Fran's Public Domain: The Flexi Disc
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- Опубліковано 22 вер 2017
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One issue of National Geographic came with whales sounds......it was really hard to dance to.
I have that one!
hahahaha now thats funny lol !!!!
Jonathan Kent me too !
That's the one that I remember!
ua-cam.com/video/0WOjJIynHgM/v-deo.html
That, I'm a boinger flexi disc you put on, brought back a long lost memory of my young childhood. I was born in Philadelphia in 66 and was an absolute nerd to the space program. Right after Armstrong took his small step, and only about 5 years before I went to Neil A. Armstrong middle school, I had a flexi disc of the entire first man on the moon communication between mission control and Neil and I'd listen to it over and over and over. It looked exactly like the one you're holding. That was a great memory.
I have a vintage flexi-disc that came inside an issue of Audio magazine. It was 1982 and the flexi-disc was a promo of the then new Carver sonic hologram process. It was a demonstration disc and if your speakers were set up according to the article in the magazine, you would achieve the effect of the sonic hologram. It worked on me. I ordered a Carver C-9 Sonic Hologram Generator and I still own that same unit. I've since also acquired 2 Carver C-1s and a Carver C-4000, all having the sonic hologram built into them. Ahhhh flexi-disc.
I had a free flexi disc with a UK computer magazine in 1982/83 containing a few short computer programs. As a kid I was pretty excited about this!
Computer programs on Vinyl, now that's cool :D
Fran, speaking of cereal boxes, I remember seeing cereal boxes with the record being printed on the actual box itself, and the idea was you cut the box apart and punched the hole in the middle and played the record. I recall the disk was a thin layer of clear plastic fused over the cardboard box and the printing on the box would be visible through the disk itself.
USWaterRockets
I remember those cereal box records.
Wow I remember that to thanks for that. We are old.
I do believe Sugar Sugar by the Archies was released as one of those cereal box records.
How appropriate!
Sugar Sugar, I had that one! IIRC it came on a box of Honey Comb cereal (Honey, Honey).
I remember once as a kid in the mid 80's, my Step-Dad buying a ceiling fan (Hunter brand, I think) and the instructions on installing it came on one of those flexi discs. At the time, that was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
That was a better idea than mailing CDs. Thanks for sharing the tech with some of us that would never have known.
Is that actually a double-sided flexidisc? All the ones I've ever seen have been single-sided. I didn't think the material was even thick enough to cut grooves on both sides without them running into each other.
All of the flexis I own are. Single sided. Like you, I've never seen a 2 sided one.
I was womdering that too, pretty impressive
I actually own a double-sided flexi from a guitar magazine with Steve Vai on one side and Michael Hedges on the other. All my other flexis (recent pressings from Decibel magazine) are single sided, and ironically enough, on thicker material than the double-sided one.
yeh all the flexi discs I have are double-sided. I still have a copy of this one for example and it's double-sided ua-cam.com/video/NNUnYIbteO4/v-deo.html
This disc is double-sided, the B-side was "U Stink But I ♥ U" by Mucky Pup
I still own several mini flexi singles from the late 60's called "Hip Pocket Records" made by Philco. They were the normal hits of the time (Tommy James and the Shondells, Young Rascals etc.) that came in small cardboard picture sleeves. They had a major problem because on some turntables the disc was so small you couldn't get them to play because the auto eject feature of turntable would activate too soon with the stylus arm being so close to the center. They actually made special mini players for them as I remember. These were small battery portable operated turntables.
No need to worry about copyright issues here. Good god, we should make an issue for it not to be played.
Love your channel.
Pretty sure I still have that Billy & the Boingers disc. I know for sure I have the book it was in. Was a huge Bloom County fan, thanks for breaking that one out again.
The sound quality of this disc really is surprisingly good - I remember flexi-discs having *horrible* sound-quality back in the day. Not that this disc has *great* sound-quality, mind you - but far better than I was expecting.
I remember in the early 90s in the UK they stuck them to the "outside" of Frostie boxes, that was fun for mothers!
