Vacuum-tube audio amps are a dead format.

No, wait--they're not.

Vacuum-tube audio amps are a dead format.

riredale,

You're right. Made me think. Same is true of 33 1/3. DJ "scratching." Forgot about that.

so what's a "dead format"? One one not used for recording anymore? Playback? In what industry?

Super-8 was a fine format :-(

I'm still looking at getting into 72rpm. Got the disks, just need a playback unit now...

"This is a dead Format! If you hadn't NAILED it to the DVD, it would be lying at the bottom of the cage, with its Pixels in the Air!"

Wire recording is a dead format.
MicroMV is a dead format
VHS cameras are a dead format (OK, not dead, but decaying, rotting, and completely toothless)
Betamax is a dead format
7.5 ips reels are a dead format (I just had my old Roberts repaired, cost 4 times as much for the repair as the machine originally cost).
But bell-bottom jeans are back, so maybe 8-track cassettes are gonna return.

I'm still looking at getting into 72rpm. Got the disks, just need a playback unit now...

72 rpm is REALLY old, although not unheard of. Many of the turn-of-the-century recordings were at strange speeds. 78 rpm became more or less the standard by the 1920s.

If you want any info on 78, I did lots of restoration several years back, and worked out the details of how to do EQ in Soundforge when the audio is captured through a standard 33 1/3 RIAA equalized preamp. Basically you have to do the math to "un-EQ" the recording to remove the RIAA curve, and then do the proper EQ for the brand and era of 78 you are recording. I have info for most of the major brands.

If you want to hear some absolutely amazing and wonderful 78 restorations, visit this guy's site:

Jeffrey Licthman

I bet you didn't know a dead format could sound so good. Here's one you'll recognize, from 1930:

Stardust

Note the amount of bass, something almost no one heard back in those days because the playback equipment usually had such limited speakers. But the bass is there.

He uses SoundForge for his restoration, along with truncated styli, etc.

Technical Info

I don't think it's fair to say 16mm is a dead format; you can still easily and readily buy fresh film for 16mm cameras, and get it processed and transferred. For that matter, you can do the same with Super 8, so that's not dead.

Now, 9.5mm... THAT's a dead format!

The Stardust piece is remarkable. You mean to say he goes through the entire song and "paints" over every click and pop?

I also notice that the beginning of the recording is much better than the end, where the groove velocity is much less and the tops of the waveforms have been worn away. I guess there's some damage that you just can't repair.

The Stardust piece is remarkable. You mean to say he goes through the entire song and "paints" over every click and pop?

It's not even his best work. Not by far. It was just the easiest to post, and the most familiar. Also, he only has a small fraction of his work posted at any given point in time, which is part of his agreement with the RIAA (he does this all quite legally).

As for his click/pop, I am quite certain that he does not do manual click/pop reduction. What he was referring to in his technical notes is that he applies different strengths of click/pop, turning it up until he hears artifacts, and then backing off. Because, as you noted, the nature of the noise changes during the course of each record, he apparently does each portion of the record with different strength. He wrote that a long time ago, and I'll bet he now probably only breaks up each record into a small number of sections.

As to damage you can't repair, the toughest thing is the "chatter" you get with high frequencies. You'll hear it clearly during any of the trumpet playing on "Stardust." The problem is that at the tremendous velocity of the needle going through the groove of a 12" record spinning more than once each second, especially on the outer tracks, once the needle starts vibrating at a high frequency, the "skittering" from the friction with the groves starts to resonate with that frequency, and you get lots of distortion. The SoundForge Vinyl Restoration actually can "smooth out" some of this distortion (also can reduce the obnoxiousness of inter-modulation distortion). This is an "off-label" use of that feature, and one that I don't think even Jeffrey has discovered.

Anyway, if anyone ever actually has to do 78 restoration, drop me a line, and I'll send my templates.

I take it the posters who suggested that vinyl and DJ scratching are dead were either joking or live in some godforsaken outpost on the tundra?

:O)

In L.A. at least, vinyl sells like hotcakes still, and DJs scratch seven days a week, some vinyl, some CDs with special scratch decks.

Thanks for the 78 rpm info and site, what a blast!

I saw a USB turntable at Costco today for $119.95. In addition to the USB audio interface it also has RCA line-level audio outputs.

"This is a dead Format! If you hadn't NAILED it to the DVD, it would be lying at the bottom of the cage, with its Pixels in the Air!"

Hysterical - love it!

Mark

Just got my new B & H catalog and they are still selling black & white film. Can you believe it? Also super8 and 16mm film. I used to have a Pentax 6 x 7 with a bunch of lenses. Wish I still had it. Every time I would take a picture the sound could be heard about 100 ft away. Was not a wimp camera.
JJK

The 78rpm example is excellent ! As soon as I get into my new house I'll finally be able to unpack all my old 78s. (Me saying 72rpm shows how long it's been - must have been thinking 72dpi)

What about 30x40cm film?

Perhaps you think that is a dead format?

Noooo, a friend of mine bought a Deardorff camera for this format a few months ago and he just loves the picture quality he gets from it. That and his 400 mm wideangle lens or whatever it was...

Akaii 1/4" BW videotape is a dead medium

No part of it is available today -

2 inch videotape is also a dead format.

But 2 inch audio tape is alive and well in bigger pro sound studios; running 24 tks on each tape and locking two machines together to get 48 tracks at 30 inches per second. That wonderful analogue sound in my ears brings tears to my eyes.

45 rpm

Audiograph.

I had to restore about fifty of these for a Nobel Peace prize nominated actor, and nobody had a player. Turned into one of the neatest gigs I've ever had.

Long live dead formats!

I've been recording since the early 60s, the problem with this is the fact that I have to keep and maintain machines to play every format on which I have ever recorded. I didn't intend for it to happen, but I have quite the little audio and video recorder museum going here. The only exception to this is a 2" Quad machine. I transferred most of the Quad stuff to 1" Type-C when I had the chance and I've got a 1" machine on which to play it back. I kind of miss all the mechanical drama of the "old" machines with the big spinning reels.

" have quite the little audio and video recorder museum going here"

Thank goodness we can still get tubes, and there are lots of companies that will cut custom rubber belts, pinch rollers, and idler wheels. Only way to keep the museum going.