Broadcast Transcription Recordings

[Doug]

I've never dealt with these before so I am completely blind as to the best process. The problem I have is that I will only get one chance to do this right. I have 2.5 and 2.8 mil stylii (I believe 2.3 is optimal but I don't have one) and a flat preamp. What I would like to know is how to best treat these 16" acetate transcriptions to record them:

• How to best clean these records
• Can they be played wet(?) to reduce distortion
• What tracking weight is best?
• What EQ do I use (RIAA sounds wrong, NAB Tape EQ??)
• What else I can do to get the best possible sound

I really would like to do this correctly over the next few weeks...I never listen to them, and don't have a proper turntable for them (so I have made a temporary tone-arm for this). Any help and tips would really be appreciated from the experts here. Bellow is a photo of a label. They are all from the early 50s (most have the envelopes stamped with a date between 1948-54):

[Craig Maier]

16 inch acetate transcription record transfer

Doug,

I am not an expert, but I have some of these in my collection and I have transferred them over to digital and cleaned them up. Here is what I know about them:

1. I used a 2.5 mil stylus and that worked fine.

2. I believe that a 500 Hz turnover (American 78s) is the right EQ curve; that is the one that I used in the VPA.

3. DO NOT clean them with anything having alcohol or acetone. Those chemicals will damage the recording. I used nothing more than Distilled Water on them and cleaned them several times using the water and a soft cloth before transfer.

4. I tracked them fairly heavy which reduced the distortion. I used around 4 grams.

5. The big click filter should help get out the big impulses (if it has those - - - my transcriptions did have those). After the big clicks are removed, I just used the standard process (Manual interpolation, EZ Impulse, CNF, etc).

I hope that this helps.

Craig



4.

[Doug]

Ok, the 500Hz seems to work better than RIAA/NAB tape EQ curves.
Still, given the condition of these records they seem very scratchy/noisy and have a fair amount of rumble - I was honestly expecting a better sound to begin with:

Are You Havin' Any Fun (original recording)
On The Alamo (before vs after)

Not quite the same version as "On the Alamo" by Rudy Vallee!

[cromag]

Those samples sounded great, Doug! The music was very clean.


(Ha! I accidentally opened the same file twice! They both do sound great, though!)

[Craig Maier]

Doug,

You should be able to get rid of the rumble using the CNF with a high fft size (8192 or higher).

Craig