In 80's USSR produced lot's of light blue flexi disks. These were single-sided and round shape as far i remember.
McDonald's had a contest they did back in the 80's where they gave out records similar to the one played here. The choir on the record attempted to sing the McDonald's menu song. If the choir was able to sing the song all the way through without making a mistake, the person who owned the winning record won $1,000,000. On my record, sadly, the choir could not complete the song. However, I've kept it all these years and still love it.
Got tons of these in cerial boxes. Now I just have to remember where I put them. Probaby worth something today
I worked for EVATONE, they were in Deerfield Illinois in the early 70s.
Thanks for turning me on to that song. I love the sound and it is soooo funny.
Many people may not be aware that the Library of Congress used flexi discs for their talking books for the blind for many years. The discs were about 10 inches and were played at the extremely slow speed of 8 RPM which allowed for long playing times. I have several flexi discs from that era that include articles from Good Housekeeping magazine and mysteries from the Ellery Quinn magazine. The 8 RPM discs of course needed to be played on the special Library of Congress record players for the blind and disabled. The discs were easily mailable and were meant to be sent back to be used again.
Whoa! Billy and the Boingers! Bloom County! Memories....
I had but two flexi-discs, Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover," and Steve Morse's "The Introduction," both through Guitar Player magazine. Man, I played them to death! Much mahalo s for the history of these really wonderful and cool items from the annals of analog. See ya!
Flexible discs were also used in monthly mixed media magazines in USSR: Krugozor and Kolobok. They had square format, included multiple discs bonded with paper pages and had a hole in the center so you can flip open the magazine to the side you're interested in and put the whole issue on a player platter. Little me in the 80s liked to cut the discs out of the magazines though for some reason. :)
You're what I hear called "An old soul". I don't think you're old, but you appreciate things that were "cool" back in the day. I think I had a cerial box record of Partridge Family back in the day.
I bought a book on how play harmonica back in 1982 and it came with a flexi..lost it long ago , but had a guy called Tony "harp dog" Glover narrating and playing and interspersed with Alan Lomax field recordings of old blues..one of the best things i ever heard, and scratchiness of the audio didn't matter a bit. Yep those flexi discs were cool.
I was lucky enough to find a soviet era flexi disc from The Rolling Stones - “Emotional Rescue” - with the grooves being placed over a postcard image of some Swans in a park!? This was done so that wayward western attitudes wouldn’t disturb soviet teens sensibilities. The card backside has a standard postcard style layout. Great little piece of 7” square history!
I just picked up a flexi-disc at a record shop. It was Territories - "The Lockdown" and it was available in a large stack (one per customer). Kind of a neat idea to get the music out cheaply to folks in a non-conventional manner.
WOW I forgot about those flexes'. Thanks for the trip down memory lane again, Fran again !!.
I certainly remember flexi-discs fondly. As a child I used to get them in books so you could read them and listen along as well. Great Video!
This song FUCKING JAMS!!!!
"Was Bowie ever a fairy?
Was Debra ever Harry?"
Oh, Fran, this is brilliant -- I haven't heard this since 1987! YOU ROCK
I remember getting these discs once a year inside one of the audio magazines I subscribed to (stereo review, audio, high fidelity) in the 1980's.
You are supposed use those flexi-discs on top of another LP record. Mad Magazine put Flexi-discs in about 4x a year, but in the 1950s you just got sheet music, and lyrics, so you had better know how to play piano. The best stuff from Mad was usually by Tom Lehrer. I have lots of very obscure Tom Lehrer songs in old 1950s Mad magazines. Guitar, piano, synth, drum, bass guitar magazines sent these out 2x a year or so. I think these were stamped off aluminum masters. Someday I should probably arrange some of the Lehrer songs, and record them.
I have around ten flexi discs, some came from the Soft Cell/Marc Almond fan club and some from an early 80s magazine called Flexipop, which was published in the UK.
