[78-L] Record Noises - Identify and Understand Cause

[David Lennick]

I'd heard or read that Anthony Griffith used this process, so make of it  what 
you will. In looking for any online references I came across something else 
that goes off this topic but is still interesting, namely defective recordings:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.music.classical/0OSUhbKMu0E

As it happens I transferred an album last night by Paul Hoffert, not yet the 
rock musician but an aspiring jazz pianist. The title track, The Song Is You, 
goes on for about 6 minutes and then the level drops rather quickly, you can 
hear dropouts, and then the song fades out entirely..in mid-note. Obviously the 
tape had gotten twisted or loused up and they couldn't salvage the rest of the 
track (and didn't have a backup). I'm amazed that it was issued!

dl

On 1/13/2014 6:06 PM, DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
> No there is nothing in this, I don't even think it's an urban legend.
>
> I see there are so many answers to this so I'm sorry if I repeat something that has already been said.  Centrifugal or centripetal forces don't really enter into it, since the cartridge/stylus assembly isn't spinning.  Playing the record backwards shouldn't offer any solution to the noise because the noise is already there, (and if you have a turntable that does allow playing the record backwards, make sure you rotate the arm across the centre spindle so that the record isn't pushing against the stylus).  The spindle side of the groove may get more wear because of skating forces which weren't really addressed, in my experience, until the Dual Changers of the mid to late '60s.  These forces would push the stylus against the inner groove wall, no matter which direction the record is spinning.  My preamp does allow playing back just one side of the groove so I know this method works on some records, but rarely if ever have I found that it has any
>   effect on blasting.  Once again, I believe that blasting is caused by the poor compliance of the styli with which records were commonly played before the LP era.
>
> db
>
>
>
>
>
> On Monday, January 13, 2014 5:23:57 PM, Jeff Lichtman<jeff at swazoo.com>  wrote:
>
> It's fairly common for one side of a groove to be more worn than the other. The inside of the groove usually gets more wear because of skating forces, which tend to pull the stylus inward. When this happens, one of the channels will be noisier than the other. The simplest solution is to use only the quieter channel. This introduces other problems - vertical noise won't be cancelled when you play back only one channel - but these are usually easy to cope with. A lot of vertical noise is low-frequency, so it can be filtered out with a high-pass filter.
>>
>> It's not necessary to do something elaborate like playing the record backwards. If you did play a record this way, the record surface would push on the stylus rather than pull on it, which would probably do bad things to the stylus and cantilever. To solve this, you could place the tonearm on the far side of the spindle, but that would mess up tracking (the stylus angle would be wrong). I don't know what it would do to tracking forces.
>>
>>> This reminds me of something I once heard but have never attempted: the
>>> plausible notion that centripetal force exerted on the
>   stylus will cause
>>> more wear on the inside face of the groove than the outside.
>>>
>>> Andrew in Luxembourg
>>
>>
>>                         -        Jeff Lichtman
>>                                  jeff at swazoo.com
>>                                  Check out Swazoo Koolak Photography
>>                                      at http://swazoo.com/
>>
>>
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