Comments on: Comments on 16185

Post number 16185

snarkout — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 11:30:57 -0800

What's the oldest MP3 on the web? Not the first MP3 created by the Fraunhofer Institute, but the oldest recorded sound that's been turned into an MP3? Audio restorer Art Shifrin has a 1931 detective show; PBS offers some early recordings, including a 1919 track by Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band; but the reigning champeen seems to be Tinfoil.com, a website dedicated to early recordings, which features a largely unintelligible recording ripped from an 1878 "talking clock" recording.

By: aaron

aaron — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 11:45:43 -0800

IF you're willing to accept technicalities, I'm sure there are MP3s out there of noise/background radioactivity from deep space, which by definition is billyuns and billyuns (® Sagan> of years old.

By: gluechunk

gluechunk — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 11:50:50 -0800

Talking clock and other old sounds also mentioned back in this thread.

By: snarkout

snarkout — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 11:51:41 -0800

I just found that thread, Gluechunk; my fault for not searching thoroughly enough. And here are are some space sounds for you, Aaron.

By: pmurray63

pmurray63 — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 11:55:17 -0800

Thomas Edison can be heard reciting "Mary had a little lamb" (in WAV format) here. It's not clear whether this is the original first recording, however; the page notes that this was something that Edison "re-created and re-recorded on a number of occasions."

By: panopticon

panopticon — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 12:08:18 -0800

What about Victorian musical boxes?

By: dewelch

dewelch — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 12:08:39 -0800

Thanks for the great links. I am always amazed at the relatively high quality of these recordings. They must have seemed truly magical when they were created. My wife and I got a demonstration of an original wax cylinder player at the Getty Center a few months ago. I was impressed with both the quality and the volume that could be achieved with these devices. Edison has always intriqued me since I grew up in a town about 1/2 hour south of his birthplace in Milan, OH.

By: aaron

aaron — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 12:10:57 -0800

Yay, space sounds! Thanks snarkster.

By: mkn

mkn — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 13:43:53 -0800

Not the first MP3 created by the Fraunhofer Institute well then, so what was the first recorded sound to be converted into mp3 format? I'm interested.

By: snarkout

snarkout — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 13:58:57 -0800

References I've seen peg the first MP3 as being Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner".

By: pmurray63

pmurray63 — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 14:19:18 -0800

Yes, I've heard that also. The logic employed was that the human voice is difficult to record, so the a capella "Tom's Diner" was used while developing the format.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 16:09:49 -0800

Yeah! Go Steve! Those links have made my day.

By: malpractice

malpractice — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 16:45:50 -0800

There is a recording made by Oscar Wilde (real audio), although it is most likely a hoax. Either way the recording must be is quite old. In a similar vein, a recording of Virginia Woolf's voice (wav) is available, as are excerpts from interviews with Evelyn Waugh. Neither are especially ancient, but are interesting all the same. I'd love to hear similar recordings.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 20:19:58 -0800

Tinfoil.com kicks ass,snarkout. Thanks for the reminder, snarkout. Many of these early recordings have been reissued on CD, and in turn have made it on to the file-sharing networks as .mp3's or .ogg's. The trick is to either use the year as a search term or pick a few artists from the Tinfoil roster and then browse the hard drive of any hits. Some of these have truckloads of great old stuff.

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 20:57:19 -0800

Uh this is obvious. It'll be something like a Bach symphony or something, because all classical music is old, right? So, some Bach from the 1500s is probably the oldest sound in an MP3.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Mon, 08 Apr 2002 22:27:41 -0800

Oh, I think there's something older than that. Whether there's an mp3 of it is another story.