A free flexi disc came with each copy of the magazine which included groups such as Blonde, B Movie and many more. If you recorded them on to tape during the first play, then you would have a reasonably good quality record of your favourite band, and the store the flexi disk away in your collection. That's how I still have my flexi disks in near perfect condition.
Most of the time Flexidiscs were an bonus freebie in magazines like Mad Magazine or Guitar Player. They always had a lot of surface noise. BTW I bought that Bloom County book in 1987, thats Berkley Breathed on vocals. And I remember the radio station at Wichita State playing both sides.
3:37 That's the kind of thing your viewers might be interested in. Worth watching anyway. Love this stuff! I found a flexi at the thrift store just a few weeks ago.
This is the first time that I hear a flexidisk recording. The sound quality is no so bad. It sounds a little bit like an AM radio but in stereo and (at least in this case) without the standard disk scratches. Thanks for the video y saludos desde Argentina!
AM Stereo does exist, and on a good receiver it can sound a lot better than a flexidisc: ua-cam.com/video/YMAPKTnJtnA/v-deo.html
its called advertising ...wait it will come !again
I remember flexi disc used to come with Music magazines back in the 80's as a samples of a new bands or with a interview with a artist
How I miss Bill the Cat. Thank you. Written by Steve Dallas...hee, hee...
First recording I ever owned was Sugar, Sugar by the Archie’s. Cut off the back of a Sugar Crisps box. It played! Circa 1969 or 1970. I can’t remember if I was 4 or 5, but I remember asking my Sister to help me get it off the box and help me play it.
That overcompressed sound really kills it for me
I remember McDonald's doing a flexi disc record with the Big Mac song on it, and some contest with it. That was my first experience with them. I think my slightly older siblings had some from magazines and stuff.
My dad owned a wholesale newspaper company -- we got tens of thousands of those. I remember taking about 200 one Saturday and playing them. After a while, you knew exactly where to drop the stylus. Never won, and later found out I couldn't because we, as distributors, were disqualified since we had access to large volumes of them. Was still fun though.
I have Flexi-discs from Mad Mag. Also have computer discs - small and large.
The only flexi-discs I remember from the UK were single-sided and round. They were usually given away in pop magazines such as "Smash Hits". But I remember The Human League's "The Dignity Of Labour, Pts 1-4" EP came with a flexi-disc insert that discussed the pros and cons of releasing a flexi-disc with the EP. Very meta!
The good old flexi disk, remember them well :-)
loving the recent vinyl and various pressed recording reviews!!!
I have BIlly and the Boingers Bootleg. But never was able to listen to
the Flexi Disc. since I do not own a record player of any kind.
This video is the first time I've ever heard it. Thank you! =D
Both of the songs are on UA-cam if you search.
I use to get them occasionally with guitar/bass instructional magazines and books. It was nearly impossible to start and stop them on any particular riff or lick, but it was cheaper than paying for music lessons.
Somewhere in the house is my collection of the Flexis that would regularly show up in issues of Keyboard magazine. I remember many being sound commercials for Arp synthesizers or Apex aural exciters or effects pedal like the Bad Stone phase shifter (where was Frantone?). I also remember one of Wendy Carlos when she was interviewed in an issue.
Hi Fran, I remember here in the UK in the seventies receiving a one sided flexi-disc from Readers Digest selling some boxed sets of records & they always used a great DJ by the name of Brian Matthews (who died only recently) to preview the tracks.
That song is some real 80's Americana.
Pirates Press still makes flexidiscs, I think they hired retired Evatone engineers as consultants to recreate their process .
I have some 1986 Bud Light commercials on a flexi disc, they came off of the promo calendar for that year.
This was excellent. And man oh man! One day I hope to have some nice studio monitors like those in the video.
Woah. I used to own this flexi. Haven't heard it in years. Thanks!
I have a collection of flexi disc salesman samples and brochures from different manufacturers.
