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The Making of
a Restoration CD
The original 78s
The whole project came out of a web search.
I regularly trawl the Internet for snippets about Moeran to
include in the site, and early in 2002 I was doing just such
a search when I unearthed "Tim's
Old Records Site". Tim Edwards is an Englishman living
in rural Indiana, and runs a business selling and auctioning
from his huge collection of 78s and vintage LPs. He'd listed
a set of discs which made up the Symphony in G minor, and
when I contacted him to enquire about shipping across the
Atlantic he told about the other Moeran 78s he'd got tucked
away somewhere.
A quick straw poll later of the Moeran mailing
list members convinced me that it would be financially viable
to buy the discs, get them sent across the Atlantic, and get
to work turning them into a CD. I'd long had my doubts about
certain aspects of the Dutton restorations of these recordings
and wondered if I might improve on them - or at least provide
an alternative to them. I've also noticed how increasingly
difficult the Dutton CDs have become to track down - and of
course the works are split across 3 CDs with works by other
composers.
The transfers
I was amazed to find, when the discs turned
up carefully wrapped and intact, that they looked on first
inspection as if they'd never been played. In retrospect I
think most of the Moeran LPs I've bought second hand have
been in a similar condition - perhaps they've been bought
out of curiosity and then shelved. Anyway, there were clearly
none of the perils associated with 78s - bad surface wear,
huge scratches or cracks, mould, mildew or ingrained dust.
No doubt they would benefit from a refreshing wash after all
these years, but I decided the best option would be to digitise
them straight away as an insurance policy against accidental
damage.
This allowed me to have my first go at a bit
of restoration, and I chose the Heddle Nash disc as something
to start on and refine my techniques. I was at first disappointed,
and spent much time trying different methods before arriving
at something I felt I might live with. It turns out that the
Nash disc, which was released in 1945, suffers far more from
shellac surface noise than the other, earlier discs, and I
wonder if this has anything to do with wartime materials shortages.
The same problem is apparent on the Dutton transfers.
After a gentle wash in mild detergent and lukewarm
water, a good rinse with distilled water and a few hours racked
up to air dry, I was ready to replace the 'dirty' transfers
with fresh, 'clean' ones. I opted to use my Rega 78 stylus
on a Rega Planar turntable. This forced me to play in at 45
RPM and use the computer to correct the speed and pitch, something
which worked well - at this stage it seemed overly extravagant
to buy a specialist 78 deck for one CD! A good deal of comparative
research has been done by a number of people to see if there's
any audible difference between digitising at 78 or at lower
speeds, and nobody's managed to hear a difference when using
good equipment - indeed there may be a theoretical benefit
from the lower centrifugal forces on the stylus when playing
at a slower speed.
The restoration
I developed a precise 10-step technique for
the restoration which I wrote down and taped to the side of
my PC's monitor, being careful to be consistent as I worked
one disc side at a time so that the final reassembly would
bring movements together as smoothly as possible. All records
released prior to 1955 were treated with their manufacturer's
own equilisation to try and squeeze the highest fidelity out
of the grooves of their records, and it's important to recreate
this equalisation in order to get the correct tonal balance
in the final restoration. Modern amplifiers use a standardised
circuit which has the effect of a massive reduction of treble
on these particular discs, as well as a bass mismatch.
With this corrected I then moved onto the scratches
and surface noise. Even with 78s that have never been played
this is inevitable, though it tends to be concentrated in
the upper frequencies beyond the tonal range of the recordings
of the day. I ran two separate processes to declick and remove
tiny crackles, both modified versions of my LP cleaning technique
which works so well for Pristine
Audio customers. I then performed a digital analysis of
the background noise on each side to generate a noise profile,
which was then used to reduce this noise by 15dB.
Then I came to the reassembly into continuous
movements and whole pieces. Longer movements of the Symphony
were split across three or four sides, each on different discs,
and with variations in surface noise between the discs and
the start and end of each disc (there's always a gradual reduction
in treble between the start and finish on 78s) there's a careful
job of cross-fading and tonal adjusment to do here. In some
instances there was a clear and obvious break in the music
across a disc join, in others it was a case of blending the
two sides together, with close attention to the score and
other recordings.
After the final assembly the real judgements
come: although the discs are technically 'correct' in their
equilisation and a lot of processing has been done there is
still a lot of surface noise present. Most of this is concentrated
in the upper frequencies beyond the music - and would have
been naturally filtered out by the nature of gramophone reproduction
systems of the time. It's the job of the restorer to equalise
to a happy medium which retains as much music as possible
whilst suppressing as much noise as possible - and to leave
it sounding as natural as possible. In fact leaving a small
amount of noise in at higher frequencies can have the effect
of fooling the brain into 'hearing' higher freqencies in the
music that aren't actually there! There's also the question
of whether one should add reverberation or similar to old
recordings to make them more palatable to modern ears.
The consultation
Having created a number of potential 'final'
versions of each piece I offered the disc to members of the
Moeran mailing list. These early buyers received two CDs with
different final interpretations of the pieces and e-mailed
their considered opinions either to the mailing list or directly
to me. At a most basic level there was no overall verdict
between the two CDs - the general feeling was that both were
excellent, and the votes split pretty evenly between the two.
However, having taken into account all the comments and considerations
of these Moeran experts, and a number of other music lovers,
including the Andrew McGregor, presenter of BBC Radio Three's
"CD
Review", I reached a final conclusion which draws
from both of the 'final' discs. I also acted on suggestions
to try and further even out side changes and 'straighten out'
the very slight wavering in pitch which was apparent at the
end of some disc sides.
The result is a CD which even before release
has received close scrutiny from those listeners who know
Moeran better than most, and (with one exception) has been
given a big thumbs up by them. Clearly recordings of this
vintage do not appeal to all listeners, but it is my belief
that these recordings are so good, and the restorations so
successful, that most music lovers will find them quite delightful
to listen to and will return to them again and again. Check
out the audio samples
on this site to hear what I mean!
How to Order:
You can pay by sterling cheque, International
Money Order or cash notes, or by credit card via PayPal. Prices
including postage and packing are as follows:
UK: £10.00 - Eire and Mainland Europe:
€20.00 - USA and rest of world: $20.00
Cheques payable to Pristine Audio to:
Andrew Rose
Pristine Audio
162 The Street
Boughton under Blean
Faversham
Kent ME13 9AL
England
Or pay $20 securely (all territories) on
your Visa, Matercard, Discovery or Amex using PayPal:
Recordings restored by Pristine
Audio
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