Meloware's Phonograph Record Restorations

We live in an age of high fidelity. The reproduction of sound can be so good, that the listener might be fooled into thinking they are listening to live sound. One hundred years ago, recording technology was in it's infancy. This was long before the days of microphones, amplifiers, and stereo. The audience of that day might pay a whole dollar (a LOT of money) to become the proud owner of three minutes of song, talk, or music. The quality might have been worse than what we are used to hearing over a telephone today!

Art needs to be expressed in consideration of the limitations of the medium used. Stone sculpture is an expression of shape and surface, rather than color. A painting uses shading and color, to express form. An artist needs to be very aware of the advantages and limitations of the medium they use. The early record industry was well aware of what they could, and could not do with their new art. Voices, such as those owned by Miss Ada Jones, Billy Murray, and Arthur Collins, were employed because of the loud, clear qualities of their voices, which recorded well in the range they sang. Instrumental arrangements were chosen in a similar way. In listening to these early recordings, we have an opportunity to enjoy an art form, which existed only for a brief time. As technology improved, the expression this art changed, and would be never be repeated again.

It is Meloware's goal to offer these vintage recordings in a way that is as close to their original form as possible. Our restorations attempt to reverse the damage of wear and time, not to change them in some way that might make them more acceptable to a modern listener. We avoid doing any modifications, which the listener might notice as filtering, or computer processed noise reduction.

You will hear noise in our recordings. In most cases, this noise will be natural to the surface of the record and will be much the same as you might hear coming from playing an old Victrola. Some records may be more worn than others, but still may be enjoyed. The catalog listing will advise you on a particular record's condition.

Meloware invites you to hear examples of our recording philosophy, by visiting our audio download page, HERE. Be sure you select from our list of available MP3 files. For those of you who wish the sordid technical details, read on.

It should be remembered that any modern copy of an old record will be a modification, in some way. Some purists believe that recording with a microphone, while playing the record on a Victrola, will not change anything. This is not true. The quality of the microphone, the acoustics of the room, Victrola, etc., all have an effect on the result.

The needle used to play the record, the cartridge used, the amplification, equalization, and every other step needed to copy and play the old record will all affect the outcome. Meloware's ears have an opinion, like everybody else's. We do what we can, to make it sound good, but you decide that for yourself. Here are the basic details:

The records were mostly recorded at 78 rpm. In some cases, this will be adjusted, if we believe that the original recording speed was different. The latest set of recordings were all made with loud tone, steel needles, set into our Western Electric 4A reproducer. One needle, one play. More information about the 4A, including spectrum comparisons, can be found HERE.

The 4A magnetic reproducer produces a very high signal, so there is no need for added amplification, before digitizing to the sound. We record 16 bit samples, 44.1Khz mono. Yes, 32 bit would be nice, but 16 bit seems ok if we make sure to record at the highest volume possible, without allowing sampling distortion to occur. This will assure a nice dynamic range, for the recording.

The 4A is a monster, and is extremely heavy, compared to the modern, feather weight cartridges. Modern turntables, designed for LP's, just are not strong enough to spin the disk under this weight. Sooooo... we have retrieved a massive, early electric, induction motor driven turntable, which was a 1928 Orthophonic Victrola in it's former life. It gives us the power, and the speed control, but has an unfortunate vibration, at 120Hz.

The vibration does not seem to be a problem. These records have nothing you would want to hear, in this frequency range. Indeed, the surfaces of many old disks, are not perfect, and will produce a lot of other garbage in the frequency range between 20-200Hz. All of Meloware's recordings have a low frequency cut-off at 150Hz.

Depending on need, time, and want, many recordings are examined in fine detail for defects caused by wear, and other damage. Skips, cracks, gouges, pops, clicks, and even some groove wear can be erased. Some recordings require more than 8 hours of detailed work, before they are blessed. Audio programs can work automatically, but also may bull-doze their way through a recording. Our use of computer restoration tools are very selective. They are used only during the actual milliseconds which are necessary.

After any detail work is finished, the recording is given a final filter. The band pass frequency is typically 150-10000Hz. Nearly all of the record's signal is finished by 4000Hz, but the recording sounds 'dead' if the noise just above this signal is missing. Now, maybe you disagree. If you get any recordings from Meloware, go ahead and play with the tone controls.

Ok, that should be more information than anybody could ever want. You are welcome to email us questions, if we missed something you wanted explained. MAIL