Thrifting in Burbank in the early 90’s
WOW! "Billy and the Boingers"! My disc is still attached to the book and never really heard the recording until now. Thanks, Fran! I also have some discs which was to paired with and played with reeled film clips, which usually starts with, Start projector at tone...BEEP!" (This was before home VCRs and sound projectors). I also remember records on cereal box backs which you had to cut out. Songs from "The Archies" and Bobby Sherman are some of the few I remember.
Bhutan issued playable record postage stamps in the early 70's - I had one once. Difficult to play as the small diameter is within the normal lead-out groove position so you need a deck with arm auto-return disabled.
There was a plastic tab that these records got stapled to in a book with. The stub was much shorter than the record but just as long. This plastic was very dark. When i was young I figured out that i can see through this plastic. I would cut a notch out for my nose and staple a rubber band to each side and fit this to my face. This created by far the darkest sunglasses ever at least for me. It was great for warren dunes state park. I could look at the sun it was so dark. I was a little Kid when I did this. Thanks,
Used to drive by their offices in Clearwater on a daily basis. I remember the Flexi disks, had no idea that was them that made 'em.
Congratulations! You may have found a medium the YT infringement-bot won't auto-flag! I remember Archies and Josie & The Pussycats discs on the backs of cereal boxes. I also have a bunch of old sound-sheets like that Nat Geo Apollo-11 "collectors" disc and a hilarious Reagan 1980 campaign song.
Wasn't this similar tech to the Teledisc videodisc technology in the late 1970s early 80s? (about as similar as RCA CED discs were to vinyl LPs).
Our tech past is filled with marvelous forgotten oddities. Thanks for gleaning!
Mac Sabbath recently released a single sided flexi of their song "Pair -a -buns". It is ketchup red and plays a 33 rpm.
I remeber these discs being in rock magazines for promotional stuff in the ninties, used to get short promo tapes as well.
I used to have lots of Flexidisks. They came with Computer Magazines in the UK with programmes on them. Usually demos. You had to hook up your stereo to the computer (the zx spectrum in my case,) and load the game from the record. I never got them to work though. Also we had (have?) a magazine over here called Readers Digest which used to make albums and use a flexidisk as part of the marketing for them with demos of the songs on their full albums hosted by a fantastic (sadly no longer with us,) DJ called Brain Matthew.
Wonderful! I have a collection of flexi-discs which were included with Keyboard magazine, from when I was a subscriber back in the 1980s. They featured some amazing artists and recordings; Frank Zappa's The Black Page No. 1 (Synclavier version) and Alain Thibaud's Fairlight II composition, God's Greatest Gift particularly stuck in my mind.
I remember that disc :-) Had the book too. Bill The Cat was one of my all-time favorite Sunday comic characters.
My band put out a Flexidisc compilation in 1988. Two sides, four songs.
I remember the Time-Life ones of the reissued big-band era recordings, and how they would demonstrate the typical "78" sound vs. the remastered version.
If I remember correctly there was a time McDonalds handed these out, and it had the menu song on it, and if you got the record got all the way through the song, you won a chunk of money.
I also had one with Phillies legend Tug McGraw's story about a lumpy baseball when I was a kid
I have one from Alternative Tentacles. Got it with there catalog in the late 80s.
Ha ha ha! I'm sure I have that same flex-disc in my archives,(Deathtongue, featuring: Steve Dallas-vocals, Bill the Cat-tongue, and Opus-tuba. The flip side was my favourite, with the tuba solo! I have one from National Geographic, and one that came with a Canadian history book, called 'Oh! Canada!' Mail-able LP records, another thing the smart-phoners totally missed! A book that could include not only pictures, but audio as well. Thanks so much for sharing!
Yes, I remember that disc as well. I'm sure I still have it somewhere.
There are companies making them, but usually lathe cut these days. Pirate Press and Funky Frankenstein are two I can think of.
I recall seeing some flex plastic discs inserted in magazines maybe late sixties.
Great video Fran. I remember when these Flexi discs were in cereal boxes! Lol. I like old school tech. And I still have an 80s Pioneer SL-D205 turntable I use. (Although it's not as nice as the Pioneer turntable you have!)
