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Topic: Cleaning up 78 transfers (Read 55586 times) previous topic - next topic
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Cleaning up 78 transfers

Reply #100
It's for when you have already changed the speed.

Cheers,
David.

Cleaning up 78 transfers

Reply #101
So under the original file drop-down, I should have been using RIAA 45-78 not flat. Great. Gotta start again.

Cleaning up 78 transfers

Reply #102
I'm confused - you said removing the RIAA curve didn't sound good to you - but if you had the original set to "flat", you weren't removing the RIAA curve.

Cheers,
David.

Cleaning up 78 transfers

Reply #103
I was doing the RIAA inverting and speed adjustment in Audacity. I like the more direct interface there.
Then I was bringing the inverted and speed corrected file to Equalizer to apply the curves.
But I wasn't paying any attention to what setting the "Original Equalizer" was set to. I assume, since I didn't touch it, that it was on flat.

What I don't get is how it could make a difference anyway what speed the original file is at to apply a curve? Or for that matter whether the RIAA is applied.

Cleaning up 78 transfers

Reply #104
Each curve has a specific shape as a function of frequency. If you are at a different speed then the frequencies are all shifted, and each frequency is getting the wrong correction.

RIAA correction makes a huge difference to how it sounds. Failure to apply it or some other correction will leave you with practically no bass response.

Since you are still struggling with even the most basic concepts, I recommend that you just play with the equalization until it sounds the way you like and leave it at that.

Cleaning up 78 transfers

Reply #105
Well, I think I finally figured out what the problem was. I had inverted the RIAA curve and changed the speed. Then I was taking it into Equalizer and choosing RIAA + 45-78 because I was misreading the option as "what you've already done to it" and not "what you'd like to NOW do to it". Watching the curves move as I applied different options and rereading the manual clearly demonstrated to me that I was essentially applying even further RIAA inversion numbers and also treating the recording as though it was a 45 though it had already been changed to a 78.
I think this entirely accounts for the ear-piercingly high pitch of the hiss and high end of the recording and why it wasn't working for me.

I also think it's better to not have the gain at the default of -12dB. Not sure why -12 is the default.

Consequently, I was looking at the instructions for ClickRepair and Brian Davies suggests running the recording with RIAA equalization and at 45rpm through ClickRepair first, THEN resampling and equalizing, and THEN running through ClickRepair again particularly focusing on de-crackling. Ultimately, regardless of the 'recipe' as he refers to it for cleaning up the recording, he arrives at the same conclusion we all have which is that "restoration of old recordings is as much an art as a science".

Cleaning up 78 transfers

Reply #106
There were some 78s recorded electronically and intended for electric record players that could play 78s. I assume they appeared commercially in the late 40s? Were any of those created with the RIAA EQ in mind? Or do no 78rpm records exist that were mastered with that in mind?

Cleaning up 78 transfers

Reply #107
78s were recorded electrically from about 1925 and at least partly intended for electronic reproduction from about 1930.

I don't think any 78s (other than those released as specials after the 78 era was long gone) use the RIAA curve, but as you can see from the numbers on the various web pages linked in this thread, and the graphs that Equalizer will plot, some 78 curves are at least close, while others are miles out.

Cheers,
David.

Cleaning up 78 transfers

Reply #108
Thanks. I've been having a great time capturing and cleaning up these 78s now that I know how to decide on an EQ for all the labels. With one tiny exception which was for a Commodore record I have. Commodore doesn't appear anywhere on that list, they weren't around for very long though they recorded some really important sides. I'm just going to play that one by ear and adjust on my own.