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Re: Steampunk Looping with an Edison Phonograph?



My good friend Steve is highly knowledgeable on these matters and would be happy to help you with advice:
http://paleophone.net/

He and I did a record-cutting live-looping performance at Roulette in NYC, in which we performed layers of a song while recording to a record-cutter, then played back the cut records simultaneously. We cleverly constructed the piece so that each record was a little song on its own, then a third song emerged as the lyrics from the previous songs came together. One of these days we'll post the video.


On 04/09/2014 3:49 pm, Ted Killian wrote:
Hi there!

I have a working Victoria (wind-up record player) of similar vintage - 1914.

My wife and I bought it at a farm sale in Indiana 38 years ago (along
with a box of ancient 78s).

Ours also came with a box of spare needles.

I am sure that if you can research on Google and find out what info
you can about your brand and model (there are all sorts of collectors
out there, and these things really aren't all that rare).

Once you can determine your exact model it will become easier to
locate spare parts (especially needles).

We live in such a consume and discard society these days . . . it is
kind of interesting to think about old technologies that are 100 years
old (as in the case of mine) and still function as designed.

I never considered using mine for anything other than playing vintage records.

The tone arm is quite heavy and the needle would destroy the softer
vinyl material of more modern LPs.

Good luck with yours.

Best,

Ted


On Apr 9, 2014, at 7:53 AM, TripleOhNine <3x09@carlsonarts.com> wrote:

Hey, everyone.

Since I've moved to a new state and old stuff is really cheap here, I bought an old Edison phonograph - Diamond Series from the 1920s. The cool part is that it is crank wind-up motor powered, so no electricity!

However, you can also change the speed of the turntable, adjust the volume, and so forth, so the thing is more flexible in function than I had suspected at first. The motor still works, the turntable spins quietly and on the level, and all of the controls operate, too.

I tried playing one of the old records, but the old needle is completely shot, but I want to try to experiment using alternatives to the needle to produce sound. The old Edison records reproduced sound by up and down vibration movement, but if I somehow put a modern stylus on there, I think I could have a lot of fun. Or, who knows what else I could slap on there to make music.

I've been really intrigued by the whole steampunk style, and wondering what steampunk music might be like. Maybe this is a step towards figuring that out.

Peace and adventure,
Michael Carlson

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Amy X Neuburg
http://www.amyxneuburg.com
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