Beatrice Robertson wrote:

> One of the things I found to be the most difficult was finding the
> distance away from the large disc boxes to avoid objectionable noise
> recorded from the clatter and clunks inherent in the large discs
> while they flex.  And to find a suitable surface to place the
> miniature music boxes on to get the clearest sound (I ended up using
> a large mahogany disc box for a sound base.)

If you place the box on something made of rubber it should damp out a
lot of the mechanical noise.  For instance, a foam-type mouse mat might
do for experiments.

This is the same as placing a hi-fi turntable on a softly inflated
inner tube -- it cleans up motor rumble and stuff, especially when
playing 78 rpm disks.  Rubber is magic for cleaning up sound.  Applying
some of the rubber sealant which comes in tubes for use around the
edges of baths etc. to a pickup arm cleans up vibrations and resonances
in the tube.

Don Cox