Evening star., 1926-09-30
THIS AND THAT


that the phonograph industry has been
only too glad to adopt inventions or
radio experts which make the latest
monographs do exactly the same
thing-bring out and accentuate the
bass notes.
The crying evil in the older phono-
graph days was the highness of pitch,
which brought with 1t certain metal
lie quality. The most successful OF the
monographs during the past ten years
was the one that, by its method OF
making records and the use of larger
tone chamber, lowered the pitch OF its
tonal product.
The new types of monographs put
on the market recently are simply sew
eral steps forward in the same direc-
ton. They bring out wonderfully well
the bass notes, giving a better balance,
as it were.
Distortion in the phonograph is
much more apparent to the sensitive
ear than in radio, for the reason that
the radio. in essence. from transmitter
to listening ear, is simply a gigantic
path for sounds.
Each such path, no matter in which
direction it goes or into whose ears
it finally leads, is the original path,
the identical one. Spot news" in
newspaper work, means the happening
of the moment, red-hot off the grill OF
Time. Similarly, the term might be
applied to radio by declaring that radio
music is "spot music"
With the phonograph this Is not so.
The so-called master record" may be
perfect, but in the process of striking
off hundreds of thousands of dupli-
Gates thousands of chances for minute
xx-ifL fincr
creep in.
New processes of recording, so far
as we can see, have not changed this
situation. We have in our record IL
brary several of the newer records
which are as woefully "sour," or off
key, as many of our older records.
These older records were selected as
the best from thousands to which we
listened. We were (and are) phono-
graph fan, but we were never blinded
to the fact that one had to De very.
very careful in the selection Of records
in order to avoid getting one with the
accompaniment slightly "sour." The
salvation Of the phonograph industry
has been that most record buyers
have not trained ears, or ears
naturally sensitive to distortions.
No one knows this better than Mr..
EOlSOn, VINO mas uldUo SUI
entific tests on singers and musical
organizations for trueness of pitch,
and has even gone so far as to say, if
we recall truly, that he alone had the
thing down to a real science.
A person with what is known in
music as "a good ear" does not have
to use a measuring instrument TO
know when a viOlinist is playing off
key, or when the soprano fails to "hit"
the note she aims at. Trueness of
pitch is his criterion, and without it
music is not music.
1t is precisely because radio delivers
true pitch to him that the music lover
prefers the radio. The matter of low
ering the whole production an octave
is not consequential. The quality is
the same.
If the novelty of radio wears off,"
as Mr.. Edison predicts, it will be be-
cause the broadcasters have failed. not
because the art in general. and the
sets and speakers in particular have
delivered distorted music.
The greatest danger facing broad
casting today, as we see it, lies in the
fact that companies are forgetting the
home side of radio, putting the best
features too late in the evening. A
silent radio, like a silent phonograph,
Is about the most useless thing in the
world.