Reprocessing 78 Audio - Less Is More
...But you can't have too many Records!
I used to be all about comparing myself to other people. How did I stack up? Am I better than him? Worse than her? I wanted to know. But then I came to understand that comparing myself to others was a fool's errand; there is really no way to make a meaningful comparison without considering all the factors in a person's life. And in the end, the whole exercise is merely an outgrowth of my ego wanting validation, wanting to look good.
Life is not a competition or some type of race. If it is, it's a pretty unfair race, with everyone running on a different course with wildly varying characteristics. Some are running downhill in the shade all the way. Some are running straight uphill against the wind in 110° heat. Some are wearing bathing suits. Some are wearing overcoats. Some are running hungry while others are overfed. Some have rocks in their pockets. Others have a rocket pack. And everyone has a different start and finish line. In short, life is not an even playing field. There are certain factors that can be managed, but others are out of anyone's control. Sometimes, failure is rewarded and success punished. The world is a random and chaotic place. And that is why I have tried very hard not to compare myself to other people.
Stay with me here...
And reprocessing 78s is very similar in many ways. How's that for a segue? Seriously, though, it makes no sense to compare your own audio restoration work to that of other people beyond the point that you learn how to get better results yourself. Every record is a little different. Some are pristine, while others show signs of abuse. Some are hardly played, and others are played hard. Some are off-center or warped. Still others never sounded good, even when brand-new. The task is really to make the most of what you've got to work with.
Just like life.
As collectors and archivists in the world of our own collections, we all share common goals: to preserve the music and the performances of the past, to celebrate the artistic achievements of the performers and the recording technicians, and to (hopefully) present the historic material as accurately and attractively as possible.
My specific goal with my collection is to digitize and sanitize as much original material from the Big Band Era (roughly 1920 - 1954) as possible, and make it available for use on the weekly In the Mood radio show. Toward that end, I've processed almost 40,000 individual songs in the last 20 years, much of it right off the original 78 shellac releases. In the process, I've learned a few things, and here is where I share some of my thinking and techniques.
In previous posts, we've already established that we want to play clean records. No point in preserving a bunch of surface noise and scratches, so we wash the record before playing. I wash them on a round drink tray stolen from a hotel hallway 25 years ago. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I wash 78s in tepid tap water using a few drops of Dawn on each record, and a nylon-bristled vegetable brush. Nylon is softer than shellac, so it won't scratch the record. Scrub the record gently in a circular motion, following the groove. I rinse with a little tap water first, then spray with distilled water and dry with a clean, soft towel. Do not let any water evaporate off of the surface of the record, or you will hear the mineral deposit left behind. Yes, even with distilled water.
Now that the record is clean, we will get the best possible sound from it, reflecting the record's true condition. If you are fortunate enough to have a pristine copy to work with, congratulations. But for the vast majority of us, some remedial measures will be called for. The less we can get away with doing to the audio, the better. Less is more.
I play 78s on our 1935 RCA Type A Transcription Turntable, affectionately known around here as Big Bertha. She's been updated with an Audio Technica AT-1009 tone arm and a Shure M-55 cartridge and Shure N-44-3 78 stylus. I might record the left or the right side of the mono groove, depending on which sounds cleanest. Usually, I use an L+R mix. If there's a lot of surface noise, I may use the parametric EQ on the Mackie board to roll off some top end.
Once the side is on the hard drive, I use Wave Corrector to remove pops and clicks. Adobe Audition also has very good pop/click removal, but Wave Corrector is much easier to use on individual pops left behind by the automated sweep. Then, we employ Goldwave to enhance the audio quality. Depending on the record's condition, I may use a bandpass filter to cut all frequencies below 60 Hz and above 6 kHz. That's about the recorded spectrum of most pre-WWII electric 78s. Everything outside of those frequencies is noise. I'll play around with that upper cutoff number till I get the best compromise between surface noise and reasonably crisp audio. Sometimes, that's enough. I might use a little graphic EQ to shape the remaining spectrum to give it a little bottom end bounce and clear top end.
But if we still have noise that makes the record hard to enjoy, I might resort to some digital noise reduction. This is a drastic step, and is not taken lightly. It is very easy to do significant harm with digital noise reduction, and our Prime Directive is Do No Harm. There are 3 or 4 different techniques that can be used with DNR: you can manually create an envelope for the DNR to work within, you can sample the noise to be removed and sic the DNR on it, you can have the DNR work off of a sonic sample of the recording, or you can have it use an average of signal and noise relationship. Depending on the specific characteristics of the recorded material and the noise, you may get startling, superb results. Or not. Often, the best answer is to make multiple passes with the the DNR, each time removing a little bit of the noise. This method often reduces the amount of noise artifact left behind by the software. In the end, it's a subjective decision, and it's up to you to make the call. You really have to experiment to see how to get the best outcome in each case...and yes, it is tedious, time-consuming work. I think, in fact, that audio restoration at this level is indeed an art form in itself.
This is where i would normally start talking about the artists featured on this week's show and some of the specific songs that will be included...but this blog has run over time already. Suffice it to say that this week, we will enjoy some great original sides from Glenn Miller, Ray Anthony and the rest of the best Big Bands of the Era. You'll hear some professionally-restored originals from re-releases by the major record labels, plus some nice 78 sides from the World's Greatest Record Library. What you WON'T hear is CDs. We play RECORDS ONLY.
I sincerely hope you enjoy it. Visit our Facebook Page and get the complete broadcast schedule, including Live Links to the radio stations' Live Streams.
Be good to one another this week, and above all,
Keep Swinging!
Scott
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