Adventures in 78 restoration: Part 3

As promised, four 78s saved with my new MAGIX program. ("Hallelujah!"--78.) Restored with, I mean. The first title, Paul Whiteman's 1922 Victor recording of I'm Just Wild About Harry, was an easy customer--excellent condition, quiet pressing, nice 1922 engineering. In this instance, I chose the better-sounding of the two channels and filled both channels with it. (Thanks, Andy Senior, for reminding me of this feature.) I don't think this option was available on my 2004 program, but don't quote me. If it was, I didn't use it.

Getting rid of the light hiss without clipping music frequencies? Easy--I used the parametric equalizer, which allows the user (in this case, my cat, Perry) to set the center frequency and (or so it seems) the bandwidth. Such spooky power to have over the file. It makes for very specific clipping.

Ah, an email: "Lee, what do I use for specific high-frequency clipping/roll-off? Love your blog." Well, I would suggest the MAGIX Cleaning Lab 14's four-band parametric equalizer. Use the highest band--set it wherever the high freq.'s are turning into hiss. Since you're not working with a pre-set bandwidth, you can cut just what you want, pretty much.

Another email: "Use sparingly?" Yup. You know it.

No compression added. I turned the Threshold knob just a little.

Night and Day (Cole Porter), David Rose and His Orch., 1946, from an RCA Victor 78. The challenge here was to cut rumble, given that the recording had little bass to speak of, which meant that any and all low-freq problems were out in the open. And I had to let the (rather compressed) highs sound through without too much of a gritty edge. What the heck am I talking about? Beats me. But I seemed to get it fairly right. Again, the parametric EQ to the rescue.

This time, I used the mono setting, because doubling either the left or right channel seemed to sacrifice what little bass body there was.

Delirium, Carl Fenton, 1927, Brunswick label, was a different story--two tries, and I almost gave up. The high end on this one seemed pretty limited, which meant all attempts to give color and clarity to the upper middle end produced more hiss than I wanted. I did a couple overlaps on this, tweaking very precisely until the hiss was there but not overpoweringly so. Balancing the too-heavy low end was a lot of work.

Polish Wedding in the Country, Orkiestra Narodowa, Okeh label, 1927. A two-parter I edited into one file. I featured this one way back in 2006 in an earlier rip. Lots of rumble and low-freq. swish on this, due to the uneven, laminated surface--otherwise, amazing fidelity. So, I precisely filtered (via EQ) most of the affected low frequencies, saved all my "effects," and started anew with a mostly de-rumbled file. The challenge: reintroduce some of the bass punch.

This I did with EQ. And just enough to do the trick (and no more). Then, a little adjustment on the Threshold knob, and detail poured out. It should be called the Detail Release knob.

I used the mono option, as choosing either the L or R channel made the rumble worse, oddly enough. Somehow, combining the channels had a canceling effect. I don't know why, but I do not complain. Spell Check, by the way, does not recognize "Orkiestra," "Narodowa," or "Okeh." Or, for that matter, "MAGIX."


Cleaning Lab 14 78s, Part 2.

PLAYLIST

I'M JUST WILD ABOUT HARRY (Sissle-Blake)--Paul Whiteman Orch., 1922.
NIGHT AND DAY (Cole Porter)--David Rose and His O., 1946.
DELIRIUM (Schutt)--Carl Fenton's Orch., 1927.
POLISH WEDDING IN THE COUNTRY--ORKIESTRA NARODOWA, 1927.



Lee

Adventuers in 78 restoration: Part 2 (Software)

SILLY INTRO

So, I now have MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab 14--it replaces my MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab 2004. Is it an improvement over the old version, you ask? Absolutely.

Way better.

Rather than try to get technical and detailed without the benefit of graphics, I'll simply give a general, simple description of what MAGIX does, keeping in mind that all audio-restoration software behaves basically the same. Well, except that most programs probably won't have Cleaning Lab 14's issues with Windows XP. I hope not, anyway.

Audio-editing might be a better term, come to think of it. And what does the editing of audio involve?

(Harp arpeggios in background, wavy lines over picture.)

Scene: Your blogger at his PC, somehow deleting half of the audio display while trying to edit out a loud pop. "Dang it!! Why do I keep doing that?"

