RealAudio 78s

November 10, 2003 7:38 PM

701 78s. A huge set of "old-time" music recordings from 1924-1946, made available in RealAudio format by honkingduck.com. Not high sound quality, but an invaluable collection for anyone with any interest in early recorded bluegrass, folk, country, blues, etc.
posted by staggernation (23 comments total)

Cool.

Paging y2karl... y2karl to the front, please.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:43 PM on November 10, 2003

Metafilter at it's best.

*grooms and cleans Metafilter Stamp of Approval™ for future use*
posted by troutfishing at 7:49 PM on November 10, 2003

Oh, so good. Thanks, staggernation!
posted by moonbird at 8:06 PM on November 10, 2003

20X6!

1936!!!

So cool!
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:13 PM on November 10, 2003

[this rooks marverous!]
posted by quonsar at 8:14 PM on November 10, 2003

wonderfully fun.
posted by Espoo2 at 8:20 PM on November 10, 2003

So that's what harmonica without beatboxing sounds like.

and it's nice to know i'm not the only one who came straight here from homestarrunner.com
posted by arto at 10:14 PM on November 10, 2003

I *heart* arto!
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:44 PM on November 10, 2003

Mr Wondechicken nailed it - y2karl where are you (aside from here in Seattle somewhere)? I am a little disappointed in the link, in that I thought the pointer to "The Almost Complete 78 RPM Dating Guide" would help my social life. Looks as if it would do exactly the opposite.
posted by skyscraper at 11:58 PM on November 10, 2003

skyscraper -- Didn't you see Steve Buscemi in Ghost World? 78's might just get you someone like Thora Birch.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 2:47 AM on November 11, 2003

I think that honkingduck.com was the site that was taken down a few years ago due to copyright restrictions on reproducing old 78s via the net. I'd love to know how it got back, and in the meantime it means lots of old time fiddle tunes for me! There is also Ed Ward's Old Time Fiddle site, and, since my favorites file for other old time American music is coming up 404. another favorite - lots of old time rural french music from the Auvergne.
posted by zaelic at 2:50 AM on November 11, 2003

Thankyouthankyouthankyou staggernation!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 5:52 AM on November 11, 2003

my dad left me a few hundred jazz 78s... i should probably try and find out what they're worth and if they should be donated to some sort of music library. i'll start by contacting concordia uni in mtl as they have an extensive jazz archive, but if anyone here has any suggestions i'd like to hear them.
posted by t r a c y at 6:27 AM on November 11, 2003

Thankyou. This is what the wurldwidewub should be about. I am always disappointed when I can't find this on Kazaa, but tons of popshit are available (gonna see Robbie Williams tonight:).

Zaelic, do you have more of those French links? That was a good one too.
posted by hoskala at 7:10 AM on November 11, 2003

Hoskala: That's all I have for French. However, if you like field recordings of Transylvanian fiddle music, go to the Last Hour (Utolso Ora) site from Hungary (Warning: extreme Hungarian language problems lie ahead...) and click around on the pages from the side bar marked "mufajok" (styles) then click on the stuff in the box to get MP3s samples of just about everything being played by living village musicians today in Transylvania.

Meanwhile, in the Val de Resia in northeast Italy live 1000 speakers of a Slovene dialect called Rozianska who play kick-butt traditional fiddle and cello dance music. Click around on the Gruppo Folkloristico drop box for samples and don't be put off by the Laurel and Hardy folk costumes.

I also have a serious "thing" for "kemence" music - black sea fiddle. Played by both Turks and Pontic Greeks, (Black Sea Greeks) this page should do ya.

I hate to admit it, but I make my living playing fiddle...
posted by zaelic at 8:14 AM on November 11, 2003

er....any chance of some non real player stuff ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:33 AM on November 11, 2003

Oops, for the Transylvanian stuff you have to click on something in the drop box, the click on "keszen!", the click on a highlighted cut, and finally click on the little record player icon... nothing is simple in Hungary.

Real Player problems? I usually just "save target as". I can't stream anything, for some reason.

I also like downloading free Brazilian Forro...
posted by zaelic at 8:44 AM on November 11, 2003

I almost forgot... for anything on 78, there are the archives of the now defunct radio show "The Secret Museum of the Air" hosted by Pat Conte and Citizen Kafka on WFMU. About half of the links work - try the ones after June 2001. American folk, blues, African, European, Asian, if they recorded it on 78, if is rare, and good, it was played on the Secret Museum.
posted by zaelic at 9:08 AM on November 11, 2003

If you want mp3s of old-time 78s, go to 1001tunes -- a few are freely downloadable (today there's one from the great Earl Johnson), and you can get hundreds on a cd if you're willing to pay $.
posted by sheldman at 12:12 PM on November 11, 2003

I also enjoy Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine. Thanks so much for thr Transylvanian links, zaelic. I lived in Transylvania for a year [Cluj-Napoca] and really miss a lot of the impromptu music I got to hear around town.
posted by jessamyn at 3:58 PM on November 11, 2003

www.tinfoil.com specializes in only cylinder recordings, going back to 1878. And I hang in Cluj a lot.... ever go to the Laguna Bar on manele nights?
posted by zaelic at 4:12 PM on November 11, 2003

Listening to transilvanian now... Thank you Zaelic.

I hate to admit it, but I make my living playing accordion...

Check out the Guca music Festival in Serbia. They have some (though quite low quality) samples on their pages too.

The photo album is just awesome. I've got go there next year.

I've got couple of CDs that are compiled by Pat Conte. The Secret Museum of Mankind. Great stuff. Check them out.
posted by hoskala at 5:15 PM on November 11, 2003

This is a find--I guess I'll have to reinstall RealPlayer--but that is such a drag: you have to go in and switch every function off RealPlayer to keep that program from hell from taking over when you play a CD or burn an mp3. Even though my station broadcast in RealAudio, I really am not crazy about it. On the plus side, music like this fares better on it than anything modern.

I do wonder about the quality of a collection of 78s recorded onto 23 cassette tapes in the mid-1980s and then converted to RealAudio. That's getting stepped on twice already. But what a great selection. I have my eye on the Emmett Miller, Narmour Smith, Frank Hutcheson, Carson, Moonshine Kate funfest The Medicine Show Act 1, 2, 3, & 4--I'm almost certain that's Frank Hutchinson, who's a fave of mine.

hoskala is so right about that Yazoo series on The Secret Museum of Mankind--that series is wonderful and zaelic was dead on--WFMU is/was so great.

I just hate what happened to internet radio...

I see the Yazoo Early Ethnic section is expanding. I just came that close to buying that Music of Madagascar at Tower the other day--that looks so wonderful. Shucks, I'll have to reinstall RealPlayer SpawnOfHell just to check those clips out... Another wonderful company, once you get used to their approach, is Document. Their original approach was to give everything available by an artist in the order recorded, even if it came down to being the only copy known--so the sound quality can vary. Now I they have a discount label--Classic BLues--where you can get two CDs for the price of one--check out the Bo Carter--and what a links page. Old Hat is great, too--I'm going to get me that Down in the Basement. They only have 4 releases--but what production values! Bear Family is another great one for American country--especially rockabilly and western swing--and blues: they can be just as completist as Document.
posted by y2karl at 9:23 AM on November 12, 2003