Percy Grainger recorded on cylinder and transcribed for the early journals - particularly 1908. He was roundly criticised for using the instrument over manual transcription because of its limitations of quality (particularly dynamic range) and the fact that using it might need/cause the performance to vary in order to effect the recording at all. Anne Gilchrist wrote to Lucy Broadwood: "From a consideration of the present limitations of the phonograph, it seems to me wisest to regard it meanwhile as the best substitute (available) - where a substitute has to be found - for the trained ear of the musician - or as its corroborator - but not as its supplanter. Its limitations are somewhat like those of photography - cinematographic if you like. (See: Percy Grainger and the Impact of the Phonograph by Mike Yates FMJ V4 No.3 1982)
A few weeks ago, Chis Coe ran a singing workshop in the SW of England using some of Grainger's Joseph Taylor recordings as a basis for study. I'm sure that what resulted was not a room full of Joseph Taylor clones, but a set of people with some new ideas, tools and approaches to making their singing distinctive in their own way.
I'm not entirely sure what my point is but it's a long standing issue.