(Harp music, wavy lines, back to present.)

That's right. The editing of audio involves lots of frustration. It can, anyway. So, always remember where the undo option is on the Edit menu. It's the best kind of time machine. ("If only I could go back to just before the disaster! I.... Wait. The undo option!!")

WHAT IT DOES

So... audio editing software allows you to remove some of the crackle present on vinyl and shellac recordings, most of the clicks, and most or all of the hiss. Hiss-removing-wise, I don't rely on the "DeHisser" function alone, as over-application creates a swishy, metallic sound. Which is fine, if you want a swishy, metallic sound--otherwise, apply with discretion.

What about the left-over hiss? If it's a ton of hiss, you can use the sound clone feature and sample some of the hiss (minus the music) and then apply that sound sample as filter. Again, sparingly. Or you can use the parametric portion of the software's equalizer. You can do as I do and pre-EQ the signal with a (add-on) 31-band equalizer. There are probably other hiss-killing tricks, but I can't think of them at the moment.

When applying the so-called DeClicker, I find I can crank it up on the latest version of MAGIX without much, if any, ill effect. The DeCrackler is another story--anything but weak application, and detail goes to heck, with quiet portions especially affected. That's why I specified "some of the crackle" above. Me? I leave it off.

What about mono vs. stereo, left vs. right, left only, right only, etc.? MAGIX's StereoFx function has all of that covered. You can record a mono source in stereo and 1) change it to mono by adding both tracks, 2) switch left for right, or vice versa, 3) replace the right track with left, or vice versa, 4) do phase inversion, or 5) add a Karaoke effect. There's also a Pan-Direction function that would be cool for home recordings.

Sound can be given oomph and punch (or, for that matter, pizazz) with the Dynamics and Multimax functions. The latter is a multi-band compressor that can be very, very handy for 78s IF used sparingly. If used with abandon, all of the bad stuff--hiss, rumble, you name it--will be sonically pushed out with the good stuff, meaning you've got an end result that sucks worse than the untreated file. Dynamics--well, its functions are past my understanding, though they can be very handy if used (rhymes-with-glaringly). It's got a gain knob and a knob called Threshold. Whatever the latter is, it's great for bringing out detail after you've clipped the highs and plunked on the filters. If it brought back any more life to the recordings, you'd find yourself staring at the original artists as they stared back at you, and you'd ask, "What year is this?" and they'd say, "1915. And we're trying to make a record. How did you get in the studio? And please explain your strange clothes."

Then there's the Energizer, whose function I forgot. It energizes, I guess. And there are various chorus and echo, reverb, and sound environment effects (Car 1, Car 2, Classroom, etc.). The Brilliance Enhancer is and does what it says. Great for recordings of brilliant people.

The soundwave display itself allows for splicing, sound leveling, track marking, the insertion of pauses, stereo vs. mono display, surround sound, and other stuff, including Spectral Cleaning. That last bit involves removing background noise like coughing and clapping. Haven't tried it yet. Looks complicated.

MAGIX allows the user to save all of the real-time effects (DeHissing, EQ, etc.) and start over, i.e. to apply another layer of EQ, Dynamics, etc. Say, for instance, you have a file just about where you want it, but you want to do a little more hiss filtering along with some bass boost. Yet, you like what you've got so far. Simple--make those settings permanent and then do the bass boost and hiss filtering.

In other words, when you start your editing, you're working with the signal as it arrived into your PC from the pre-amp. Anything you do, effects/filter-wise, is being done to that original signal. But once you've saved everything, you're working with a new reference signal, in effect. This is great for, say, reducing surface rumble and then reintroducing some low-end dynamics after that's been done. (It'll make more sense when you've tried it.)

COMING UP

A post will quickly follow which features four more newly-restored 78s and accounts of how I saved each one. Then the 78s themselves will say great things about me. Example: "I thought I was a goner. Then along comes Lee, with his vintage equipment and new software, and.... I feel so restored."

TO BE CONTINUED


Lee

Whitey the squirrel

Is he cute, or what? We have at least two white squirrels in our back yard (toward the bank just next to the house). At first, we thought we had some rare albino squirrels, but it turns out that white squirrels are no anomaly.


