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We just received a customer complaint pertaining to the VPA (Virtual Phono Preamplifier) and the use of the conversion from RIAA to the 78 turnover frequencies.
He said that the records sounded less hissy and scratchy when played via RIAA.
I agreed because it is true, but one should not draw conclusions from this small part of the full restoration story.
The first part of a restoration process is the transfer. 78s were not recorded with a Rolloff portion of the curve (as with RIAA or Columbia LP). They were only recorded with Low Frequency Turnover. Thus, 78s sound quieter and less scratchy when played with RIAA which has high frequency Rolloff.
But -
78s also do not have the proper tonal balance that they were intended to have when transferred using the RIAA curve. Specifically, they will be missing a lot of the top end.
So -
Ignore what the transfer sounds like in terms of scratch, crackle and hiss. Reason? Because that is just the first step of a multi-step process.
The next process is to de-click the recording using the EZ Impulse Filter (or Expert Impulse Filter or a cascade of Impulse Filters in the Multifilter if you are so inclined).
Then, the next process after that is to remove the hiss using the Continuous Noise Filter.
The final result will be a tonally balanced restoration having no clicks, crackle or hiss and lots of clean top-end.
Conclusion:
You will not get that high quality (optimal) restoration result if you perform your initial 78 transfer with an RIAA curve.
Craig
He said that the records sounded less hissy and scratchy when played via RIAA.
I agreed because it is true, but one should not draw conclusions from this small part of the full restoration story.
The first part of a restoration process is the transfer. 78s were not recorded with a Rolloff portion of the curve (as with RIAA or Columbia LP). They were only recorded with Low Frequency Turnover. Thus, 78s sound quieter and less scratchy when played with RIAA which has high frequency Rolloff.
But -
78s also do not have the proper tonal balance that they were intended to have when transferred using the RIAA curve. Specifically, they will be missing a lot of the top end.
So -
Ignore what the transfer sounds like in terms of scratch, crackle and hiss. Reason? Because that is just the first step of a multi-step process.
The next process is to de-click the recording using the EZ Impulse Filter (or Expert Impulse Filter or a cascade of Impulse Filters in the Multifilter if you are so inclined).
Then, the next process after that is to remove the hiss using the Continuous Noise Filter.
The final result will be a tonally balanced restoration having no clicks, crackle or hiss and lots of clean top-end.
Conclusion:
You will not get that high quality (optimal) restoration result if you perform your initial 78 transfer with an RIAA curve.
Craig
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