Steve,
I believe the recording horns were always larger and of different shapes from the ones in home record players, so the recorded frequency response nodes they produced would not be duplicated by the nodes produced by the horns in home record players, and playing a disc at a speed different from the one at which it was recorded would not affect the inherent resonances in such recordings.
Doug Pomeroy
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> Date: Tue, 5 May 2015 11:40:05 -0400
> From: Steven Smolian <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: A-440, was speaking of pitch
>
> There is a long answer to this that I'm not going into, as so much is =
> hearsay and denial of what actually happens during the electrical =
> recording period.
>
> However, as to acoustical recording speeds, various Victor consumer =
> catalog recommend playing speeds for all their records that are at =
> variance at those we know were used when the recording was made, even =
> those close to the date of the catalog. Since recording and playback =
> horn designs were not designed using valid mathematics until c. 1924-5 =
> with the work toward the acoustic orthophonic player, I think it likely =
> that nodes in the recording horn design may have been duplicated in some =
> playback horns and playing back at a different speed would reduce the =
> resonances on certain notes. =20
>
> On the other hand, it always seems to have been assumed by the =
> manufacturers that the more musically literate would have a piano in =
> their home to furnish a tone by which the user would set playback speed. =
> That is why there is a speed control on most acoustic players. The =
> Sarasate records include a tuning band . That would give proper pitch =
> but the trade-off is that you'd get the resonances. =20
>
> This is still somewhat of a gray area. I plan to look into this further =
> before my presentation.
>
> Steve Smolian
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