[78-L] Jack Towers, truncating the high frequencies

[Michael Biel]

On 12/26/2010 1:08 PM, Steve Shapiro wrote:
> In recent years Jack had a high-frequency hearing loss.
>
> When I would bring 78s to Jack to transfer, he was ever ready to cut out the frequencies above a certain point, declaring that there was nothing recorded up there.  Concerned about the possible loss of overtones, I would ask Jack to leave this area in anyway, as I saw no harm by doing so and did not want to risk the loss of a component of sound.

Very surprising and disappointing.  A transfer engineer is supposed to 
transfer what is there.  Modification is done only in restoration.  An 
engineer is supposed to know the quality of his hearing and not 
compensate for it by modifying the recording.  Sometimes I will bring up 
highs in LISTENING to compensate for high frequency loss in my hearing, 
but not in a restoration.  Too bad he would reduce the highs instead.   
His experience should have told him that there would be sound up there 
that others can hear.
> To this day, I miss some of the highs I am accustomed to when I listen to the Bear Family "West Indian Rhythm" calypso set, which 78s are unlikely to be remastered in my lifetime, if not ever./steve
I got a copy of this set a few months ago but have not yet had a chance 
to sample it.  It would be disappointing if the highs were cut rather 
than rolled off.  One of the benefits of digital is being able to bring 
up highs without also bringing up surface noise from the reissue you are 
playing, such as an LP.  It's good to know I'm not crazy if I try to 
restore highs to Jack's transfers.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com