Recording OLD acoustic 78s...sound quality, etc

[SteveinAlaska]

My deal at getting into home recording is to preserve and to be able to play a collection of 78s that I know date back to 1906. I am working with an ASUS laptop/Windows 7/Adobe Audition 3/Tascam MK 144 PC interface/ Shure 57B mic.
At the other end of this lineup, I am using a mid 1920s Brunswick portable with an unknown reproducer for now. I have 3 other machines that will be rebuilt and I think the BIG Columbia may give me better sound quality....these things are a world into themselves anyway!
What recording I have done has a "tinny" or hollow sound as if you were standing outside the house or room. My editing efforts have to mainly use the "restoration" function in efforts to remove the pops,clicks and hiss that come with the medium. Soooo, any help,tips,comments are welcome and I thank you.
BTW, see attachments

 

[Bobbsy]

There's a chap in France named Andrew Rose who runs a company called "Pristine Classical" that specialises in restoring old recordings including 78s. He actually uses Adobe Audition (but also has some rather expensive plug ins for it) and, once when he'd just won several awards for the quality of his restorations, he posted some of the details about his work flow over on the Audio Masters Audition forum.

You can find that thread HERE. The details I mentioned are in Post 11 in that thread.

Beyond that, though, I can tell you that a big change to you quality will be if you can find a way to transfer your disks electronically rather than miking the speaker in a portable. Even using some croc clips on the wires to the speaker, (with the volume kept low) and fed via a DI box would probably be a lot better. If you can find an old turntable with 78 rpm capabilities and feed that to the Phono input on an older stereo amp, that would be even better.

The other thing with 78s is the stylus used--Andrew Rose touches on that but it really is important to find one that "fits the groove" properly. One that's too small can really add to the noise--and too big can damage your records.

Hope this helps,

Bob

 

[LeadPaint]

That's a really cool idea, digitalizing those antique records!

 

[kip4]

some usb turntables do record at 33rpm and then use software to put them to right speed later not sure about the stylus though you'd have to check for compatability

 

[Strryder]

How does the portable player sound in the room? if it sounds fuller and less "tinny and hollow" before recording it, then finding the right setup can help you to capture it.

I would guess that being an acoustic player that there is no way to turn up the playback volume.

Maybe put the mic closer to the horn on the player to use the proximity effect to boost the low end a bit?

Using a large diaphram condenser mic instead of a dynamic mic should make a big difference as well, they are typically a lot more sensitive than a dynamic mic such as the SM57.

 

[witzendoz]

You could buy an old Garrard Turntable with 78rpm on it and use a phono pre in the hifi amp you have there and plug the line out into the interface. I used to have one but lent it to someone and it never returned, sigh!

When I was younger the turntables we had at home had a flip over needle with 78 one side and LP (33 & 45) on the other. These old turntables had a crystal cartridge with more output than the newer magnetic cartridge, If you can find one of these you could modify it to give you a direct input into the line in of the interface.

Cheers Alan.

 

[SteveinAlaska]

After posting and reading comments here and on a gramaphone website, I disassembled my system, performed some maintenance and reassembled with changes. As you can see by the attachments my workflow to record.

mic inserted in soundbox of acoustic player > reel-to-reel recording using headphones/volume control/ tape counter for assist > to Tascam PC interface > Adobe Audition software.

Thought about routing through amp/receiver but for now will work like this.