[78-L] Concerning record restoration

[Anton Shepelev]

Hello, everybody

I  recently  listened  through CDCHD 1072 "Good
Rockin' Brown"	which  contains  recordings  re-
stored	from  acetates. Two things seized my at-
tention at once (however, the prominence thereof
varies	between tracks). First, the somewhat un-
natural (metallic, echoey) sound of crackles and
clicks and similarly unnatural sounds accompany-
ing cymbals. Second -- despite	the  recordings'
sound  being  muffled (lacking the highs) it can
be partially mended by just  boosting  the  high
frequencies  simply  using the treble dial on my
amplifier, which means the highs are there,  al-
though at a low level.

As  for  the first peculiarity, I wonder if they
really abuse noise-reduction systems to such  an
extent	as to produce audible artefacts?  Or did
my hearing fail me?

Concerning the second, I'd  like  to  know  what
could  be  the cause of it. Why didn't the engi-
neer equalize the record better?  It  seems  un-
likely that the only culprit is the limited fre-
quency range of the recording tract, because  if
I  could  compensate  for  it  using my amp, why
couldn't they do it too, electrically?

Is it possible that during the sound restoration
the  record was fed to a low-pass filter to mask
the clicks and cracks so prominent otherwise (in
spite  of the noise reduction and digital clean-
up)?

I wouldn't have asked it, had I an  original  78
rpm  and  were	able to compare its sound to the
CD's.

PS: I would be especially glad to have	feedback
      form  those  who might happen to own the CD,
      but help from  anyone  acquainted  with  the
      modern  audio restoration techniques will be
      appreciated.

      Also any general feedback from those who own
      CDs  and  78s  of  the  same  record will be
      warlmly welcome.


Thank you in advance,
Anton