Editing Phonograph record (section)

===Electrical recording===
[[File:Gloria G.O. 13078b.jpg|thumb|left|upright|An electronically recorded disc from [[Carl Lindström Company|Carl Lindström]] AG, Germany, {{circa|1930}}]]

During the first half of the 1920s, engineers at [[Western Electric]], as well as independent inventors such as [[Orlando Marsh]], developed technology for capturing sound with a [[microphone]], amplifying it with [[vacuum tube]]s<ref name=40KYearsMusic>[[Jacques Chailley]] – ''40,000 Years of Music: Man in Search of Music – 1964 p. 144'', "On March 21st, 1925, Alfred Cortot made for the Victor Talking Machine Co., in Camden, New Jersey, the first classical recording to employ a new technique, thanks to which the gramophone was to play an important part in musical life: electric ..."</ref> (known as ''valves'' in the UK<ref>{{cite web|url=https://edisontechcenter.org/VacuumTubes.html|last1=Whelan|first1=M.|last2=Kornrumpf|first2=W.|title=Vacuum Tubes (Valves)|publisher=[[Edison Tech Center]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=2014|access-date=23 March 2023|archive-date=2 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202005355/https://edisontechcenter.org/VacuumTubes.html}}</ref>), and then using the amplified signal to drive an electromechanical recording head. Western Electric's innovations resulted in a broader and smoother frequency response, which produced a dramatically fuller, clearer and more natural-sounding recording. Soft or distant sounds that were previously impossible to record could now be captured. Volume was now limited only by the groove spacing on the record and the amplification of the playback device. Victor and Columbia licensed the new [[electrical]] system from Western Electric and recorded the first electrical discs during the spring of 1925. The first electrically recorded Victor [[RCA Red Seal|Red Seal]] record was [[Chopin]]'s "Impromptus" and [[Schubert]]'s "Litanei" performed by pianist [[Alfred Cortot]] at Victor's studios in [[Camden, New Jersey]].<ref name=40KYearsMusic/>

A 1926 [[Wanamaker's]] ad in ''[[The New York Times]]'' offers records "by the latest Victor process of electrical recording".<ref>Wanamaker (16 January 1926). Wanamaker's ad in ''The New York Times'', 16 January 1926, p. 16.</ref> It was recognized as a breakthrough; in 1930, a ''Times'' music critic stated:
<blockquote>...&nbsp;the time has come for serious musical criticism to take account of performances of great music reproduced by means of the records. To claim that the records have succeeded in exact and complete reproduction of all details of symphonic or operatic performances&nbsp;... would be extravagant&nbsp;... [but] the article of today is so far in advance of the old machines as hardly to admit classification under the same name. Electrical recording and reproduction have combined to retain vitality and color in recitals by proxy.<ref>Pakenham, Compton (1930), "Recorded Music: A Wide Range". ''The New York Times'', February 23, 1930, p. 118</ref></blockquote>

[[File:78 rpm.jpg|thumb|Examples of Congolese 78&nbsp;rpm records]]
[[File:Gramophone Record Decelith II.jpg|thumb|right|A 10-inch blank for making an individually cut one-off recording made from Decelith, a proprietary PVC-based material produced by a German Company ECW that was used to make commercial flexible blanks prior to World War II<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.x-rayaudio.com/x-rayaudioblog/2020/7/19/nazi-lathe-cut-discs|publisher=Bone Music|title=Nazi Era Flexi Discs|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=19 July 2020|access-date=6 February 2023|archive-date=6 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206171259/https://www.x-rayaudio.com/x-rayaudioblog/2020/7/19/nazi-lathe-cut-discs}}</ref>]]
The [[Orthophonic Victrola]] had an interior folded exponential horn, a sophisticated design informed by impedance-matching and [[Loudspeaker enclosure#Transmission line|transmission-line]] theory, and designed to provide a relatively flat frequency response. Victor's first public demonstration of the Orthophonic Victrola on 6 October 1925, at the [[Waldorf-Astoria (1893–1929)|Waldorf-Astoria Hotel]] was front-page news in ''The New York Times'', which reported:
<blockquote>The audience broke into applause&nbsp;... [[John Philip Sousa]] [said]: '[Gentlemen], that is a band. This is the first time I have ever heard music with any soul to it produced by a mechanical talking machine'&nbsp;... The new instrument is a feat of mathematics and physics. It is not the result of innumerable experiments, but was worked out on paper in advance of being built in the laboratory&nbsp;... The new machine has a range of from 100 to 5,000 [cycles per second], or five and a half octaves&nbsp;... The 'phonograph tone' is eliminated by the new recording and reproducing process.<ref>''The New York Times'' (1925-10-07). [https://www.nytimes.com/1925/10/07/archives/new-music-machine-thrills-all-hearers-at-first-test-here-researches.html "New Music Machine Thrills All Hearers At First Test Here".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510154138/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00D17FA3F5D13738DDDAE0894D8415B858EF1D3 |date=2013-05-10 }} Front page.</ref></blockquote>

Sales of records plummeted precipitously during the early years of the [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s, and the entire record industry in America nearly foundered. In 1932, RCA Victor  introduced a basic, inexpensive turntable called the Duo Jr., which was designed to be connected to their radio receivers.  According to Edward Wallerstein (the general manager of the RCA Victor Division), this device was "instrumental in revitalizing the industry".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.musicinthemail.com/audiohistoryLP.html |title=LPs historic |website=Musicinthemail.com |access-date=10 April 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426151404/http://www.musicinthemail.com/audiohistoryLP.html |archive-date=26 April 2016 }}</ref>