www.naorc.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz 




More information about the Dixielandjazz mailing list