Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-24
BAD FRIENDS
FOR RADIO IN TOO
LOUD AMPL|F|ERS
Transmission of Music May Be.
come Nuisance If Not
Properly Done.

One of the greatest misfortunei
that can fall to the lot of mar is to bt
born without an appreciation of thu
artistic. The writer knows n mar
who classified the magnificent collec'
ton of antique armour in the Metro
politan Museum of Art as Junk" Of
another who received no more inspira'
ton from world-famous paintings thar
he would have from so many chromos
But perhaps the most unfortunate Of
all is the one without n musical ear
To him the most blatant jazz is as
pleasing as The Melody in f." 1t il
all q collection of sounds that make
him want to dance, that quicken his
pulse. Therefore, the quicker tn
tempo, the greater the volume, thu
better be likes it.
Our friend with the non-musical cal
is more to be pitied than c%ensured, but
he should not become q public nui-
Sance. If he has had a piano player
you will have noticed that, regardless
of the theme he puts on the loud pedal
and increases the tempo to that OF
rag-time. He may be playing Chopin''
Nocturne or a funeral march-they al
sound alike to him-but he runs then
off at top speed.
Imperfections MagnifIed
And he is pretty sure to be so en-.
joying himself that, even in fairly coo
weather, he will open the window sc
that his n~eigbbors can share his pleas.
ure.
And now it is Eadio that promises
to become a public nuisance, a curse
to the neighborhOod; for a large per
centage of the owners of sets measure
successful reception by quantity rather
than quality. Although they may BIZ
receiving in rather a small room, they
use an simplifying horn that would be
sufficient for a large concert hall
And what is worse, this horn at the
same time %magnifies the imperfections
of the artist and the nOn-muslcal
sounds of an instrument. The writer
listened to a beautifully rendered violir
solo recently. The transmission wa'
fine, but the reception was in a fairly
small place and the volume was stun
ming. The s%craping of the violin bow
was as prominent as the musical notes
Surely every one who heard that Sc
lection knew something was wrong
with it. 1t was wonderfully impress
sive and wOefully Earring.
WHY amplify your programs so that
they jar your neighbors? Why not
tune down until you get the volume
that you would have If n singer or in
strument were in the room with you
Your results are sure to be more salts
factory in their original volume, and
some of them might well be even
softer than originally rendered.
Be Reasonable!
Bear in mind. radio friend, that
your ~neighbor may have an ear trained
in artistic musical rendering and that
your over-amplification may not only
be annoying him-making him walk up
and down and swear-but you may BIZ
actually causing him mental pain. lr
other words. that you may be getting
to be a great nuisance and n hindrancs
to the development of RADIO. Be rea-
sonable!
There is no mechanical reason why
reproducing should be so loud. There
are a hundred ways of reducing vol
ume; the difficulty with most sets is tc
produce sufficient audibility. The in
variable goal Of the modern enthusiast
however, seems TO be to make as much
noise as possible. De-tune the set q
bit. lower the filaments, cut out one OF
two stages of Notwithstanding
10 save us from these gigantic, ear.
splitting renditions of a tremulous vio-
lin or a quivering contralto. The beau
tv is lost and the neighbors get angry
Remember that some people who know
nothing of radio might imagine that
radio music always sounds Ike that,