Early recording technology forced performers and dead-acoustic studios as standard practice

Evidence

Singers had to be careful not to be louder than the machine, to learn to imitate the sound of the machine, and to sing without vibrato, which Edison (apparently a musically uncultured person) did not like. There were other consequences of these tests on recordings. The low sensitivity of the mechanical recording device made it necessary for the performers to crowd around the mouth of the horn coupled to the diaphragm driving the cutting stylus. Instruments that could play especially loud were favored. Because the promotional “tone tests” were of solo voices and instruments, any acoustical cues from the recording venue would reveal the recording as being different from the live performer in the demonstration room. Consequently, in addition to employing what was probably the first “close microphone” recording technique, Edison’s 103. studios were acoustically dead (Read and Welsh, 1959, p. 205). — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 383

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to complaints about ‘immodesty’ article’s theme of technological constraints shaping cultural practice — here the recording medium’s insensitivity shaped musical performance norms like vibrato suppression and close miking.