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

[eugene hayhoe]

And then there are those of us who have spent years next to P.A. stacks & the like... when I had my hearing tested for the first time in some years a couple of years ago, I was surprised that I hear as well as I do when I saw the chart 'droppin' like the Great Depression.'

--- On Sun, 12/26/10, Graham Newton <gn at audio-restoration.com> wrote:

> From: Graham Newton <gn at audio-restoration.com>
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Jack Towers, truncating the high frequencies
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Date: Sunday, December 26, 2010, 3:40 PM
> Michael Biel wrote:
> 
> >> 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.  
> 
> > 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.
> 
> It is a well documented medical phenomenon, that as we get
> older our high 
> frequency hearing ability declines, such that at 65 years
> of age the upper 
> limit is about 1/2 of what an 18 year old person could
> hear.
> 
> I make more and more reference to the frequency displays in
> my equipment to 
> confirm what is there and what I am hearing (or not
> hearing).
> The DK Audio Spectrum display or CEDAR Cambridge's Spectrum
> Analyzer (which is 
> a lab quality device) are invaluable to make sure I am not
> making errors based 
> on what I know that I can't hear any more.
> 
> Often, taking a known-to-be-excellent recording and
> displaying it's 
> characteristics gives a good reference for what decisions
> you could or should 
> be making when working on recordings.  Without these
> tools, older audio people 
> can easily make errors that would be blatantly obvious to
> younger ears.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ... Graham Newton
> 
> -- 
> Audio Restoration by Graham Newton, http://www.audio-restoration.com
> World class professional services applied to tape or
> phonograph records for
> consumers and re-releases, featuring CEDAR's CAMBRIDGE
> processes.
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