music

Dynaquad (1970 – 1976)

In 1969, Dynaco introduced a system to ‘derive’ surround sound from stereophonic LPs by using a passive electronic circuit called a Hafler Circuit. This was designed by Dave Hafler of Dynaco in the early 1960s and required four speakers in a diamond configuration for derived quadraphonic (2:2:4) sound.

Around 1970, Dynaco introduced the Dynaquad system for encoding matrixed quadraphonic sound (4:2:4). The system was similar to EV Stereo-4 (EV-4) introduced in 1970, and was broadly compatible.

A sampler disc for the Dynaquad system was released in 1971 on the Vanguard Records label, and by this time it was suggested that the four speakers were placed in the four corners of the room rather than the diamond configuration.

Very few records appear to have used Dynaquad encoding. The 1970 eponymous album by The Flame may have used Dynaquad, along with some of the ‘Environments’ series by Syntonic Research. There were also some LPs and 7-inch singles produced by KL Recordings in the mid-1970s.

Sources / Resources

Harmony Disc Record (1907 – 1916)

Harmony Disc Records was a Chicago-based record label launched by the Great Northern Manufacturing Co. in 1907. It produced 10-inch shellac records that were identical to other disc records of the time, except for a large centre hole of ¾-inch diameter. The larger hole was so that only Harmony Disc Records could be played on the Harmony Talking Machine.

Harmony was one of a number of Chicago-based labels that operated a premium scheme whereby the phonograph itself was inexpensive but the purchaser was locked-in to purchasing discs made for the player since the player had a correspondingly larger center spindle to prevent discs with standard holes fitting onto the turntable.

Harmony Disc Records were sometimes single-sided in the early days, and all were 10-inch in diameter.

Around 1912, Great Northern Manufacturing Co. left the record business, and Columbia took over the Harmony Disc Record label, which was renamed Harmony Record with the company name as Harmony Talking Machine Co. Columbia resurrected the Harmony name in 1925, but this time with a standard centre hole.

As well as the Harmony Disc Record, the other Chicago-based labels included Standard Disc Record (½-inch centre hole), United Records (1½-inch centre hole), Aretino Records (3-inch centre hole), and Busy Bee Records (rectangular cut-out in addition to standard ¼-inch centre hole).

In 1916, Harmony, Standard, United and Aretino were brought together under the Consolidated Talking Machine Company. It’s unclear when the Harmony Record label was discontinued and it may be that like the Standard Disc Record label, some recordings would have been available for a while with the larger centre hole.

Sources / Resources

Durium Junior (1932 – 1933)

Durium Junior was a flexible single-sided 4-inch phonograph disc made from Durium (a synthetic brown resin invented in the US in 1929) with a cardboard backing. These were introduced in 1931 by the Durium Products Corp. who also made the 10-inch Hit Of The Week phonograph records in the US.

The Durium Junior mostly offered advertising and music combined though some were just music, and they played for around one and a half minutes. The format was also used for some childrens records.

The last Hit Of The Week release was in June 1932 and Durium Records in the UK ended production in January 1933. It’s unclear when Durium Junior ended, but it was likely around the same time.

Sources / Resources

Yoto card (2018 – )

The Yoto Player is an internet-connected audio device for children that uses physical cards. Introduced in 2018, it is available in two sizes with a larger device (the Yoto Player) incorporating a night light for home use, and a Yoto Mini for portable use. Although it needs initial set up via a smartphone to connect it to Wi-Fi, once done it is designed to be simple to operate for children and promotes itself as having no camera, microphone or adverts.

Both devices have a screen that displays pixel art when a card is playing to indicate the track and when no card is inserted shows the time.

A range of cards are available including stories, educational titles and a handful of music releases. There are also blank cards (‘Make Your Own’ cards) available for adding content to via the app. The cards operate by NFC (near-field communication) so can be inserted into the device any way – the first time they are inserted, content is downloaded from the cloud and stored in the devices memory so that the next time the card is used access is immediate. The content is not stored on the cards themselves which simply tell the device what to download and play.

As well as physical cards, Yoto now also produce digital-only cards. These can be linked to a ‘Make Your Own’ card (so children can still put them in the player) or they can be played directly from the app. As of 2024 Yoto have indicated that they have no plans to stop selling physical cards.

Sources / Resources

Aretino Record (1907 – 1914)

Aretino Records were 10-inch (or sometimes 12-inch) 78 rpm shellac records with an unusually large centre hole of three-inch diameter. This was the largest spindle-hole of any record and meant the centre label was reduced to a narrow ring.

The label was based in Chicago in the US, and began producing disc records and the phonograph machines to play them around 1907. The large spindle on the phonograph meant that only Aretino Records could be played on them (though adapters were available to play Aretino Records on other phonograph machines). The players were sold very cheaply since consumers were locked into purchasing Aretino Records to play on them. This was a tactic employed by a number of Chicago-based record labels, including the Standard Disc Record (½-inch centre hole), Harmony Disc Record (¾-inch centre hole) United Records (1½-inch centre hole), and Busy Bee Records (rectangular cut-out in addition to standard ¼-inch centre hole).

Aretino records were produced as single-sided and double-sided 10-inch discs, and as double-sided 12-inch discs.

Aretino was merged with Busy Bee records in 1910, and Aretino records ceased production around 1914.

Sources / Resources

0.85-inch hard disk drive (2004 – 2007)

In 2004, Toshiba launched a 0.85-inch hard disk drive with a capacity of 2 GB. This tiny single-platter drive was the smallest commerically available hard disk drive, and due to its small size used a permanently-attached ribbon cable for connection since it was only designed to be used as an internal drive.

