This might be the cleanest-sounding 1928 record you've ever heard.
One quick takeaway from that happy accident -- 1928 recording technology was a lot better than you'd think it was, particularly the quality of the microphones.
It's a strange experience to come across a batch of 80- and 90-something-year-old 78s, as I did last Friday at an estate sale, and have them play almost as they did in the 1920s and early 1930s -- only on modern equipment and not wind-up acoustic gramophones.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqGkDZVE0QlkKFCjG0qz0QMI-wjZ-_m47abZ0gZkaFudXBdjy6pHQNzYo7m1vD3wC1-Pf6gqBAG8WF3f6uIY7qvHN0jUbv_wA2dRiLycTOCIyt9m2Hj2FFzYD1TXH4LXtuFsM80w/s400/7yh304d9FahuQW22dVOzARq1ME9FGHkZ3mZJfX55W6ddB2Vs5HAduoXYOIghm_2IYi96pZ_4UmHqeC9-aKTTen5fBC03FDO7yToZJ3JqvtJK_FeqWPRrMi1iQhb43ZmVdKoiXUv3ZXGKwiYGSA7h2x0W55w4LxjEajPetFFp078LFmP7MhEMqkR-b70BirKjoYYDuqFLl6_K2m09WcBlWq_Zv.jpeg)
Simply put, an electrical recording is just that: It is recorded using microphones and amplifiers feeding an electrical signal to a cutting head. Earlier "acoustical" recordings were all-mechanical -- performers played into a large horn, which moved a cutting stylus with sheer air pressure from the sound waves.
That was the reverse of the playback on an old phonograph with a large horn that amplified the vibrations from the needle moving through the record grooves.
In other words, it was . . . Viva-tonal. Indeed.