How to digitally switch to vertical cut

Share your phonograph repair & restoration techniques here
Post Reply
User avatar
WDC
Victor IV
Posts: 1015
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 5:07 am

How to digitally switch to vertical cut

Post by WDC »

In the following little tutorial I have made some screen shots to show you how you can easily digitize a vertical cut record, such as Diamond Discs or even Pathé's without having to re-wire anything. At the end, you will have a true vertical mono output of the very same quality as you were using a re-wired cartridge.


Although I regularly do use a different (commercial) program, in this tutorial we will use Audacity which is open source and therefore genuine free software.
The following screen shots apply to the 1.3.8 beta version because of some new essential features. Do not use any version prior to 1.3.0 or you may miss some important features.

In case you also would like to record with Audacity, you should ensure that you have appropriate settings made. Click on "Edit" > "Preferences" > "Quality"
Image
Make sure that your setting are made as above. If you prefer a higher sample format, you can set it to 24-bit but be sure that your hardware supports it. Otherwise, just leave it to regular 16-bit which is CD audio standard.


Now, we're ready to work with a stereo file. In this example I am using an already existing stereo file that will be now converted to vertical mono.


To open a .wav file, click on "File" > "Import" > "Audio"
Image


Select your file and click "Open", the .wav file will now appear:
Image


Now, we need to split our stereo file to be able to make changes to one channel seperately. Click on the little drop down button with the Arrow where the file name is, in this case it's "test 1". Then click on "Split Stereo Track":
Image


We now can select a single channel. To do so, click on the format description of one channel (see mouse cursor). It actually does not matter if you select the left or right channel. What matters is, that you just select one of them:
Image


Now click on "Effect" > "Invert" to invert the selected channel:
Image


We will then have to combine both free channels back to a stereo file as we had it before. Click on the drop down button and select "Make Stereo Track":
Image


Both channels are back linked again:
Image


Click now on "Tracks" > "Stereo Track to Mono":
Image


Congrats! You now have a now have a genuine vertical mono file! :D
Image


To save it, click "File" > "Export":
Image

This naggy tag window will appear, you can ingore it by clicking "OK":
Image

Give it a new name and save it as "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM":
Image

If you are working with 24-bit, you will have a to choose "Other uncompressed files", then "Options" to select your appropriate sample depth:
Image

That's it! :mrgreen:

Post Reply