It’s a wind up
This week I’ve been assembling a gramophone kit.
I’d forgotten just how long videos like these take to make. It’s one day shooting followed by three days of ‘post production’, for a fourteen minute video that looks like it took perhaps half an hour to make.
This one though is really part of a longer plan. I want to talk about my acoustic gramophone at some point. However after showing the fake Mikiphone recently, I felt I next needed to move onto this before showing what can really be achieved when it comes to playing records without electricity. It wouldn’t have made as much sense (in my mind) to over the course of three videos go from bad to good then back to mediocre again.
Anyway that’s this week’s video. Unlikely to be a blockbuster, but I think it turned out fine in the end.
Anticipating lots of 'jokes' about horns from US teens in the comments though.
When I feel I’ve collected enough topics to talk about, I’ll put together another Patron update video and talk about what’s going on behind the scenes.
Hope you’re well and keep your chin up.
Comments (46)
Your recording sounds more like Daleks screeching “exterminate, exterminate!”. What was you saying in reality?
It was the poem, Mary had a little lamb. Famously one of the first things Edison recorded.
I wonder if there's a version made of transparent acrylic for use in prisons ;-)
Aside from the clicky drive clockworks, I though it sounded quite good for the technology involved.
Hey Mat I have a question for you - what caused the decline in interest of trick plays? As a young person I've never been able to do the trick plays that laserdisc, vhd, or even vhs can do. I remember reading a Hardy Boys book about a jog and shuttle control and frame-by-frame VHS and I didn't know you could do stuff like that.
I guess people just aren’t interested. Personality it’s never been a feature I’ve used either. When I watch a film I want to get engrossed in the experience, every time I stop the move, I lose the immersion.
Looks like a fun little toy. Something I would put together with my younger cousins to showcase how a gramophone works. Shame these kits cost so much now!
Landfill.
You should have ended it with everything slowing down: "As always, thaannkkss ffoorr wwaaaatchiiiinngggg....."
haha It took me a while to place it but the recording you made sounds exactly like Mr Blobby.
"Lo-Fi sound" ... the seal of quality.
A fun video, Matt, at a time when we all need a fun video or two. You could use the recording feature to make broadcasts for one of those coded "numbers stations". And the speed governor appears to have been nicked from a stationary steam engine!
Thank you for this great video, and I loved the conclusion with the music.... fading away.
the audio quality is pure nightmare fuel - it lends an awful vibe to the air like danger is lurking nearby. the clicking mechanical bits and the way the whole thing sort of lurches around reminds of someone having a seizure, or a body with its head cut off jolting about before it falls dead.
So not a fan then?
Wonderful, Mat! You make the assembly look so easy and inviting. Me, I end up having to undo several steps to redo something I put in backwards or omitted in the first place, yet you get all correct first time! I thought it played the 78 better than expected all things considered. The governor mechanism looked quite sophisticated for such an otherwise low-tech device. Looking forward to seeing your vid on the 'proper' wind-up gramophone. Keep safe - stay well and have a good weekend. I'm finding the days all seem to become indistinguishable from each other at the moment.
I was a bit concerned at the end when I had a small rubber tube left over. After re-checking the instructions it turns out it’s supposed to go on the end of the needle when it isn’t being used. As far as the days and weeks merging into one - a few months ago the regular parcel delivery chap knocked on the door and I said “oh, I’m surprised you’re working on a Sunday”- and he replied “It’s Monday”. The next time he called I joked “working on Christmas Day too?”.
Nice you ended with the audio slowing down. And it was an interesting kit that young me would have found fascinating.
I would have loved something like this as a kid. I was always interested in how things worked and taking things apart. I had a electronics/circuits kit that I used and other similar things. I also had a toy record player as a kid. A Fisher-Price record player. Not one of those ones that played those colored "records." One that played actual records! It was this one: https://www.amazon.com/VINTAGE-Fisher-Electric-Record-Phonograph/dp/B003ONRUSU (I was born in 1988, and this thing looks like it's from the 70s. I wonder where/when my parents got it.)
