Old WWII 78rpm cardboard records

donp wrote on 7/8/2009, 7:27 AM

I was given two "records" from a USO recording studio made on Dec 22 1942for a GI home on leave to send to his parents. These are on sealed cardboard not vinal. One has heavy static and needle thuds when playing and you can bareily make out the voices. So how do I enhance the voices on this recording. I have tried several things. Some processes did work somewhat but not to my liking. The other is mostly clear and OK. I suspicion the one with static etc was played alot over the years while the other was not. Any help will be appreciated.

Comments

Steven Myers wrote on 7/8/2009, 9:21 AM

I would use iZotope RX and get rid of everything that doesn't sound like a voice. :)
It would be painstaking. It would be drudgery. No matter how good the results, it would still sound bad and not be fun.

donp wrote on 7/8/2009, 7:02 PM

Thanks, I have it and I'll give it a go.

farss wrote on 7/12/2009, 4:38 AM

Do you have a 78 needle?
You can also get from somewhere, 78 needles in a range of sizes. The concept being that a slightly larger or smaller needle will contact a different, less worn part of the groove.

Bob.

Randy Hayes wrote on 7/12/2009, 11:15 AM

I have done one of these. I could have benefited from having the correct needle apparently, but there was also a crack in it that made it extremely difficult to play. I am afraid I made it worse not having the right kind of needle, as in wearing it down during the process of capturing the audio. Beware!

donp wrote on 7/13/2009, 11:58 AM

I didn't have a 78 rpm needle just a 33/45 needle. The grooves were well worn in the one with most noise. I got them done though. The noisy one was still noisy though a little less so after messaging in Steinberg Wave Lab and then Izotop RX. The good recording was excellent not hardly any noise.