On Tue, 1 Aug 1995 Tom Vaughan wrote:

>A local historical entity would like to display an old "Edison talking
>machine" along with a few cylinder records.  It would be neat to let
>visitors have a sample of the sound (and kind) of the music
>great-grandparents were listening to back then, but not by playing
>the machine itself (which may be inoperable anyway).
>
>So, does anyone have an address, phone number, or clue for  a source
>of re-recorded cylinder music on tape or CD?
>

I know Columbia Records has reissued some cylinder based jazz music on CD.
I might be able to track them down for you, but these recordings have been
remastered so they might not sound enough like the originals to be
suitable. I know one of the engineers who worked on at least one of these
projects and she said their was much wringing of hands and gnashing of
teeth about balancing accuracy with listenability. Also, the playback
equipment has changed dramatically so this has to be taken into
consideration.  You might simply want to record the cylinders playing
through the original equipment on a DAT system and have it transferred more
or less directly to a CD.  Most recording studios have one-off CD presses
for testing and mastering and you might be able to get some in-kind
donations.  Audio engineers are suckers for a good a challenge.

Peter Wehr

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