The Hindenburg Disaster

May 6th 1937
Restoration by Craig Maier

For a details on the restoration of this recording go to this page.

When The Morning Glories Wake Up In The Morning

by Don Voorhees and his Orchestra

Restoration by Donald Bohn

The original recording was an electrically recorded 78 rpm record. The transfer was done at 45 rpm using the flat phono preamp and 24bit / 96kHz.  The Speed Change filter was then used to correct the speed and the proper EQ was applied.

After that the recording was cleaned up using the Impulse Filter and CNF and converted to pseudo stereo.

The Arkansas Traveler

by Len Spencer

These “before and afters” are taken from an Edison 2 minute wax cylinder originally made circa 1905.  This comedy routine is performed by Leonard Garfield Spencer (1867 – 1914).  We suspect it was a Vaudeville act adapted to the recorded media at that time.  It was cleaned up using the EZ impulse filter followed by the IIR bandpass filter and then by the Continuous Noise Filter in normal CNF mode.  Some manual impulse noise reduction was achieved using the manual interpolate key (the “I” key).  Ultimately, a small amount of EQ was applied using the 20 band graphic Equalizer.

The restoration was performed by Craig Maier circa 2011.

Button Up Your Overcoat

Stereo Edison Recording
Contributed by Marc Hildebrant

The idea behind the stereo sound is the belief that during some later electric recordings, Edison used both a Hill and Dale and Lateral recording process. Each recording used a separate microphone and amplifier to drive each cutting for the master record. Thus, if the lateral recording was used for one channel and the hill and dale for the other, a true stereo effect may be possible.
I found a recording I had of “Button Up Your Overcoat” by the Golden Gate Orchestra on a Diamond Disc record. I had also purchased a recording of the same song on the Diamond Cut Lateral CD by the California Ramblers.
The posting about the potential stereo effect and the knowledge that the Golden Gate Orchestra was another name for the California Ramblers opened up a possibility for me to create a Stereo Recording of the Song. I used many Diamond Cut software tools to align the two recordings in time and to clean up my recording so that the two versions could be converted from separate monaural songs into a Stereo Version.
While more research is needed into validation of the historical recording activities at the Edison Studio’s, the resultant song I produced sounds quite interesting.
Take a listen.

My Sin

By The California Ramblers

It was recorded by the Edison Company in New York City on April 5th, 1929 and listed under Matrix Number N-869G. It was mastered using the Electrical Lateral Cut process (Needle-Type) and it was transferred to the digital PCM format by Rick Carlson and Craig Maier in the early 1990’s. It was released in its entirity in 1994 on the Diamond Cut Label on a CD entitled “The California Ramblers – – – Edison Laterals 2” (DCP-301D).

This version was restored using Diamond Cut Productions DC8 Audio Restoration Software.

A Hunting Scene

1908 Edison Wax Amberol Cylinder

Artist: Edison Military Band

In 1908, Edison extended his wax cylinder process to produce 4 minutes of playing time, a doubling of the previous 2 minute limit. These cylinders were made of a black wax-like material and were called “Wax Amberols”. However, they suffered a design defect which often resulted in cracking. This problem was later remedied in 1912 with the introduction of the celluloid based “Blue Amberol” cylinder.

Here is a “before” and “after” Edison Wax Amberol cylinder having a crack halfway through the longitudinal playing surface. The sound defect was repaired using Diamond Cut Software. The title of this song is “A Hunting Scene” played by The Edison Military Band and was recorded in 1908.

Happy Otto – Smiles

This one is from Craig Maier

I had a German 78 RPM record that I dropped. As a result, it broke into two pieces, the smaller one being sort of crescent shaped.
I took that piece and scotch taped it together with the groove aligned as best as possible (using tape on the opposite side to be played – – – then removing the tape and repeating the process for the flip side of the record).
Well, it sounded terrible as you can imagine. But, I used the new long interpolator in DC8 to restore it.
Wow – it worked and you can hear the before and after of this disaster. The recording is a late 1940s German 78 recorded by Deutsche Gramophon.

