Music machines [Archive] - Mandolin Cafe Forum

Jess L.

Feb-04-2019, 3:36am

https://youtu.be/qIGf9qqwCHI

Fascinating, :mandosmiley: but not at all what I was expecting! I thought it would be about marbles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q) or something, those are cool too, but your video is about entirely different stuff. :)

Let me see if your video will display here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIGf9qqwCHI

I was sufficiently intrigued that I jotted down some notes about the video so I could find those parts later. Not sure my computer has accurate YouTube audio/video sync but this is what I'm seeing on the video:

SECTION 1:
3:27 Gilchrist archtop guitar.
3:34 brief appearance of Duff mandolin.
3:38 Guitarangi (sp?) built by Fred Carlson, it's a guitar/cello with sympathetic resonance strings.
4:12 nyckelharpa *NICE* (Swedish keyed fiddle). :mandosmiley:
5:12 hurdy gurdy.
6:23 airlock "scoring stage" (I guess that's a recording room) with 24-ft ceilings.
7:50 Frank Carlson cello VERY COOL! with 10 sympathetic resonance drone strings :disbelief: and *also* has a spinning wheel for extra drone! :grin: Black walnut back, Sitka spruce top.

SECTION 2 - next, lots of fascinating info about a big 1928 fully-restored theater pipe organ that takes up 5 rooms: :disbelief:
10:26 Built in 1928 with lots of sound effects, this particular one was used by Fox Studios for scoring films. He explains that theater organs had a bunch of special effects such as percussion etc, whereas church organs didn't. This theater organ has 1366 pipes.
14:16 demo of above organ. Pretty clever. So basically it looks like theater pipe organs were like the 1920s version of modern electronic keyboard synthesizers. :disbelief: :mandosmiley:
16:10 piano built for Portland Paramount, which can be played remotely from the pipe-organ console. :disbelief: :grin: Curiously, has a thing called a "mandolin bar" (unrelated to mandolins, apparently).
17:16 demo of above piano, controlled from the organ. Kind of a player-piano sound.
17:55 more floating rooms related to the pipe organ.
18:23 very cool springs and mechanical things, as originally built in 1928.
19:05 explanation of vibrato in theater organs, and how other aspects work.
20:48 percussion room for theater pipe organ. All original to 1928 except as noted. Marimba, cathedral chimes, tuned sleigh bells, ocean surf sound, :disbelief: celeste, vibraphone, gong (added, not original to 1928), windchimes, glockenspiel, xylophone, triangle, whistles, siren, horse galloping effect, bird sound effect, slide whistle (added, not original to 1928).
24:44 main chamber for pipe organ. Climate controlled which helps keep things in tune.
26:10 demo of pipe organ sound, tuba sound.
26:34 vdo :confused: with and without celeste. :confused:
27:02 demo of pipe organ "flutes", "clarinets".
28:18 goat sound. :))
28:30 low notes.
29:12 solo chamber of pipe organ.
30:48 "saxophone", "trumpet" etc of pipe organ.
32:30 tour of underside showing magnets that make stuff work, all apparently 1928 technology.
35:20 sound sample.

SECTION 3 - now on to other instruments:
36:40 Deagon (sp?) Shaker chimes.
37:17 Asian bamboo instrument (I don't know how the name is spelled).
38:17 modified piano. Interesting sound effects.
39:21 experimental modified small pump organ.
41:23 lounge.
41:55 Victrola (sp?), plays shellac records. He says you had to replace the needle after each record.
43:04 view of stage from lounge.
43:46 Deagon (sp?) glockenspiel.
44:14 custom street organ (crank organ) in similar style as 1800s versions. It reads punch-cards. Has drum and cymbal.
45:20 Euphonicon (sp?) piano harp thing, built 1830 in London by Stewart (Stuart? spelling?).
46:30 outro.

(above is casual listing of some of the things on the Nathan Barr video)

In my old-age short-attention-span mode, it's very unusual for me to watch long videos, but that one didn't seem long at all, it was quite fascinating :mandosmiley: especially after 3:20 where the instrument tour starts.

And I had no idea that those old theater organs were so much different than church organs. Intriguing stuff. Thanks for posting! :)