Love that record, and love your videos (the one on 45s brought me here). I also have the flexi for The Mr. Bill Show (it's red!), and one or two from R.E.M. (and now I want to spend the evening sifting through my records!).
Tim Kelly
Oh noooooooooooo!
Damn, that's what I call good music!
Thank you Fran
I actually like this song. It's a fun song and was mixed and recorded well. Good stuff.
I remember McDonald's had a promotion with flexi discs. Back when they had the marketing campaign with the menu song.
I got a flexi disc in a Mad Magazine. The music was called NOSE JOB.
There was a flexidisc released by the Velvet Underground back in the 60's in some magazine to promote them... plus I may add this song is very educational in the same lines of WALK HARD... thanks for sharing plus you are cute I am subscribing to your channel because you are smart creative and I THINK I LOVE YOU.... well do not be afraid... I will not stalk you that is not my thing... I just wish you well and hope you continue educating people with what our culture has came up with and while I am at it I remember when the Archies had Sugar Sugar on the BOX! you just cut it out and played it on the turn table...
You can find some videos of people who collect them specifically and i believe that there are a couple companies that are still making them today. I have a couple including REM doing a Syd Barret song from some teen magazine in the 80s
I may still have a flexi disk if that old music book I bought is still around. What I wish I still had was the cereal box records that I had at one time.
For the longest time, Robert Fripp's 'Easter Sunday' was only available as a flexidisk from Guitar Magazine. Very frustrating at the time. Finally was released on a CD. (Find it on YT.)
You'd think instead of using standard medium attack and decay on what seems to be compression on all of the frequency range, they could have used variable attack and decay, with multiband compression. That way it's way less noticeable, but still does the intended job.
OMG I remember we had one from a Mad Magazine late 70's Star Wars issue. The song on flexi disc had multiple endings!! Each time would randomly go into one of several grooves with a different ending to the song. Pretty cool. (apparently 8 endings- wow!)
ua-cam.com/video/6mkHdnyr2RU/v-deo.html
I use to do a lot of graphic work through EVATONE in Clearwater, Fl. They were a large company for the area.
Wow, I haven’t seen those since the early 80s - got one of those birthday greetings/songs that you could buy with your name on it (if it was a common name, anyway)
I had one of those from a National Geographic issue with whale songs on it. Wow, blast from the past! Thanks Fran Again. ;)
My first of that type was a 1966 campaign speech by Ronald Reagan running for governor the first time.
man, this song is a banger!
boinger
I remember them, but I don't remember the quality! I was so young in the seventies!
The compression might be to make the music more "compatible" with the more shallow grooves of these discs. Thanks for the video Fran!
I remember when the backside of a Cereal box could be cut out and spun. Also, armed forces would send these to families regarding those severing. I had many. They must be collectable these days.
Thanks.. You rock.
Fran I just found this video on flexi disk ,So look them up on eBay the seem to have a nice selection of them .Last one I saw was on the back of a cereal box.
Wow, I remember these disk
those are similar to dictaphone dictation discs. those discs were a red very flexible plastic type material. my father had one of those portable dictaphone machines he would bring home at night to dictate correspondence to be processed the next day. i still have that unit. last time i looked, it seemed to need some restoration as i would expect from a machine that was built in the mid-60's.
I have this disk. Listened to it once.
While not made by EvaTone, the metal magazine Decibel actually presses flexi discs of exclusive tracks into each month's magazine. I think it's a subscriber only thing, so you can't get them on the newsstand.
Those have been around for years. they were the earliest form of talking books for the blind. the Mannheim that used them was called a sound scriber, the text books were usually out of date, and the audio left a lot to be desired.
Great vid
A Spanish band named Hidrogenesse released a flexidisk on 2013 (the song on that format was "Hidroboy"). Idk when did they stop producing them, but it's quite recent, considering.
Oh, and Death From Above had released a promo one too this year.
I remember getting these on the back of cereal boxes
i've got a couple somewhere, think a service station gave them away. saw the odd one on magazines