patricia Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 (edited) I thought I'd start a thread to help us with all those weird little things that we wondered about, but didn't know how or where to find the answer. There must be other odd things that have puzzled other people, that could be cleared up, so......... I'll start: I didn't know where to ask, so I hope that somebody will answer a question which has plagued me for years. Record-players evolved over the years, from the crank '78RPM, to later ones which had '78RPM, '45RPM, 33 1/3RPM and..........16RPM. Now, of course I'm familiar with the first three, but, has anyone ever seen a record which played at 16RPM?? Were they common?? Are there any out there?? I have no idea what they looked like. Oddly, the 16RPM setting was only available for a short time, but there must have been records, formatted to that speed. Help me out here. Edited January 12, 2004 by patricia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 (edited) I had a children's storybook that came with a 16 rpm disc. The disc was the same size as a standard 45, though since the speed was slower it played longer. At the bottom of this page are a few comments about 16 rpm discs. The condensed version: First developed in Germany they were used for spoken word records including the Talking Books For The Blind program in the US. The advantage of the longer playing time disappeared upon the appearance of cassette tapes. A player that could play 16s was also useful in making the Chipmunks sound more like Tennessee Ernie Ford. Edited January 13, 2004 by Quincy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 Back in the late 80's and early 90's (when I was in college), I think the college radio station I worked at had one old turntable that could play 16rpm. Or maybe it was the AM/FM "Moldy Oldies"/"Top 40" pair of sister stations I worked at part-time, in the same little town where I went to college. Anyway, I know I've seen one at some point, and lord knows the equipment at all three of those stations had some relics that were still in use, even as late as about 1990. Not 'heavy' use, but they were all wired up, plugged in, and they still worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 And it looks like the turntable in Rooster's avatar can play 24 rpm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 My parents had a record player taht could play at 16 rpm, but no records for that speed. I remember having lots of fun playing my records at slower speed, sounded weird. I know Prestige did a handful of 16 rpm LPs in the late 1950s, there was a thread on this here - never saw one of these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 And it looks like the turntable in Rooster's avatar can play 24 rpm. If you stay up all day and night staring at it it will play 24 hpd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricia Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 (edited) I had a children's storybook that came with a 16 rpm disc. The disc was the same size as a standard 45, though since the speed was slower it played longer. At the bottom of this page are few comments about 16 rpm discs. The condensed version: First developed in Germany they were used for spoken word records including the Talking Books For The Blind program in the US. The advantage of the longer playing time disappeared upon the appearance of cassette tapes. A player that could play 16s was also useful in making the Chipmunks sound more like Tennessee Ernie Ford. Thank you, Quincy. It makes sense that an instructional record would benefit from a longer playing time. Puzzling though, why the producers of those discs wouldn't have just used the 33 1/3 format. Loved the comment about making the Chipmunks sound like Tennessee Ernie Ford. My older brother used to play my father's Ella LP's on 78RPM and risk execution. Ella sounded like one of the Chipmonks. Dad was convinced that not treating a record properly was akin to blasphemy. My brother had found the key to Dad's record cabinet [always kept locked, against possible invasion by my three brothers and me] and it was very daring of my brother to even touch the forbidden albums, much less play them at the wrong speed. Kids these days don't have the option of amusing themselves with such simple tom-foolery. Edited January 12, 2004 by patricia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 And it looks like the turntable in Rooster's avatar can play 24 rpm. I think the turntable is probably just 33.33333.... - but the cat drags down the speed of the motor!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFrank Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 I have a couple of promo albums from Polygram where the groove starts on the inside of the disk and moves OUT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricia Posted January 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 I have a couple of promo albums from Polygram where the groove starts on the inside of the disk and moves OUT. Do you mean that you set the needle at what would be the end of the side and it would play backwards?? How?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 (edited) Do you mean that you set the needle at what would be the end of the side and it would play backwards?? How?? Yup, that's how it is/was. 16" radio transcription discs were like this too. In those days the physics of an arm and needle moving inward caused excess friction on the outer groove wall. This was an effort to ease that pressure. Ah, the days of vinyl. My edit changed the word "inner" to "outer". Edited January 13, 2004 by Chuck Nessa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris olivarez Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 And it looks like the turntable in Rooster's avatar can play 24 rpm. I think the turntable is probably just 33.33333.... - but the cat drags down the speed of the motor!! Hey Rooster does kitty get Vertigo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris olivarez Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 16 does sound like the right speed for kids records,transcriptons and instructional records that were released at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 16 does sound like the right speed for kids records, transcriptons and instructional records that were released at the time. Would have been better for cats too!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris olivarez Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Next time give kitty a little sliver of dramamine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricia Posted January 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Ah, let the cat have fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFrank Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Yes. You put the needle on the inside part of the album and it spirals OUT. The albums themselves were called "Counterrevolutionary Music for In-Store-Play". One was R&B tunes by "Con Funk Shun", "Kool & the Gang" and more. The other album was rock with "Southside Johnny", "John Cougar" (before Mellancamp), "Scorpions", etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 (edited) there was recent mention of these 16rpm LPs on this Board: here's the LINK Edited January 13, 2004 by couw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Seeing the "needle goes from the inside to the outside" record reminded me of the Monty Python LP with one side that had TWO separate grooves, so that depending on the luck of where you dropped the needle, the program was either one thing, or another thing -- two entirely separate 13-minute recordings -- on the SAME side of the record!!! Now that was one fucked up idea!!! My uncle used to have that album, and I remember trying to tape it once - and not being able to figure out why "side 2" was so much shorter than side one. And I can't remember if I figured out the separate groove thing or not, at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 yup, that's Matching Tie and Handkerchief, it was recently reissued on CD I saw. Don't work no more on those shiny little disks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Turntables that played at 16 2/3 RPM came in handy for transcribing solos and tunes off of 33 1/3 RPM LPs, since half speed means that the record is slower, obviously, but also exactly an octave lower. So you could learn the stuff in the right key and work it up to proper speed. No other speed combination worked like that - if you slowed a 45 down to 33 1/3, you'd have to switch keys to get the slower transcription into the right one. By the same logic, 16 2/3 could be a big help in figuring out fast and densely voiced ensemble passages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricia Posted January 14, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 yup, that's Matching Tie and Handkerchief, it was recently reissued on CD I saw. Don't work no more on those shiny little disks REALLY??? I had that record and I didn't know that. I just played it and it was a straight record. It was a long time ago and I don't have it anymore. "The Cheese Shop" sketch was one of the tracks. The cover was a suited torso, with a really ugly matching [i believe yellow polka-dotted] tie and pocket handkerchief. Again. REALLY??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 yup, REALLY REALLY. Check AMG or any other online source. It's TRUE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GA Russell Posted January 14, 2004 Report Share Posted January 14, 2004 Seeing the "needle goes from the inside to the outside" record reminded me of the Monty Python LP with one side that had TWO separate grooves, so that depending on the luck of where you dropped the needle, the program was either one thing, or another thing -- two entirely separate 13-minute recordings -- on the SAME side of the record!!! I remember sometime in the 70s Henny Youngman released an album, I think on RCA, which had two or three grooves per side. You never knew what jokes you were going to hear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricia Posted January 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2004 (edited) DAMN!!! Again, I say, really?? I had that record [the Monty Python one] for years and it always ran the same way. Was I missing half the yuks?? Is it possible that I always set the needle the same way, every time I listened to the record? Now I feel that I cheated myself. Holy Man! Edited January 15, 2004 by patricia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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