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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Modern recordings on wax cylinder - Hack a Day

Modern recordings on wax cylinder

posted Jun 1st 2010 12:00pm by Mike Szczys
filed under: digital audio hacks

If you thought you’d never have a chance to release your hit single on the wax cylinder think again. A band obsessed with the Victorian era did just that, having a DIY’er produce the cylinders for them. The story was covered by the BBC and includes a lousy attempt to build a phonograph to play back the recording. The video shows their craftsmanship (or lack of it) but it’s not even in the same realm as the masterpiece we saw last September. You do, however, get to see the production equipment used at about 2:45 into the clip.Go there...
http://hackaday.com/2010/06/01/modern-recordings-on-wax-cylinder/

Tech Know: A journey into sound

Page last updated at 10:14 GMT, Thursday, 27 May 2010 11:14 UK

LJ Rich builds a machine to play 19th century recordings after a band released a wax cylinder single

The BBC Technology index has been writing about makers, hackers and other assorted tinkerers for over a year. Time, then, to see if any of the skills and crafts we have filmed and written about have rubbed off.

All we needed was a project.

As if on cue, an e-mail fell into the inbox from Allegra Hawksmoor who told us about a band called The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. One track of their next album, called Now That's What I Call Steampunk - Volume One, will be available on a wax cylinder. The CD album and single wax cylinder track will be available from 1 June.

"As far as we're aware, it's the first album to be sold with (at least a partial) wax cylinder release for the best part of a century," she said.

Anyone buying one of the 40 copies of the track on wax will also get instructions for building a phonograph to play the cylinder.

Would we be interested in finding out more, she asked?

Go there for more and see Video...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10171206.stm

Now, this is how the Bib Boys do it!:)

Edison cylinder recordings need more cowbell

posted Sep 24th 2009 10:00am by Mike Szczys
filed under: home entertainment hacks

[Norman] spent three years developing and building his own Edison cylinder phonograph with electric pickup. We’re glad he did, and that he shared it with the world because the product is a thing of beauty. Every part is clean and precise with plenty of room for adjustments to accommodate differences in media. He’s reused the head from a VCR and attached it to a CNC machined polypropylene mandrel. The needle is interfaced with the cylinder via a delicate passively driven carriage. This consists of an aluminum rod with the cartridge at one end, and two wheels at the other. The wheels travel along a precision rod, propelled by the needle tracking the groove in the wax. Wonderful!

We’ve embedded a video of the device playing a recording of Sousa’s El Capitan from the late 19th century. Although familiar with these cylinder recordings, we were surprised by how little recording space there is available on one.