[Dixielandjazz] mono-mono

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

"The Wonder Audio-Scrubber" ????


Scrubber is of course a term applied in English slang to female human beings deemed to fall short in respect of some qualities which define a lady. 


On the evidence of the Woody Herman item on archive.org mono-mono is deficient in some of the respects which define a cleaning solution as contrasted with a substance not without some potential to strip through paint. Or too hard a scrubbing.


The heavy vibrato in the trombone passages at the start suggests in the untreated version actual damage to the physical disc used, missing shellac if maybe not to the same extent as produces the old grey proto-flowerpot from when silly people used to melt 78rpm discs over clay flowerpots... 


But the effect of tiny bits missing is exaggerated by the not cleaning but cutting and blocking out "scrub" function such as has been available for decades, when musical illiterates rabbited on in ignorance in dire excuses for sleevenotes. And it was assumed that surface noise was offensive and nobody was going to listen any harder than a hack whose preferred music was that of the cash register. But even in those days there were controls on very cheap gear which cut out noise or sound as the auditor preferred. 

An interesting question, whether somebody is less interested in the music than distracted by a hiss and crackle. 


If the sound was much duller of course 


THAT 

might sound like 

DAT 


Dere!

Robert R. Calder