Phonoland

I've recently become obsessive about playing records at the proper speed. I have the rpms for many singers, i.e. Caruso, Hempel, McCormack, Patti, Tamagno, Ruffo. I can, with the score, sometimes get it right with a pitch pipe. A couple of distiguished collectors have told me 75.00 rpm on the records that I purchased from them. This past year I've come into about a dozen Lehmann discs and, I JUST WANT TO KNOW!
Thanks all...
Ron

Get you a proper turntable with variable speed and let your ears decide.

Question ??
Without having the sheet music for THAT particular recording you are listening to, how would one ever determine the "correct speed" (pitch) for it ?? "Any speed" might sound good to your ears--I think ??
Ron Rich

It depends a lot on what label they are on.

78.26 was standardized in 1928 for electrical play of records for radio use (although all companies did not immediately comply). Before that, the speed of the record depended on company policy.

Here is a page that covers many brands and what speeds and equalization curves they used.

http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/mixlabls.htm

A little more on this:

- The voice sounds wrong if the speed is off too much from the recording speed.

- Victor changed speeds 3 times:
- - The original G&T (pre dog) Victors ran at 70 RPM, but often were over 71.
- - Later Victors ran at 75 RPM.
- - Just before the electric standard speed agreement, 76 rpm was used.
- - The agreement used the average of the Victor speed of 76.59 and the Columbia speed of 80.00, giving the final speed of 78.26 RPM. Another factor in choosing that speed was that a stroboscope disc for 60Hz can completely stop at 78.26.

- Often the key was transposed to make it compatible with the vocalist and/or the musical instruments. So the score key might not be the key used for the recording.

- Note that, for acoustic recordings, instruments that needed frequencies the acoustic process could not record well were substituted. The instruments most often substituted were:

- - A cello was substituted for a string bass
- - A baritone horn or a euphonium was substituted for a tuba
- - A tom-tom or a special flat device was substituted for a bass drum
- - A bassoon was substituted for a contrabassoon
- - A flute was substituted for a piccolo
- - Sometimes a viola was substituted for a violin

The substitution shifted the part by an octave, and often changed the available notes an instrument could play. This can also require a key change.

Also note that different sheet music has different keys, because some instruments are made so that a different note is named C. Play a C on a B-flat trumpet and it will be B-flat on the piano.

So the key might be quite different from the one in the sheet music.