Phonocut

[Sonik Wiz]

During WWII the USO would occasionally offer a service where my dad cut make a direct to disc phono recording, cut at 78 RPM played for about 3 mins. Obviously it was a talking letter that would mean a lot to a family at home. What goes around comes around,, at 33 1/3 RPM this time.

Phonocut is a company ready to release a home consumer level vinyl disc record cutter. I think the exchange rate puts this at about $2k American. It certainly looks cool! But having just read about it I think it is brilliant technology & so pointless at the same time. A lot of their marketing seems aimed at using digital sources to make a analog disc therefore having that warm analog sound. Oh & the ability to make compilation discs. Hmmm...

Right now somebody reading this is wondering how to get to work with CD-4.

 

[Soundfield]

I wonder if that thing will be able to match the quality of the 45 single recording booths that appeared in a few UK high streets in the 1960's?......



I note that sign on the booth somewhat audaciously promises HiFi quality, but I've heard some of these before and this example was about as good as they got!

 

[ar surround]

Careful...remember how making a vinyl record got Ralph Cramden in deep doo doo with wife Alice.

 

[Soundfield]

Careful...remember how making a vinyl record got Ralph Cramden in deep doo doo with wife Alice.

I'm afraid that reference is lost on me...

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I wonder if that thing will be able to match the quality of the 45 single recording booths that appeared in a few UK high streets in the 1960's?......



I note that sign on the booth somewhat audaciously promises HiFi quality, but I've heard some of these before and this example was about as good as they got!

I had no idea those existed. It reminds me of a pre-historic Karaoke booth. I do like the part about gin & tonic....

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Careful...remember how making a vinyl record got Ralph Cramden in deep doo doo with wife Alice.

I know The hoonetmooners quite well. But I don't remember that episode. Do you have a YouTube link, etc?

 

[aludra]

Your mother is a Blabber mouth Alice!! A blabber mouth!!

 

[humprof]

During WWII the USO would occasionally offer a service where my dad cut make a direct to disc phono recording, cut at 78 RPM played for about 3 mins. Obviously it was a talking letter that would mean a lot to a family at home. What goes around comes around,, at 33 1/3 RPM this time.

Phonocut is a company ready to release a home consumer level vinyl disc record cutter. I think the exchange rate puts this at about $2k American. It certainly looks cool! But having just read about it I think it is brilliant technology & so pointless at the same time. A lot of their marketing seems aimed at using digital sources to make a analog disc therefore having that warm analog sound. Oh & the ability to make compilation discs. Hmmm...

Right now somebody reading this is wondering how to get to work with CD-4.

Everything old is new again. In the 1940s, portable disc cutters (Recordisc and Presto were two of the bigger brands) were often used by folklorists and ethnomusicographers, and hobbyists had them in their homes. Moe Asch, founder of Folkways Records, regularly used one to record radio broadcasts off the air.

http://www.prestohistory.com/Presto2.html

 

[Soundfield]

The BBC pioneered the use of disc recording for news reportage during WW2. With their development in conjunction with the army of the ruggedised “Midget” 12inch 78rpm portable disc recorder unbelievably brave reporters such as Wynford Vaughn-Thomas (and their sound engineers) were for the first time, able to produce eye witness accounts from behind enemy lines, available to the radio audience within hours of the event. One such example is Vaughn-Thomas’ report from on board a Lancaster during a bombing mission over Berlin:


Whilst the reporters became household names the engineers went largely unrecognised. In this case it was one Reg Pidsley. The BBC notes that "Reg achieved a feat of recording that would still be difficult today. Situated in a confined space near the back of the bomber, he kept the audio discs under his flight jacket to prevent them from freezing and breaking apart in the high altitude."

 

[ar surround]

I'm afraid that reference is lost on me...

I know The hoonetmooners quite well. But I don't remember that episode. Do you have a YouTube link, etc?

Here is the clip. It's not the whole thing, but shows what Ralph does to get himself in real trouble...

 

[j9]

Third Man Records has a vintage and working Voice-O-Graph booth in their shop.