I’ve got one of those Fisher Price vinyl record players sitting in my storage locker at the moment. I bought it because I kept seeing all these hipsters saying it was amazingly good, a hidden gem. They were wrong.
Mat, regarding your rendition of "Mary Had A Little Lamb," I think you may soon hear from lawyers representing Messrs. T. Edison and J. Burke. Other than that, I can't wait to hear what your proper gramophone sounds like.
As an educational kit, this harkens back to the 1970s when kits of this sort were popular. I fondly remember my 100-in-1 electronics kit, the electrics kit, and the ever popular optics kit, which should have ended in a working 35mm camera, except there was one missing part -- the shutter spring. A letdown, but a lesson. Nonetheless, I used that camera to record my very first shooting star using a 20 second exposure and a block of wood as a base.
I had one of those electronic kits with the spring connectors, and a chemical set. I think by the time I had that though, they’d been toned down a bit from the days of the radioactive Atomic Energy Lab of 1951.
Anyone else think the shouty bit sounded like Murray Walker?
Maybe I should have tried shouting Emerson Fittipaldi attempts to go up the inside of Elio de Angelis into the chicane.
Sweet, am desperate for some quality YouTube
Now if only the horn was on a tiny VW bus...
I would really like to see the outtakes for the shouting bit!! It seems these kits are all very similar in the standard of the end results, both on playback and record. I wonder if there's a halfway house type product, better results for a very modest amount more?
It’s definitely more of a functional demonstration type device rather than something you’d use day-to-day. The main outtake of the shouting bit is the Mrs coming in and asking if I was shouting for help as she could hear it in the garden (despite the windows being closed).
Well, looks like the quest for a cheap (and working) powerless recorder continues! But at least the playback part was actually decent, not bad really. Looking forward the BTS update video!
I’m looking forward to showing what the real wind up gramophone can do - I was surprised how well you can amplify a record without any electricity.
Notwithstanding that it's a toy it does appear to be very well made, everything fits together well and the quality of the materials appears to be good. Impressive. And a good historical rendition of "Mary had Little Lamb"! :)
I’m not too sure of the hierarchy of the Gakken kits - but with them calling this a Premium gramophone I’m guessing this is at the upper end of what they do.
You wish there was a kit where you could build all the parts of a thing? Be careful what you wish for... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDmYvZoCfXI (I don't know whether this came with any educational material, though.)
Oh there are definitely limits. I think I’d have just like to assemble my clockwork mech, that would have felt more satisfying, but I’m sure there are some very good reasons why they do this themselves.
Use to have a 1930s portable gramophone similar to yours at end of video, the spring died. Really enjoyed this video, thanks for hard work? Hope you manage get some rest this weekend
I hope so too. It’s been hard to unwind recently (a bit like your spring).
Amusing little gadget to pass a few hours, shame the clockwork is so noisy.
Hearing that old-timey jingle bells gave me the feels. :D
I wanted to pick a tune that we all knew, so we could tell if it was playing correctly...and yet it might not trigger a match. So far so good...
EP was the proper name for 45's when I was a young boy (in Sweden) in the 50s. Two songs each side usually. Singles came later, early sixties or so.
I also associate EPs with extended play discs like the ones you mention...but they seemed to be referring to all 45s as EPs, based on 78s being SPs. I mean it makes sense, if you look at it like that, but it’s just a categorisation I’ve never seen used in that way. I mean that would make it ‘Stars on EP’, and ‘Brimful of asha on the EP‘,
A fine complement to my morning coffee, thank you! It's hard to believe you can get any sound at all out of that thing, really puts the progression of technology into perspective. I'm looking forward to seeing you cover your gramophone!
Cool toy, but of course not great sound quality. And it is noisy like a steam engine model.
Fine in sunny Llan Mat. Hope you all ok and looking forward to seeing you again for a nice cool beer LOL
I think by the time I can visit a hot drink might be more suitable, but we’ll see. Take care.