The Mega-Tick Vinyl LP

Here is a sample submitted to us by Donald J Bohn.Equipment used:

• Yamaha PX-2 Linear Track Turntable
• Ortofon Super OM-20 Moving Magnet Cartridge
• PSAudio Phono Link Preamplifier
• Hoontech DSP24 Value Sound Card
• Diamond Cut DC-6

DC-6 Tools used:

• File Split / Recombine
• Expert Impulse Filter
• EZ Impulse Filter

Sample used:

• Stereo LP – Up, Up And Away – 5th Dimension – Go Where You Wanna Go

Notes:

1. Recording + Processing done at 24 bit 96 kHz
2. No Continuous Noise or any other filter enhancments were used.
3. “Left + Right Channels were processed independently.”
4. Files converted to 16 bit / 44.1 kHz using Master Quality Triangular High Pass
5. “After” file was not Gain Normalized for a better before and after comparison
6. Your procedures may be different – there is an infinate number of ways to the end result..

Right Channel Processing Steps Used:

1. Expert Impulse Filter – Threshold 179 – Size 38 – Tracking 40 – Type HQ – Clicks Removed 46
2. Reversed File – Same Settings – Clicks Removed 18
3. Expert Impulse Filter – Threshold 1 – Size 28 – Tracking 20 – Type HQ – Clicks Removed 364
4. Reversed File (Forward) – Same Settings – Clicks Removed 197
5. Expert Impulse Filter – Vinyl 3rd Pass Preset – Clicks Removed 5
6. EZ Impulse Filter – Scratch 0 – Crackle 58.5 – Clicks Removed 28

Left Channel Processing Steps Used:

1. Expert Impulse Filter – Threshold 179 – Size 38 – Tracking 40 – Type HQ – Clicks Removed 182
2. Reversed File – Same Settings – Clicks Removed 67
3. Expert Impulse Filter – Threshold 1 – Size 28 – Tracking 20 – Type HQ – Clicks Removed 1232
4. Reversed File (Forward) – Same Settings – Clicks Removed 754
5. Expert Impulse Filter – Vinyl 3rd Pass Preset – Clicks Removed 40
6. EZ Impulse Filter – Scratch 99.9 – Crackle 75 – Clicks Removed 1021

Note: Left Channel was much noisier than the Right Channel. Rather than come up with better Expert Impulse Settings, I chose instead to be more aggressive with the EZ Impulse Filter to get the file done.

• Left Channel Clicks Removed – 658
• Right Channel Clicks Removed – 3296
• Total Clicks Removed for this 9.5 second Stereo file – 3954
• Rounded to 10 seconds, number of approximate Clicks for 1 minute – 23,724
  If LP is 45 minutes, number of approximate Clicks removed would be – 1,067,587
• This file has had over 1 million clicks fixed.

Brigadoon

This sample was submitted by Craig Maier of Diamond Cut Productions

This recording was made in 1967 of my High Schools Class play, Brigadoon. I was responsible for the light and sound aspects of the project The sound responsibilities included the PA system and also the Recording of the play. The sound system consisted of two mics hanging from risers above the stage and two mics located above the orchestra pit. They all fed into a Mixer which drove a Pre-Amp and then a Power Amplifier for the sound reinforcement system. Another set of outputs fed my Magnecord 1028 1/2 track, 15 ips tape deck. All of the audio equipment was electron tube based including the tape recorder – – – tubes were still the state of the art in audio at that time. All of the tube based equipment except for the Magnecord tape deck was designed and constructed by myself in the two years prior to this particular event. (The speaker system used JBL drivers, but was DIY)

The problem observed here as heard in the “before” was probably the result of a bad shielded cable between one of the mixer outputs and one of the tape deck inputs. It appears that I noticed the problem (one VU meter was probably not dancing correctly) and I started by adjusting one of the channel gain controls on the tape deck. Ultimately, it appears that I started moving cables around until a signal became steady into the tape deck, but as you can see and hear, it took a while to find the problem and fix it at that time.

This “after” example shows how the Diamond Cut Editing capabilities can fix this type of problem.

Wherever there was a drop-out of the signal on the offending channel, I carefully marked them with the Diamond Cut Markers (the “M” key) (zooming in to be sure that they were exactly in the correct place). I highlighted each section and clicked on the good track (R or L on the toolbar). Then I copied that to the clipboard and pasted it to the opposite track without moving the markers. I noticed that there were still some large transients on both tracks which I interpolated out with the “I” key. Sometimes, very tiny transients occurred where I pasted into the bad track which I interpolated out with the “I” key after highlighting the problem.

