I’ve heard my share of recordings transcribed from the old cylinder recording process. They’re usually pretty scratchy sounding like distant voices from the past.
Yet some of this material is fascinating to me. I’m surre I’ll find time to check out some of the old sounds ready to hear at various websites, especially the University of California, Santa Barbara stuff. It looks like they have quite a bit.
You have to be a real “music nut” to get into this I think. Sometimes I’ll hear a few things that sound just ok before I hear something funny, odd or surprising. Like much of exploring popular culture, it’s like panning for gold.
Sometimes the patina of time-passed produces it’s own charms.
I’ve heard of modern day performers recording stuff on cylinders, interesting.
http://www.tinfoil.com/cylinder.htm
a source for early recordings on CD:
http://www.archeophone.com/about/index.php
The history of cylinder recording on Wikopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder
wax cylinder recording fans:
http://members.tripod.com/edison_1/
Walt Whitman’s voice?
http://www.whitmanarchive.org/multimedia/index.html
from The Department of Special Collections of the library of the University of California, Santa Barbara:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/
I Hear Music 