Kofi Annan in: "78RPM Transferrin'!"

[Kofi Annan]

Yo!

So, I have a friend who wants to transfer a 78 to digital medium-- this was a recording of a great-grandfather from WWI-- and I need to know the best way to do this without damaging the original shellac.

I don't have a (working) 78 player and I know I could play the disc on a regular TT, spin it and record on 45 speeding up to 78 through digitization, but I'm wondering if a pay-to-transfer option is better to preserve the original disc.

If anyone in the Atlanta area has a transfer rig and wants to make a few bucks, that would also be acceptable.

Lemme know!

Kofi

[bob91343]

The best way is to play it on a good quality 78 r/m player and record the result any way you choose. If it's before, say, 1946, you won't know what equalization curve to use but that may be secondary.

[mtoups]

You can play it at 45 and speed it up, BUT you really need a 78 stylus. They were 3 mil not the 0.7 mil of a LP. An LP stylus will bottom out and sound terrible.

Also equalization is usually different and there were many different standards.

[benb]

Regardless of what speed you play it at, you need a 78RPM stylus. The stylus isn't strictly for the speed, rather it is substantially larger than the "microgroove" stylus used for 33's and 45's. A regular stylus for 33's and 45's will ride around in the bottom of the groove and may damage it.

If you do get a 78 stylus (which usually takes substantially more pressure, like up to 5 grams), it would be okay recording it at 45 and speeding it up with software, but you'd also have EQ to deal with - you should "undo" the RIAA EQ at the recorded 45 speed.

That done, you would apply whatever EQ is needed for the record. World War 1 sounds like it was an acoustic recording (a horn and diaphragm directly driving the cutting stylus) which was done before 1925 or so. This would have a flat response, or as flat as the horn and mechanism could give, so any EQ would be to taste, to try to make it sound good by ear.

[Iain McNeill]

I would record the signal off the stylus with the best quality you can and with no equalization. Get the best turntable, quietest room, most vibration free work surface, most appropriate stylus (see comments above) and highest quality soundcard you can afford/scrounge. Make several copies of this for archival purposes. Put the record away in a safe place. Then you can turn your hand to reproducing the EQ. You can try best sounding. You can try to research the manufacturer/engineer and determine what EQ they used. Bottom line is the record will be degraded more than any gentle post-processing you can apply.

Use you ears.