Then, I was left with wildly varying gain settings on each channel and in some cases, both channels. The goal was to “feather” the gain compensations in so that they would be the inverse of the way in which the tape deck controls had been moved in real time, I used the “curve” setting of the Gain Control feature. By adjusting the curvature using the spline inflection points, I was able to reverse the gain vs. time problems that I had injected onto the recording back in ’67.

To smooth out the changes in stereo image (albeit not perfectly), I applied a slight amount of reverb to the sections of the file that had been copied from one channel to the other, with some overlap past the edit marker boundaries.

Lastly, I gain normalized the system to -2 or -3 dB.

Abba Dabba Honeymoon

Here is a user submitted sample from Doug MacMillan.

It is one file that has been cross-faded between the unprocessed noisy audio and audio that has been processed with the continuous noise filter. The song is Abba Dabba Honeymoon performed by Collins and Harlan on a Victor record 17620-A

Here is a quote from Doug: I’ve been using DC-Art for more than a year now. I’ve been very impressed with both the ease of use and the results I’m getting. I especially like the ability to fine tune the settings on practically every filter or effect and then save my custom settings for future use. I recommend DC-Art to anyone interested in a powerful audio restoration tool – Doug MacMillan

Baby Won’t You Please Come Home

Here is another sample from Doug MacMillan.
The song is Baby Won’t You Please Come Home Blues by Bessie Smith with Clarence Williams on the piano. It was released in 1923

• The beginning is the raw file, processed for impulse noise, converted to mono and then processed to remove the RIAA curve using the preset on the paragraphic equalizer.
• The second part has been filtered with the decrackler setting in the median filter. Also, a low pass filter has been applied, as well as a little accentuation around 250 hz using the graphic equalizer. This file fades in around the end of the first piano phrase.
• The third part is the first part with the continuous noise filter applied. It starts to fade in around the end of the first sung line and is very apparent.
• The sample for the continuous noise filter was taken from the run in area of the record. I also adjusted the threshold fairly aggressive

A Paramount Concert

These “before and afters” are taken from a cassette tape recording made in the mid 1970s at the Paramount Theater located in Oakland, California.  The venue was built in the early 1930s and could hold around 3,000 people at that time.  The theater had a pipe organ (4 manual, 20 rank – Wurlitzer model “Publix 1 (Opus 2164”).    The original recording is an unusual duet performance by Jim Rosevearo at the Wurlitzer pipe organ and Peter Mintun on Piano.  The issue with the recording was that it had been over-played and had lost much of the ‘sparkle’ that one would expect from such a performance (loss of high end).  The tape hiss was removed with the Continuous Noise Filter, and the enhancement was provided by the use of the subharmonic and overtone synthesizers.  To round out the final product, a light application of the Virtual Valve Amplifier was used with the 12AT7 tube setting.

The restoration was performed by Craig Maier circa 2010.

Red Hot Momma

This is a before and after from Marc Hildebrandt

This is a before and after set of recordings from Marc Hildebrandt. The source recording is by the Georgia Melodians from an Edison Diamond Disc record (acoustic recording).  Edison Diamond discs were vertically cut and were just shy of 10 inches in diameter and around ¼ inch thick.  Most records of that era were laterally cut (Victor, Brunwick, etc).  So, there was a compatibility issue between Edison recordings and the other bands of players.  He used the file conversion filter to extract the vertical signal from a stereo recording using stereo to mono L-R.  Further, Marc used the methods found in Chapter 11 and Chapter 17 of his Music Restoration Handbook to restore this music.

Information pertaining to his handbook can be found at this link: https://www.diamondcut.com/st3/product/music-restoration-handbook/

Teddy Bears Picnic

This is a before and after restoration and enhancement by Craig Maier

The Teddy Bears Picnic performed by the Edison Symphony Orchestra

It was taken from a 2 minute Edison Wax Cylinder circa 1905   The enhancement is very exaggerated to demonstrate what can be done with the subharmonic synthesizer and the overtone synthesizer.  The first step, was noise reduction and then the subharmonic and overtone synthesizers were applied, followed by a light application of the Virtual Valve Amplifier.