The Victrola
Physical Description of the Victrola
The portable Victrola is designed as a container for the playback of sound. It is contained in a hard suitcase for the purpose of mobility and the protection from possible damages that would arise from being in transit. There is a handle which is semiotically associated with a brief case, and affords the ability to carry it in motion. The exterior of the portable Victrola cannot be differentiated from any other briefcase. The crank is located on the side of the machine that juts out when in use. The crank can be taken out, and stored in the case. On the corner of the case there is a container for storing needles. There is a place to store the records in order to carry around many at a time. The horn is not visible, and cannot be accesed.
Material Affordances of the Portable Victrola
The portable Victrola has a partially predetermined volume. There is no tool for the mechanical adjustment of volume within the device itself. However, if one were to close the container slightly, the sound would diminish. Although this is an inconvenience of the device, in other competing formats where the user is given control over the volume, the clarity o the recording is altered at the same time. The volume level of the portable Victrola suggests that it could be used outdoors. In the competing formats such as the gramophone, the adjusting spring could be tightened or loosened allowing variation in volume and clarity and the tone would be come less clear as the volume grew louder. (Sterne, 215)However, it is partially possible for the user to increase the volume by replacing a sharp needle with a dull one. What this did was to create a louder volume, however the volume accompanied by a less articulated tone. Thus it was up to the user to decide how s/he preferred to hear the recording. Although sound was pre-recorded, it could be expressed in a multiplicity of ways, and afforded consumer preference and active involvement in the perception of the recording. In a sense, there was a collaboration between the studio engineers, and the listeners. By eliminating certain aspects of the original recording event, and augmenting others, the user could partially manipulate the way in which the recording was heard. For example, Jonathan Sterne notes that if one were to point the machine towards the wall, the bass sound would increase. The portable model of the Victrola afforded it to be positioned according to the user’s preference, and placed in an infinite variety of acoustic situations. The user of the Victrola had to mechanically wind the machine in order for it to work. The more that the machine was wound, the longer it would play. However, the duration of the recording itself determined the length of the playback, and therefore the length of the sonic expression was mechanized.The portable Victrola allowed the user to hear the record being played back at different intervals of speed. Therefore it was up to the listener to determine how s/he wanted to hear the recording. However, the device symbolically suggests that the middle level would be the most accurate and truthful expression of the original sound recording event.
Material Substrate and Sonic Representation
If one were to listen to the early phonographic recordings, one would notice that they sound somewhat flat or “tinny” and contain “pops and hisses.” This is due to the process and materials used to record the sound. The early recordings on wax surface were unsuccessful in capturing the heavy bass notes, and notes from the top end of the spectrum. “Loud sounds would force the stylus to the edge of the groove and sometimes beyond it, ruining the record.” (Sterne, 200) In the earliest recordings, music was captured by the phonograph’s horn and then channeled to the recording stylus. Sometimes the elements captured the sound accurately, and other times the material used in the construction of the instrument, the room’s size and dimensions, noise from outside, would all get incorporated into the recording. The earliest phonographic recordings were impractical, in that they could only hold two minutes worth of sound. (Steffen, 27) Wax was used as the material substrate for recording, because it allowed for a more defined and sharper recording, because the grooving was closer together than that of tinfoil. However, recordings on wax were significantly softer then tin foil. (ibid, 28)
