[78-L] 78s To Computers.

[Chris Zwarg]

At 12:14 09.10.2008, you wrote:
>Hi!
>
>I too have my gramophone transcription deck a floor from my computer.
>So, I have to use an intermediary step.
>I have a minidisc recorder which I used to use and isn't bad (and 
>certainly better than cassette), but a CD recorder is probably the 
>best option, for, once in digital form, there will be no more loss of 
>quality.
>
>I record on to CD, then copy the resultant AIFF file on to my 
>computer as one can from any CD.
>
>Now, once I finally work out how to use my CEDAR machine, the better 
>my transfers will be.

If you plan to use the CEDAR decrackler (the hardware "black box" version rather than the software I assume), you'll have to hook it up directly to the turntable preamp, or via a "lossless" digitized copy - Audio-CD or high-resolution (32bit/96kHz) WAV. An intermediate Minidisc transfer, while certainly better than a cassette, may still give problems because the crackle impulses as they come from the record are "softened" by the Minidisc compression (which is similar to MP3 if I'm not mistaken) and subsequent re-encoding to WAV or AIFF, and thus more difficult to separate from percussive musical sounds - you would need to crank up the CEDAR settings further to get a similar decrackling effect, and consequently get more artifact and distortion problems. A similar situation is found with other, software-based decracklers - they always work best with a straight, "flat-EQ" digitization with as few intermediate steps between turntable and decrackler as possible. A flat (microphone) preamp will work better than an RIAA preamp followed by a 78rpm re-equalizer.

 From a practical point of view, working from a pre-compressed (Minidisc/MP3) or analogue (cassette/tape) transfer rather than directly from the original 78 or a 1:1 DAT/Audio-CD dub means about two to five times as much worktime you have to spend on each track to get a similar result (because more manual adjusting and editing is needed as the automatic correction algorithms won't work effectively), and often that result is still slightly lower in fidelity than from a direct transfer.

Any type of EQing should always *follow* rather than precede the decrackling/denoising process and is less critical regarding slight compression/signal-loss, so it would probably be fine to record the *output* of the CEDAR onto Minidisc, if you need that intermediary step because of your desktop being in a different room/house from your turntable, and do the remaining processing steps (EQ, fades, editing, etc.) software-based in the computer.

Chris Zwarg