How Home Recording Began

When did home sound recording first become possible, and what was it originally like? Find out in this whirlwind tour of "family records" captured on wax phonograph cylinder and lacquer-coated aluminum disc, originally prepared for Basement Tapes Day at the virtual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar held on October 17, 2020.

[@imjustanotherjess]

Nice to have you back after 7 years, Patrick! I frequently rewatch your sound recording videos 😊

[@kaelandin]

I do the same.

[@drwhang]

Very cool, I never thought I would hear the voice of a woman born in 1814.

[@X-Roy249]

7:00 If Embree added whistling to a band recording, is this the earliest example of overdubbing - recording a new track on top of an existing song? And how did he do this? Would he need two devices - one playing the band recording and the other one capturing both the first phonograph and his whistling?

[@krashsite2125]

Silas Leachman supposedly made dubbed cylinder recordings himself in the 1890s where he'd do each part of a quartet. As far as I know he would record over the same grooves again and that's probably what Embree did, recording over the existing grooves as it wouldn't completely wipe out what was already there.

[@DeadKoby]

I recall finding one of these early recording machines at an auction. I would have loved to repair it, but it was beyond my technical ability at the time. I sold it to someone who could fix it.

Thank you for the video!
10:50 can I ask what is the recording date of this chilling drama The Monster by The Boys ? If inspired by the War Of The Worlds broadcast, I would assume post 1938?

[@patrickfeaster4050]

I don't have an exact recording date for it, but other discs with that same Duodisc label have dates in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Definitely post-1938, in any case.

[@madelyngrace3456]

I love the woman cracking up at the end of the McSorley's Twins recording 😁 So funny

[@unknown_norie]

Excellent channel and information 👍

[@anotherbloodyhypocrite960]

This is great! Thank you for making this. I find early American pop-culture to be a fascinating thing and I'd never considered the history of home-recordings until I saw this video. :)

[@CassetteMaster]

Amazing to hear all this history! I am curious about the earliest recordings of telephone conversations/magnetic wire recordings. I see pictures of (museum piece) Telegraphone wire recorders of the 1900s and 1910s, with the spool of wire on them, but don't know to my knowledge of any of them being played back (aside from Emperor Franz Joseph on a Telegraphone in 1900).

[@Lucius1958]

The remark about "promise you won't go out and exhibit this" was most likely a joke: by the 1910s, phonograph exhibitors were pretty much a thing of the past.

[@meatballmeatwad5730]

Nice to be back after 7 years

[@ChimozuFu]

Nice to see a new upload from you !

[@craigventresco734]

Thank you for this video!

[@ryandavis2580]

wrecked record= drunk funny folks..lol..thanks for the post.

[@cal_cur]

Return of the king

[@tortysoft]

I think I have a recording from the late 1940's when my grandparents sent audio letters to Americans they met during the war. I have the American side of the audio swap. - somewhere...

[@josiahcole3186]

Id love to know the year of those recordings

[@doyoulikeveggies]

i should mention, in the photo you used for the title slide has a part of a swastika on the tablecloth! do you know the context of that photo, because a nazi germany era wax cylinder phonograph doesn't make very much sense to me!

[@patrickfeaster4050]

As you might have guessed, that image predates the Nazis by a number of years. The Nazis didn't invent the swastika; they only appropriated it and ruined it by association with their atrocities. At the time that advertisement was produced, it was still being used in the United States as an all-purpose good-luck symbol, akin to a horseshoe or four-leaf clover.

[@doyoulikeveggies]

@@patrickfeaster4050 Huh, that's really interesting! Cool to know!! Thanks so much for the response, always loved your stuff!

[@phonotical]

But what baout the dictophone that used wax blanks, or really you could go back to the great exhibitions where people travelled with this new invention and attempted to get recordings of celebrities, even faking such records! The supposed recording of Oscar wilde, johannes brahnes, or the house party recorded by Florence nightingale

[@patrickfeaster4050]

I'll agree it can be hard to decide where to draw the line between "home recordings" and other things. On the "faked" records front, you might enjoy this blog post of mine: griffonagedotcom.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/edisons-phonographic-voice-and-the-aural-culture-of-imitation/

[@phonotical]

@@patrickfeaster4050 did you hear edisons cylinder of dirty jokes and swear words he recorded? 😂

[@patrickfeaster4050]

@@phonotical Do you mean the cylinders presented on the album "Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings from the 1890s"? If so, yes, I know them well! For anyone who doesn't: www.archeophone.com/catalogue/actionable-offenses/

[@phonotical]

@@patrickfeaster4050 I believe so, for a while the edison museum refused to believe they were actual 😂

[@phonotical]

@@patrickfeaster4050 oh, no that isn't it! This is the man himself!