sonic feast
Nov. 24th, 2007 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kip_w.
I was poking through LPs, looking for one I didn't find (yet!) and realized that when I was going through the records at Mom & Dad's, I had found the Mickey Mouse Club LPs that I listened to so much as a kid that they've replaced some of my DNA. I got all four sides recorded in raw format this evening, and have made the divisions between cuts on the first of those sides. These are so noisy (I don't think we ever had sleeves for them, though I have now rectified this) that I can't look and see where one cut ends and another begins. Anyway, many of them run into one another, especially Jimmie Dodd's little strings of good advice.
It's so nice to be using Sound Forge and have minute control over what I do. The beginning of one cut was wiggly, like the record player had been jounced, so instead of trying to fix it with the equivalent of darkroom magic, I put the record on again, recorded about ten seconds, and slapped it seamlessly into the recording. The only drawback to this wonderful technology is that the temptation to keep messing with stuff is near infinite.
I also found some shellac 78s of amateur recordings that Dad and relatives made. Dad and Aunt Linda play movements two through four of Beethoven's "Spring" sonata for piano and violin, and Uncle Don sings some tenor songs with Dad playing accompaniment. I've had the Beethoven on tape (and then mp3) for many years, and I think most of the songs as well, but I may see if I can pull a better recording.
There were two small-size 78s of Dad playing solo. One was in such alarmingly bad shape, and so fragile, that I put it on the turntable as soon as I got it downstairs. There was a break in the disk itself which could have gaped open if I'd let it, and there were what looked like little chips where the surface medium was getting ready to peel off and try its luck elsewhere. I put it on and played it at 45, not having the 78 turntable hooked up (and not wanting to use it for something this delicate anyway), but it turned out to be unlistenable on both sides. Constant crackling noise, very quiet recording underneath, and it wanted to play the same loop over and over, no matter where I placed the needle. The second side, with the conclusion of the piece (Prokofiev's Toccata, opus 11, recorded in 1947) might have been better -- it looked better -- but not enough to bother trying to capture it. I encased it between two pieces of corrugated cardboard and labeled it, in case science can one day find a cure for it. Maybe it's not a big loss. The comments on the label indicated a degree of dissatisfaction with the performance.
The other one had two solos from 1949. Neither one was complete, as far as I can determine. The Prokofiev (again) trails off before the climactic run to the top of the keyboard and final exclamation, and the variations (Handel, I think) don't reach any conclusive finale. The surface noise was there again, but was merely hideous, and somewhat short of completely unbearable. I calculated, using long division, that using Sound Forge's time compression feature to bring it to 57.7% of its length would make it, effectively, recorded at 78. No doubt I'm a shade off, but I was using the computer to record with and didn't want to mess it up by playing with the calculator at the same time. I made a cardboard sheath for that record as well.
I may harvest some more cardboard for some of the other home recordings I found. Seems prudent. There's also a speech my grandfather recorded. The hard-to-read note (spidery handwriting on an ancient piece of masking tape) says that the radio station was afraid to use it. That might be interesting. There's also an LP of the choir from the church Dad played at for years in Fort Collins, and he's listed as one of the second tenors.
ps: Here's a pastel drawing I found between a couple of records. It's not signed, but it's the kind of thing Mom would do, though not nearly often enough. She drew, and she cartooned, and in later years, she hardly picked up a pencil. Too busy picking up after us, I guess.
Buzz, buzz.
.
I was poking through LPs, looking for one I didn't find (yet!) and realized that when I was going through the records at Mom & Dad's, I had found the Mickey Mouse Club LPs that I listened to so much as a kid that they've replaced some of my DNA. I got all four sides recorded in raw format this evening, and have made the divisions between cuts on the first of those sides. These are so noisy (I don't think we ever had sleeves for them, though I have now rectified this) that I can't look and see where one cut ends and another begins. Anyway, many of them run into one another, especially Jimmie Dodd's little strings of good advice.
It's so nice to be using Sound Forge and have minute control over what I do. The beginning of one cut was wiggly, like the record player had been jounced, so instead of trying to fix it with the equivalent of darkroom magic, I put the record on again, recorded about ten seconds, and slapped it seamlessly into the recording. The only drawback to this wonderful technology is that the temptation to keep messing with stuff is near infinite.
I also found some shellac 78s of amateur recordings that Dad and relatives made. Dad and Aunt Linda play movements two through four of Beethoven's "Spring" sonata for piano and violin, and Uncle Don sings some tenor songs with Dad playing accompaniment. I've had the Beethoven on tape (and then mp3) for many years, and I think most of the songs as well, but I may see if I can pull a better recording.
There were two small-size 78s of Dad playing solo. One was in such alarmingly bad shape, and so fragile, that I put it on the turntable as soon as I got it downstairs. There was a break in the disk itself which could have gaped open if I'd let it, and there were what looked like little chips where the surface medium was getting ready to peel off and try its luck elsewhere. I put it on and played it at 45, not having the 78 turntable hooked up (and not wanting to use it for something this delicate anyway), but it turned out to be unlistenable on both sides. Constant crackling noise, very quiet recording underneath, and it wanted to play the same loop over and over, no matter where I placed the needle. The second side, with the conclusion of the piece (Prokofiev's Toccata, opus 11, recorded in 1947) might have been better -- it looked better -- but not enough to bother trying to capture it. I encased it between two pieces of corrugated cardboard and labeled it, in case science can one day find a cure for it. Maybe it's not a big loss. The comments on the label indicated a degree of dissatisfaction with the performance.
The other one had two solos from 1949. Neither one was complete, as far as I can determine. The Prokofiev (again) trails off before the climactic run to the top of the keyboard and final exclamation, and the variations (Handel, I think) don't reach any conclusive finale. The surface noise was there again, but was merely hideous, and somewhat short of completely unbearable. I calculated, using long division, that using Sound Forge's time compression feature to bring it to 57.7% of its length would make it, effectively, recorded at 78. No doubt I'm a shade off, but I was using the computer to record with and didn't want to mess it up by playing with the calculator at the same time. I made a cardboard sheath for that record as well.
I may harvest some more cardboard for some of the other home recordings I found. Seems prudent. There's also a speech my grandfather recorded. The hard-to-read note (spidery handwriting on an ancient piece of masking tape) says that the radio station was afraid to use it. That might be interesting. There's also an LP of the choir from the church Dad played at for years in Fort Collins, and he's listed as one of the second tenors.
ps: Here's a pastel drawing I found between a couple of records. It's not signed, but it's the kind of thing Mom would do, though not nearly often enough. She drew, and she cartooned, and in later years, she hardly picked up a pencil. Too busy picking up after us, I guess.
Buzz, buzz.
.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-25 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-26 01:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-26 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-26 01:10 am (UTC)I love those old 78's. I have been rummaging through thrift stores because of the plethora of 78's, etc. My father told me he would give me his old recordings of big band music when he learned of my passion about these recordings.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-26 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 12:23 am (UTC)Have you used any other sound editing tool? I've just started in with Audacity, which should be fine for a beginner like me (assuming it is a beginner's tool). Is there some feature of SoundForge that you can't live without?
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 12:30 am (UTC)Sound Forge has graphic editing, which I have used quite a bit. I like being able to fix skips with it -- get the 'missing' bit by hook or crook, and then lay it smoothly in.
That said, I don't know if other programs might work better. I paid $69 for Sound Forge, and it seems like I've gotten my money's worth.
I think I might get the pastel framed. I'm pretty sure Mom drew it.
And ps to the original post. I found the LP I was looking for, and the tracks I wanted are in my player now.