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Wax Cylinder Archive



Phonograph Reproduction Equipment


Symposium Records Prototype Electric Phonograph for archives Model 1134

Edison Standard Model A, Edison Gem and 2 Pathé Salon Phonographs for inter cylinders



Pickups and Microphones


Canaphonic Archivette, Zylia ZM-1, Shure SM57, Beyerdynamic M160



Transfer Digitising Software


Audacity

Reaper



Mastering Software


Izotope RX and Ozone



Description


A wax cylinder is an analog recording sound format that consists of a mechanical grooved cylinder made of soft wax. The earliest wax cylinders are a cream colour while subsequent wax cylinders were a warm medium brown colour. The "standard" cylinder dimensions are typically 2¼" in diameter and 4–4¼" in length, although they vary widely, ranging from 1⅓" diameter × 4" length, 2¼" diameter × 8" length, 3¾" diameter by 6" length, and 5" diameter × 4" length.


Transfer Method


The transfer method used for all of the digitised wax cylinders in the archive is the 'Tactile Method,' which is adopted from analogue technology, this emphasises delicate physical groove playback, a process where the object (cylinder) is explored with a precise and light touch using familiar phonographic equipment.


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This is only the beginning, and will be gradually updated as a work in progress archive:

Certain songs in the archive have never been digitised or made available online

All our audio cylinder transfers are in the public domain (read policy)


Please Note: Many of these recordings will have audible imperfections due to age such as noise, static, flutter

and intermittent reduced volume which is normal, depending on the conditions of the cylinder.





Enter the Archive





















Wax cylinders from the ambientscape archive



PathÉ PHONOGRAPH with INTER CYLINDER AND EDISON GEM



Ambientscape.com




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