Lee

Five 78s, after their encounter with Audio Cleaning Lab 14

Here are my first five 78-cleaning efforts with MAGIX's Audio Cleaning Lab 14, a wonderful program that performs wonderfully so long as it's not run with Windows XP. (2000, it likes.)

Only the last title (Wilbur Sweatman's That's Got 'Em) was pre-EQ'd to any extent--the rest were sent, untreated, to my MAGIX software, where they were filtered, EQ'd, compressed, declicked, decrackled, and debriefed. Thanks to my Rek-o-Kut preamp, they arrived at MAGIX with a proper 78 rpm (vice RIAA) response curve.

These sound better (to me, anyway) than anything I've done before, 78-wise. I'm fairly amazed. Of enormous help were the three-band compressor (easier to use than the 2004's) and the four-band parametric equalizer, which accompanies the standard ten-band non-parametric type. I was able to cut rumble by setting the p. equalizer at 60 Hz, and I was able to precisely tweak the top of the high end--to the extent that older 78s have any such thing.

I'm in audio-geek heaven.

Anyway, submitted for your audio approval, here are the first five 78s to go the Cleaning Lab 14 route. "We loved it!"--78s, quoted in Shellac Attack Monthly.

Click here for zip file: Audio Cleaning Lab 14--78s.

PLAYLIST

SELECTIONS FROM "SWEETHEARTS" (Herbert)--Victor Light Opera Co., Nat Shilkret, 1927.
THREE SHADES OF BLUE (Grofe)--Paul Whiteman Concert Orch., 1928.
SHANGHAI DREAM MAN (Davis-Akst; Arr. Grofe)--Paul Whiteman O., 1927.
EBB TIDE (Maxwell)--Frank Chacksfield and His O., 1953.
THAT'S GOT 'EM (Sweatman)--Wilbur Sweatman's Orig. Jazz Band, 1919.

My 78s have never sounded so... seventy-eighty. And they're happy for it.

Lee

Adventures with software!

So, Perdido asked me a question about MAGIX's Audio Cleaning Lab 14, which made me curious about the program--as in, what new and wondrous changes had been made since I bought my version back in 2004. Of course, I was in no mood to relearn the software from scratch, but if it was simply a matter of updating what I already knew... no problem. (Lazy? Me?)

So, I downloaded the trial version of 14 and fell in love with it within minutes. It turns out to be a (mostly) better designed and logically expanded version of the 2004 package, with new features that I can't begin to praise. There are several "Huh?" features, as well, all of which I plan to figure out after I'm done playing with the vastly improved familiar functions.

So, I ordered the downloadable version, along with a back-up disc, and went to work making 78s sound better than ever. Then I noticed a problem. As in, my computer slowing down considerably whenever I burned a CD. Uh-oh. And I mean really slow. Turn-off-at-the-CPU slow.

Being the calm and rational sort, I said something like, "Oh, wonderful. I guess I have no choice except to uninstall this piece of (bleeeeeep)!" Then I decided to 1) take a tranquilizer and 2) start troubleshooting the issue. I did a bunch of stuff--downloaded a package of drivers or the like, uninstalled my previous MAGIX program (in case it wasn't getting along with the new kid on the block), changed the max burn speed for my CD drive to x8 (which the 14 is defaulted to), and... things were less slow, as a result. But still slow.

Somehow, I thought to go to the Properties window/page/screen for the 14, where I was given the option to change the compatibility choice to an earlier version of Windows (I chose 2000).

Problem solved!!!! It seems Cleaning Lab 14 doesn't like XP, or vice versa. This is a relief like I can't describe. Yee-ha!

Now this blog can return to its regularly scheduled self. Unfortunately, I don't have the Sunday gospel post ready--so very close, but not quite. The tracks are ripped and zipped, but that's as far as I got.

Complicated? Blogging? Why, no. Not at all.

The new MAGIX program has changed the way I go about restoring 78s, so I'll have to revise what I was going to share in that regard. Believe me, the changes are for the better--much less hassle with much more result. My 78s will be sounding better than ever, or at least less worse.

Have a fine spring-ahead Sunday!


Lee