[78-L] audio software

[David Lennick]

Graham Newton wrote:
> Jeff Lichtman wrote:
> 
>> I use it to figure out the correct playback speed for a record - not 
>> to correct pitch variations within a record. I use the spectrum 
>> analyzer to get the frequencies of notes in the recording and figure 
>> out how much it would have to speed up or slow down for each note to 
>> be on pitch. I then take the average of the speed changes and use 
>> that to figure out the correct playback speed.
> 
> One of the perplexing problems of restoration of "78" rpm discs is "pitching" 
> or setting the speed of a turntable so the music is not being played between 
> notes.  They weren't always recorded at or even near the implied speed!
> 
> A pitch-pipe or quartz tone standard works well as a reference, but confusion 
> still reigns... should you adjust the speed UP to get to the next note, or 
> adjust the speed DOWN to go to the previous note?
> 
> Having a music score to refer to would be a big help, but even that might have 
> been subject to alteration by the musicians at the time the recording was made. 
>   Knowledge of the style of music and what keys it is *usually* played in is a 
> hint to what it should be.
> 
> Having some 60 Hz hum (50 Hz in Europe and some other countries) in the 
> recording is one of the easiest ways to determine what the actual speed should be.
> 
> ... Graham Newton

I prefer to do the pitching at the time of the original transfer. I also use 
variable speed tape decks and a Marantz CD player with fine pitch adjustment if 
I have to work from non-disc sources. And echoing what Graham said, you have to 
know how the instruments or voices were pitched at the time of recording! 
Recently I had a bunch of 78 by British brass bands to transfer, and all of the 
records seemed way off pitch..too high. But it was established that the tuning 
was higher in the fifties, and I tried a few tests before realizing that 
playing the discs at .7% below 78RPM gave me the exact timing that was on the 
labels (not always an accurate guide, but these were discs made for broadcast 
and production purposes so they should have been correct). It also probably 
worked out to 77.92RPM which is the actual speed used in Britain, as opposed to 
78.26 over here.

Pitching by 60hz hum doesn't always work either..you could be dealing with dubs 
and the hum could be on the original or in the rerecording.

dl