Dear Mark,
The iconography of acoustic recordings consists principally of studio
photos of artists in front of the horn. I have seen several photos of
multiple horns in use, so the Gennett photo does not document anything
unusual. How the horns were collected is not to my knowledge documented in
a photo, possibly because of less interest in the process than the
performer(s). It could also be because the equipment and its configuration
was considered a trade secret.
Ciao,
DDR
On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 9:41 PM, Hood, Mark <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> There is a photograph of William Jennings Bryan recording "The 23rd Psalm"
> and other sides with a string quartet at the Gennett Records studio in
> Richmond, Indiana in the 1920 - 23 period that shows what appears to be a
> "two horn" acoustic recording: Bryan speaking into a smaller horn and the
> quartet playing into a larger horn. https://tinyurl.com/yajad2ct
>
> Was this an example of two acoustic horns being "mixed" together via some
> sort of manifold in front of the cutting diaphragm? Was this a common
> practice at Gennett or anywhere else in the acoustic era?
>
> Most of the other acoustic studio recording photos I have seen show only
> one horn. I always assumed that in the Gennett Richmond studio photos, the
> large horn was the recording horn and the smaller horn was a playback horn
> for auditioning test cuts for balance, etc.
>
> Does anyone know of other examples of "two horn" recording in the acoustic
> era? Or is this a misleading publicity photo of some sort?
>
> Thanks in advance for your expertise,
>
> Mark Hood
> Associate Professor of Music
> Department of Audio Engineering and Sound Production
> IU Jacobs School of Music
>
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