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My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 2:49 pm
by melvind
I wired a stereo phono cartridge for Vertical discs based on the information shown at the following TMF link.

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 10#p199470

I feel it worked really well on this Acoustic 1925 Diamond Disc. I have not recorded one of these records before so I don't have anything to compare it to. I would love feedback from those of you that have recorded Diamond Disc records. I will try an Electrically recorded record next. I only have a few, but I will look for a clean one to record.

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq3B_DvPvC0[/youtubehd]
I transferred the record using Audacity and then amplified the capture. From there I used the programs ClickRepair and DeNoise and tried not to go too far with either. There is always quite a lot of surface noise when you play Diamond Discs on an Edison machine. It is here too and I removed some of it but if I take more of it out the transfer is very poor sounding. I think this is a pretty good. It was a fun project getting the cartridge wired up even with my older fingers that don't like to work on small things any longer.

Re: My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 3:51 pm
by Wolfe
Sounds quite good, except a little (more) high pass filtering could eliminate that low frequency groove noise where there's no music content.

What kins of cartridge / stylus did you use ? Shure N78S ?

Re: My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 4:44 pm
by EdiBrunsVic
Yes, it sounds good and thanks for sharing it.

Re: My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:22 pm
by melvind
Wolfe wrote:Sounds quite good, except a little (more) high pass filtering could eliminate that low frequency groove noise where there's no music content.

What kins of cartridge / stylus did you use ? Shure N78S ?
Thanks for the comments and suggestion. I am struggling a bit with more high pass filtering with the software I have. I played with some things after reading the manual but I just made it worse. I think I need to do a bit more study to figure out exactly how to do that properly.

As for the cartridge and sylus; I do use a Shure N78s for my normal 78 disc recordings. But, I have another cartridge I wired for vertical recording so I could swap heads out on my turntable. It is a LP Gear AT9578 with what they said was a 78 stylus. They say it is 3 mil cartridge, but I do not believe that is the case. Or they put the wrong stylus on it when I ordered it. I am fairly sure what I got was an LP stylus. It plays LPs and Diamond Discs well, but not 78 records. It seems to be a pretty good cartridge for what I am using it for. Do you know of it?

Re: My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 6:17 pm
by Wolfe
I've not owned the AT9578. I do use LP Gear for my record playing needs and have so far not had a bad experience.

I remember not liking the DeNoise program very much. I do very much like and use often the same authors' Click Repair.

Audacity is free and provides more range of tools for 78 transfers all in one place, though what I really like is WavePad, but it costs 35 bucks.

Re: My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 6:57 pm
by donniej
Sounds great, and such a fantastic song!

Re: My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 7:21 pm
by alang
melvind wrote:I wired a stereo phono cartridge for Vertical discs based on the information shown at the following TMF link.

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 10#p199470

I feel it worked really well on this Acoustic 1925 Diamond Disc. I have not recorded one of these records before so I don't have anything to compare it to. I would love feedback from those of you that have recorded Diamond Disc records. I will try an Electrically recorded record next. I only have a few, but I will look for a clean one to record.

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq3B_DvPvC0[/youtubehd]
I transferred the record using Audacity and then amplified the capture. From there I used the programs ClickRepair and DeNoise and tried not to go too far with either. There is always quite a lot of surface noise when you play Diamond Discs on an Edison machine. It is here too and I removed some of it but if I take more of it out the transfer is very poor sounding. I think this is a pretty good. It was a fun project getting the cartridge wired up even with my older fingers that don't like to work on small things any longer.
I'm glad that my quest for understanding the wiring was helpful for you.
That is a very nice recording of a great tune. I am also playing around with the best way to play DDs and found that I get less hiss with an LP stylus compared to a 3 mil 78 stylus - at least on the handful records I tried. It seems to be advantageous to have the small stylus read the very bottom of the groove that has not been reached by an Edison DD Reproducer. Once I find the time to clean and record all my DDs I will see if that assumption holds true for all of them.

Thanks for sharing this great recording.
Andreas

Re: My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 7:48 pm
by Wolfe
I've found LP styli to work well with DD's too, but not always, and not with other kinds of vertically cut discs.

Re: My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:20 pm
by melvind
Wolfe wrote:I've found LP styli to work well with DD's too, but not always, and not with other kinds of vertically cut discs.
I think the groove of a Pathé will be way too big for this stylus. I will probably need a larger one eventually. But, others have said it is hard to get a modern stylus to track a Pathé record too. So, who knows.

Re: My First Diamond Disc transfer

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:28 pm
by melvind
I found a really clean electric Diamond Disc to transfer. I made a few modifications in the software, but I think most of the improvement comes from the cleaner record and the electric recording. Nice sound I think. A nice recording. I also recorded the other side which is Moonlit Waters with Vaughn De Leath. You can find that on my YouTube channel.

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGZbbhPxOFM[/youtubehd]