There appear to be just three devices that ever used the drive – the Nokia N91 mobile phone, the Cowon iAudio 6 and the Imation Micro Hard Drive.

The Nokia N91 was a mobile phone that also made a major feature of being a music player, with dedicated media keys on the front and excellent audio quality. When released, it contained a 4 GB version of the 0.85-inch hard drive that could store up to 3,000 songs, and was aimed as a challenger to the Apple iPod. Later in 2006, an 8 GB variant was introduced, but the N91 was discontinued in 2007.

The Cowon iAudio 6 was a media player, for music, video and photos, and was also introduced in 2006. It also used the 4 GB version of the drive. However, it was replaced in 2007 by the iAudio 7 which offered 4, 8, or 16 GB of storage, but using flash memory.

The Imation Micro Hard Drive, introduced in 2005, was a USB storage device making use of the Toshiba drive rather than the more usual flash memory. It was shaped like a padlock, and offered either 2 GB or 4 GB of storage. However, it was slower than flash memory and its quirky design made it more bulky.

Figures

Dimensions: 32 mm × 24 mm × 5 mm

Capacity: 2, 4 or 8 GB

Sources / Resources

Yamaha M20P (1990 – mid 1990s)

The Yamaha M20P digital audio tape cassette was introduced in 1990 for use with the Yamaha DMR8 digital mixer/recorder and the DRU8 digital recorder.

The DMR8 was an integrated mixer and recorder that could store digital audio on 8 tracks on the M20P cassette. The DRU8 was a standalone recorder unit, also using the M20P cassette, that could be linked to the DMR8 to increase the number of tracks to 16, or increase recording time to 40 minutes. A second DRU8 could also be linked to offer 24-track recording.

The DMR8 was claimed to be the first multitrack recorder to offer 20 bit recording.

The M20P tape cassette used a proprietary shell with metal particle 8 mm tape, and could store up to 22 minutes of audio at 44.1 kHz/20 bits, or 20 minutes at 48 kHz/20 bits. The recorder used an 8-track stationary head (S-DAT) that required high tape speeds.

The DMR8 and DRU8 were discontinued by 1995 as they couldn’t compete with the cheaper Alesis ADAT and Tascam DTRS systems.

Figures

Dimensions: 11.8 cm × 7.7 cm x 1.6 cm

Sources / Resources

Reig Verbena Organ No. 728 barrel piano roll (1950s – 1960s)

The Reig Verbena Organ No. 728 was a children’s 15-note barrel piano using a plastic barrel (or roll) and was made by Claudio Reig S.A. in Spain. The rolls are interchangeable, and instructions on changing them were provided on the back of the instrument. The instrument itself resembled a small piano, and was just 39 cm high. The barrel was 28 cm wide and offered four different tunes, selected by turning a cam that shifted the position of the barrel.

Despite being called an organ it was a barrel piano. This is different to a barrel organ, which is a form of pipe organ and this barrel piano by contrast used tuned steel rods. Turning the barrel caused the pins to move hammers to strike the rods, and in this case also percussion including cymbals and bells.

It’s not clear when this model of barrel piano was produced by Reig, but it appears to be the 1950s or 1960s.

Sources / Resources

Federal Perma Disk (1940s)

Federal Perma Disk (note the strange spelling of ‘disk’) was a brand of lacquer disc (sometimes known as an acetate or instantaneous disc) that was produced in the US by the Federal Recorder Co. Inc. They seem to date from around 1940 onwards.

Like many other lacquer discs, the core of most Federal Perma Disks is made of aluminium, making the disc much heavier than a standard shellac or vinyl record. Some Federal Perma Disks had a glass core. Later discs seem to have dropped the word ‘Federal’ from the name. They seem to have come in a range of sizes, with perhaps 6½-inches being the most popular.

The extra holes on near the centre of the disc were to prevent slippage on simpler cutting machines that lacked a vacuum to hold the disc in place, and are typical of discs designed for home recording.

Federal Perma Disks may have typed or handwritten information on the label, and can be difficult to date. The lacquer coating wears much quicker than standard shellac or vinyl records, and a chipped stylus can damage the disc in one play.

Sources / Resources

Organette cardboard disc (late 1870s – 1920s)

The organette was a family of mechanical reed instruments, first introduced in the late 1870s. They were hand-cranked, and designed for tabletop use in the home.

There were a variety of manufacturers, and the instruments used a variety of means of storing the musical sequences, including perforated paper rolls, cardboard sheets or discs, or perforated metal discs. Roller organs using organ cobs were another form of organette.

Organettes using cardboard discs were produced under names such as Helikon, Ariston and Reform-Orgel. Ariston machines came in three different sizes, offering 16, 24 or 36 notes. Cardboard discs came in a variety of diameters, from 17 cm up to 42.5 cm and were centre driven, with the larger discs offering more notes.

The perforations allowed a lever to lift off the relevant valve and the length of the perforation dictated how long a note sounded for.

The Herophon was a form of Organette that use a cardboard square, albeit with a circular pattern, and the card remained stationery while the mechanism moved around underneath. The Herophon, despite its unusual operation, was felt to be too similar in some respects to the Ariston organette produced by Paul Ehrlich & Co. and there was a patent infringement case lasting from 1885 to 1888. Ehrlich won the case, and the Herophon went on to be produced by Ehrlich into the 1890s.

Organettes were popular and had a large selection of music produced for them, but as the phonograph became more affordable they were replaced.

Sources / Resources