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Re: [ARSCLIST] Pitching and Equalization of 78s
At 10:05 PM 8/28/2003 +0200, George Brock-Nannestad wrote:
From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad
> >----- Mike, all you had to do was to say "I agree!"
>
> Except that I do not.
----- Mike, you seem to describe that you do a first transfer to a modern,
digital medium, in which you can in a simple way change speed of reproduction
proportional to change in pitch (e.g. simulating a change of speed of
reproduction of an analogue medium). Once you have determined the desired
speed of the original analogue carrier, you transfer that again, for good,
with an adjustment according to your experiments on the first digital copy.
In your own words, you are able to work with just two transfers and two
occasions for wear of the original.
Just so.
To this I can say, I totally agree, I have done precisely that (since 1980),
but using an analogue cassette for the first transfer. I have still to see a
digital system that will do the same as quickly (the turn of a knob) as an
analogue reproducer. So I do think you agree after all. But how do you select
your stylii? (a completely different can of worms).
I prefer to use a digital system because I can then select the processes I
will use later. For example, if I determine that the simple transfer is 1%
flat, I select a sample rate 1% below my target rate (e.g., 39640 sps
instead of 44100), then tell the program that it was digitized at
44100. If needed, I might have CoolEdit 'slide' the sampling to correct
for pitch error across the disc, though this does introduce a small amount
of the errors of resampling - small because the adjustment being made is
slight.
If I were using an analogue corrector, I would use cassette as well so that
the correction profile is the inverse when recording of what I did when
playing back that tape. However, I gave up my tools for that sort of
adjustment some years ago and now deal with simpler approximations. In
short, in what I'm doing now, I am operating at a level far more crude than
are most here. I no longer deal with primary materials for a number of
reasons and my standards have been reduced for my own work.
BUT, do remember that Jon's original query was:
>My present view (subject to being changed with a persuasive
>argument) is that pitching should not be a worry during the transfer
>itself (just get it close.) Once digitized, during the restoration
>process the recording can be pitched digitally using sound processing
>software (effectively by resampling).
I find it preferable to correct pitch before digitizing. I save the work at
that point, do whatever processing I judge to be best and put it away.
Returning to it a day or more later, I may judge the cleanup to be
incorrect and make another pass from the saved version - which is already
at the 'right' pitch.
Relevant to all of the above, I note that I'm now 64 years old and my
hearing is neither as extended nor as reliable as it was thirty years ago.
I have been suffering from tinnitis for some time and had surgery on my
left middle ear a month ago in the hope that it will be reduced. In short,
I no longer trust myself to do the sort of processing we are discussing
here and therefore am only writing of what I had done. At one time, I had
McIntosh and Marantz tube amplification with selectable turnover and
rolloff, a suitable table and a variety of styluses. Today, when I am faced
with a 78, I approximate by recording at 45 (Shure V15 with 3-mil stylus,
correcting as indicated above) and roughly approximate EQ by what's left of
my hearing. Needless to say, I make no claim of archival fidelity for the
result.
Mike
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/