Reducing Tracing Distortion on Badly Worn Stereo LP's

[Craig Maier]

You can reduce tracing distortion on badly worn stereo LP's by using the channel blender with the following settings:

Set both sliders all the way down.

Check the "Blend to Mono" Checkbox.

Check the "Above" Button.

Do Not check either of the "Invert" checkboxes.

Set the "Hz" parameter somewhere between 4000 to 6000 Hz. Experiment to find the best value to reduce the distortion.

This method will trade-off some stereo seperation for reduced distortion.

Note: If you normally run this effect to reduce turntable rumble by blending to mono below a few hundred Hertz, just set up two of these in the multifilter with one set up as a rumble reducer and the other as a tracing distortion reducer.

[Geebster]

I don't want to sound ignorant, but what is tracing distortion? I mean, what is it and the root cause?

Once I know that, I'll be able to use your helpful guidelines if the need arises.

Thanks.

GB

[Craig Maier]

Tracing errors (which produce sort of a siblant sounding distortion) occurs when the stylus tip is unable to follow the denser undulations found towards the center of a record. The stylus actually rides out of the center of the groove and is supported on one groove wall much more dominently than the other.

Properly designed turntables and phono pickups should not exhibit this problem as much as poorly designed ones. But, a record played on a poorly designed turntable system will end up with tracing error damage which will manifest itself as distortion to the "hissy ess" sounds of the human voice and other instruments like cymbals on the last cut of an LP. These sounds will be "slurred".

[Geebster]

Thanks for the clarification, Craig...

GB