3 ms·
I recall reading many years ago (20?) about a classical music afficianado with a unique ability that was really only useful at impressing other people at partie
by tasty_freeze 6y ago
I recall reading many years ago (20?) about a classical music afficianado with a unique ability that was really only useful at impressing other people at parties.
He could tell what record he was looking at by sight by inspecting the groove patterns: number of tracks, track length, and even the patterns of the active part of the song itself. As I recall, he was proud that he once identified the 1812 overture from more than 10 feet away because of the placement of the grooves at the loud parts.
BTW, records didn't necessarily have constant spacing -- the cutter knew the amplitude of the part of the spiral plus/minus one rotation away so it could place the track close as possible without causing collisions. I believe that made it easier to identify songs.
- noyesno 6y agoMaybe you are remembering Dr. Lintgen? https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-record-reader/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-record-reader/ "Dr. Arthur Lintgen, a Philadelphia physician, can — within prescribed limits — determine which works of classical music are present on a phonograph record by “reading” the record’s grooves. His ability is not the result of any trickery — he performs the feat by combining a thorough knowledge of classical music with the technique of determining the structure and dynamics of a piece of music by examining the spacing and pattern of the grooves."
- Vivtek 6y agoDoug Hofstadter has written about that, I believe. It definitely sounds Hofstadterian, anyway.