Pre-Golden Era Recordings

[Brad Bowers]

This thread is pre-Golden Era, but I know many of our folks will enjoy these recordings nonetheless.

This article in the NY Times this morning led me to the UC-Santa Barbara Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project website, where they have a digitization project going for wax cylinder recordings from the earliest days of the medium. They have around 6,000 digitized so far, and you can download them as mp3 files, free of charge. Enjoy your trip through music history!:cool2:

Brad

 

[Katt in Hat]

A great new asset. Thanks Brad.

I read the article in The Times but my browser crashed thrice when I tried to access the university site. Perhaps the article drew too much traffic at this time. I've bookmarked the site and will try later on and do whatever it takes. :arated:

Once more I remind youse all; 8-12PM EST WFUV streams The Big Broadcast. Music of 20s & 30s.

 

[penfencer]

Thanks for posting the site. What an amazing resource!

 

[scotrace]

Neat isn't it?

I have about a hundred cylinders. The oldest of them are so brittle that every time I open the storage box, I've lost another due to temperature changes or humidity variation (or something). And you just don't run across copies of "Since Nellie Went Away" on every street corner these days.
Each one is a time machine!

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Great article!, try using Firefox for the browser.

I collect 2 min wax, & Blue Amberols, (I have an Edison Standard & Amberola 50) it's amazing how long the wax cylinders have have held up, so far I haven't lost any. (I know I'm going to tempt fate saying this.:eusa_doh: )

 

[scotrace]

It's those 2min black wax that give me fits. Once in a while they just seem the shatter. The Blue Amberols' plaster core can swell and split the record, but I've not had that problem - yet. A cold mandrel/warm record will shatter any of them.
It's a far, far trip from Black (or brown) wax to iPod & MP3's. From records that take up a LOT of space to thousands of pieces of music taking up less space than a pack of Luckies.