'I could have had you....'--Nora Bayes w/Art Hickman (1920).

[Viva-Tonal]

This is the earliest example I've seen of a singer's record where the accompanying orchestra received co-billing. (Al Jolson's Brunswick records, for instance, often specially credited the orchestras of Isham Jones, Gene Rodemich, Carl Fenton, et al, several years later.) Typically a singer was backed by the usual studio orchestra, conducted by Charles Prince, with 'Orchestra Accompaniment' the only designation on the labels.



Unfortunately, for such a good record, this copy isn't in very good condition. It's noisier than it looks. It's a grainy record even compared to a lot of Columbias of the time, and lots of small scratches made matters worse. Even so, I decided I had to post it here. Too good a song and production not to.

It's Columbia A3347, matrix 79423-4, recorded 18 September 1920. Transferred at 78.6 rpm.

This is an mp3, where I had a go at filtering the top end: http://www.box.net/shared/hiel1yzr4o

I don't have 'Click Repair' or any computer-based audio restoration means. For those of you who do, and would like an 'unfiltered' transfer of this with which to work some magic (I did cut the 60 and 120 Hx hum/rumble down, but that is all), here's a .wav file of the recording, sans fade in or fade-outs, with which to work such magic (Warning: this is a 31 mb file!).

http://www.badongo.com/file/14782209

Enjoy!

[richardh]

Thats a great tune..but it could do with a little bit of click repair. I went to the download site bu couldn't work out what I needed to do to download the file. Nothing seemed clickable...can you help?

If it hasn't been done already I am happy to run it through the software I have.

RJ

[Viva-Tonal]

Which one? The Badongo .wav version? On that, the first thing to click is the red Download tab at the top. Several seconds later there appears (over on the right) one of those anti-spam jumbled graphics thingies, with a window for Enter the text above under it. Type in whatever you see, then click Download Your File Here underneath that, and it should work.

[richardh]

Here is my attempt to remove some of the clicks. This really is a tricky one and whilst the clicks are reduced im not sure how much of an actual improvement it is. Anyway see what you think. I've also fiddled with the equilisation - but let me know if you'd prefer a "flat" mix.

I could have had you - edit

RJ

[melvind]

I thought some of you might enjoy this poster. It's pretty fun. It's A Nora Bayes Exclusive Columbia Artist poster.



Dan

[Viva-Tonal]

Here is my attempt to remove some of the clicks. This really is a tricky one and whilst the clicks are reduced im not sure how much of an actual improvement it is. Anyway see what you think. I've also fiddled with the equilisation - but let me know if you'd prefer a "flat" mix.

I could have had you - edit

RJ

It is a bit better than my 'filtered' version! Not being familiar with the mechanics of 'click repair', and not knowing if it works better with a full frequency transfer, or if it would work better with one with the top end knowcked down a bit, I posted a full frequency dub for the .wav version. (I went ahead and filtered the low end troubles with rumble and hum though.) I also left lots of the record noise before and after the song if the program needed extra 'samples' of the noise, instead of the fades in and out I normally do.

You could have a go at the 'filtered' one I did and see how much better it works with that.

Thanks!

[Wolfe]

For what it's worth, it seems to me like ClickRepair works best when the high frequencies are somewhat boosted, that is, after RIAA de-emphasis, but before final EQ and filtering. It seems to 'catch' offending noise a little better, but it could just be my imagination.