When they find those lost acetates...

[chris.metcalfe]

... they could use this process to master them.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11851842

[The Heartical Don]

I'm not interested. I hate redundant 'hissing noises in the background'. So: no, thanks.

[The Shift]

I'm not interested. I hate redundant 'hissing noises in the background'. So: no, thanks.

So you wouldn't listen to rediscovered SMiLE acetates cos they have a little hiss? Even the Don must have played the odd wonky bootleg or two?

[The infamous Baldwin Organ]

Thanks for sharing. That was really cool.

[The Heartical Don]

I'm not interested. I hate redundant 'hissing noises in the background'. So: no, thanks.

So you wouldn't listen to rediscovered SMiLE acetates cos they have a little hiss? Even the Don must have played the odd wonky bootleg or two?

Didn't you know that bootlegs are illegal? 

[Dr. Tim]

That is a neat technology.  Some libraries (and I think the LOC too) have the Finial (sp?) turntable, which plays groove records with a tuned laser, somewhat akin to how a laser plays a CD.  The results are pretty good, though the Finial never caught on as a consumer or semi-pro piece of equipment.  Too expensive and a little quirky (pieces of dirt in the groove can sound like cannon shots instead of pops).  Maybe this IRENE thing is more accurate in the long run, since it creates a single linear track which presumably can be uploaded as a high-rez WAV file and edited/EQ'd in the usual ways.  As long as the acetate is in decent shape, not played too much,  you'd be surprised how good the sound can be when played back on a good reproducing turntable, which the LOC has. Sundazed (or someone like it) has brought out a number of garage compilations where the only source materials were acetates, the bands are long gone, as are the tapes, and no records of those songs were ever pressed commercially.  The sound is a little hissy, but no worse than a hissy tape copy.

[JeffRetro]

Actually there's software out there called ClickRepair that does a pretty amazing job at reducing/eliminating surface noise.  I recorded a .wav of one of the "origiinal" files from the npr site above and then applied ClickRepair at its "Brass Default" setting (brass/horns can have a tendency to break up when NR is applied, so they have a separate setting for that to take that into account), and it sounded MUCH better than the IRENE version on the npr site, eliminating much more of the surface noise without adding any hiss.

It's not the cheapest software - it's $40 after a 21-day free trial - but it's been worth it to me as I have been or will be transferring several BB-related non-CD albums (Kathy Dalton, the Martin & Finley single, King Harvest's second album, some Charles Lloyd, the first two Celebration albums, Rocky Pamplin, etc.).

You can read more about it at http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~briand/sound/software_download/clickrepair_info.html.

[chris.metcalfe]

Thanks Jeff, I could use that one.