Rebetika Google Group

Re: Greetings! Need Help With Translations

nika...@otenet.gr (Nikos A. Politis) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:46:42 UT

Even translated, the titles do not always reflect exactly the original
meaning, for someone not familiar with the greek language. Anyway, a
small try follows. Starting from the first label, I translate only
what is not already translated on the label.

ATT416B: Mad party.
Mia melaxrini: A brunette girl

Re: Greetings! Need Help With Translations

leva...@onlinehome.de (levantis) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:13:35 UT

thanks a lot for giving that stuff to this group here. very
interesting for collectors, will take some time to hear it all.

Greetings! Need Help With Translations

goo...@cdbpdx.com (CDBPDX) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:58:12 UT

Hi. I recently acquired a collection of old 78 rpm Greek records.
Fascinating music but I do not read Greek and cannot identify any of
the songs. I loaded them online and the labels and music can be
downloaded here: [link]

The music is 128kps mp3 format.

If anyone can help me with translating, I would appreciate it very

Re: Where is "A"?

nika...@otenet.gr (Nikos A. Politis) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:42:21 UT

Ok Mike, in other words it is not practical to get into suspicion by
the duration of the song. Only in cases where the same original
recording appears in one digital transcription say ten seconds faster
or slower than in the other, one should start making thoughts about
which one could be nearer to the original.

RE: Where is "A"?

m...@angloinfo.com (Mike Hardaker) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:25:16 UT

Sorry - that wasn't very accurate. I should have used mathematicss rather
than guesswork.

A three minute song dropped a semitone lower would run almost EXACTLY 3:11.7

A three minute song raised a semitone higher would run almost EXACTLY 2:50.9

Make it two semitones and you get 3:22.4 and 2:40.36

RE: Where is "A"?

m...@angloinfo.com (Mike Hardaker) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:36:17 UT

A three minute song dropped a semitone lower would run roughly 3:13...

-----Original Message-----
Behalf Of Nikos A. Politis
Sent: 16 July 2008 20:19
To: Rebetika

Wow! two semitones of difference is huge, three is of course even
more! If we transform these differences into timing terms, what sort

Re: Where is "A"?

nika...@otenet.gr (Nikos A. Politis) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:18:54 UT

Wow! two semitones of difference is huge, three is of course even
more! If we transform these differences into timing terms, what sort
of difference would a change of say one semitone make to the duration
of a three minute piece?

Re: Where is "A"?

klein.t...@gmail.com (tambouras) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:23:31 UT

Mike I quite agree with all your points. I wish I could get hold of a
piano tuner who was active in the 30s in Athens!

In practice I don't think I've run into inaccuracies of more than a
whole tone when it comes to rebetika....yet; but a whole tone can
really be life and death to a recording, and, for example, give the

RE: Where is "A"?

m...@angloinfo.com (Mike Hardaker) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:10:31 UT

Amazingly enough, we could be talking about two or three semitones either
way.
Now, extrapolate that into the tempo...
For example: if the recording we have sounds like A440 and should really be
at A450 (not at all impossible) then it should be sharper and faster than it
now is. If it sound like it's at A330 but should have been at A450 (also not

Re: Where is "A"?

nika...@otenet.gr (Nikos A. Politis) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:50:43 UT

Which sort of percentage of differences are we talking about?

RE: Where is "A"?

m...@angloinfo.com (Mike Hardaker) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:08:06 UT

Tambouras: yes, I mean that the recording turntable did not run at/maintain
78.26 rpm and/or that the playback turntable for the digital mastering
process did not run at maintain 78.26 rpm. And, yes, this remained an
uncertainty.
And yes, I'm asking what Greek professional recording/orchestral standards

Re: Where is "A"?

klein.t...@gmail.com (tambouras) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:44:32 UT

I don't have a direct answer to this question Mike but I don't think
there is one. I presume when you say 'recorded at the wrong speed'
that you mean that the recording turntable did not maintain 78,26 rpm.
As far as I understand this actually remained an uncertainty during
the whole 78 rpm era even if variations in speed were more drastic in

Where is "A"?

m...@angloinfo.com (wildaker) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:22:47 UT

I'm trying to get my collection of rebetika tracks to be as "clean" as
possible, and one thing I thought of doing was pitch-correcting them
(since many have clearly been recorded or remastered at the wrong
speed).

But then I realised that I've no idea how to identify the right pitch.
While A has been 440 Hz for most people in Western music for the last

Re: all you need is here

mconida...@bigpond.com (oberonsghost) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:09:56 UT

Hi Tiffany

.xls files are MS Excel spreadsheets. This spreadsheet is HUGE. While
iWork's Numbers package can read MS Excel files, this one is too big
for it.

Hope this helps...

Re: all you need is here

tiffani...@gmail.com (Tiffany D) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:57:49 UT

I find that when I download it, it just unzips with the regular
program that handles zip files. Then, I get that xls file. What
program did you use to open that one?