Bunch of Blues

[Marc Hildebrant]

From September of 1923. Diamond Disc from The Original Memphis Five.

A Bunch Of Blues.mp3

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[Lah Ca]

Impressive sound quality.

Details on how you did the digital transfer/recording and any post recording clean up would be interesting.

[Marc Hildebrant]

Lah Ca,

I used a 0.7 mil conical stylus, Ortofon cartridge, and Realloop Turntable at 80 RPM. Stereo recording at 96 K and 16 bits.

Next, I used software to remove noise spikes and convert to monaural. Then, convert to 441. K samples per second. Apply continuous noise filter to remove background surface noise.

The software is from the Diamondcut Software Company.

I have spent many hours working on my methods and have enjoyed bringing back these wonderful old recordings!

Marc

[Lah Ca]

Wonderful indeed.

I greatly enjoyed that Memphis Five track. Thank you for sharing both the tune and the results of your work.

Bravo!

I have a bit more curiosity.

You say the sources is a Diamond Disk.

I did not realize that vertically cut disks could be played on an unmodified conventional stereo turntable. Most interesting. I know that Esoteric Sound/Rek-O-Kut makes special vertical-play head shell adapters for their higher-end turntables, and I have often looked at these archival/transcription decks on their website with longing in my heart. And I have always just assumed that special playback equipment was required to play Edison and Pathé style disks with a standard modern phono-cartridge--perhaps wrongly, it seems..

[Marc Hildebrant]

Lah Ca,

While I do have an Edison Diamond Disc player, I use a "modern" turntable and magnetic cartridge to transcribe the music. In my studies, I have found that the Edison playback limits what you can hear from these records and by using today's playback electronics, you can hear more of the music that was recorded.

All vertical and lateral recorded music should use a Stereo magnetic cartridge, and the Left and Right Channels are recorded (96 K samples per second). Using software from the https://diamondcut.com/ web site, you can then separate the vertical channel for the music. The reason relates to the methods used to create a Stereo channel on an LP (two 45-degree vectors).

In my retirement years, I learned how to use the software from the mentioned web site to restore my Edison and 78 RPM records. There was no reference material and over many years and hours, I decided to write down what I learned. I'm at my eighth version of the Handbook I wrote. If interested, try the electronic pdf version at the web site.

You can also ask me questions here on the forum for more detail, but the book shows specific filters and pictures of my set-up. I also added to the book a reference section to explain the audio principals I learned.

Marc

[drh]

...I did not realize that vertically cut disks could be played on an unmodified conventional stereo turntable. ...

If you simply want to play the records on a modern turntable without intervention of computer software, the simple way is to reverse the right channel "hot" and "ground" leads of a cartridge, those little wires that connect the cartridge pins to the headshell. (Probably could swap the left ones, but I always have swapped the right.) Then play the record in mono. You'll get a vertical cut monaural signal. If you have many vertical cut records, you may want to get a second cartridge and headshell and just leave them set up that way so you can mount them onto your tonearm without messing with the delicate little cartridge leads every time you want to switch between vertical and lateral. Ideally, you would want styli sized for the vertical cut record grooves, too, one for Edison and one for Pathé, and you'll need a turntable with adequate pitch variability (capable of 80 RPM for Edison, somewhat above 80 for the less consistent outside start Pathé, and up to 100 for center-start Pathé) but you'd want those regardless of your playback method, computerized or not.

Note that you can't do this if you have a so-called "P-mount" cartridge/tonearm setup, in which the cartridge pins go directly into a socket at the end of the tonearm without exposed wires, but I don't think anybody has made P-mount gear in years and years now.

[Marc Hildebrant]

drh,

You are correct that your method will allow you to play a vertical cut record. However, the preamps for the cartridge expect a nominal 47 Kilo Ohm load for each channel, and by correcting them as you described, the resistance and sound will suffer somewhat (the electrical load determines the damping factor on the stylus).

With the old records the change in sound will be slight, but I prefer to operate the preamplifier as designed.

Marxc

[Damfino59]

I did not realize that vertically cut disks could be played on an unmodified conventional stereo turntable. Most interesting. I know that Esoteric Sound/Rek-O-Kut makes special vertical-play head shell adapters for their higher-end turntables, and I have often looked at these archival/transcription decks on their website with longing in my heart. And I have always just assumed that special playback equipment was required to play Edison and Pathé style disks with a standard modern phono-cartridge--perhaps wrongly, it seems..

Years ago when I started my interest in playing vintage records I had a Dual 1216 turntable. Duals were popular and extra cartridge holders were available. Reading an article about playing vintage records in one of the hi fi magazines from the 1970’s, I discovered the reverse wiring trick for playing vertically cut records. I had a receiver with dual phono inputs, so I now had available a separate 78 player. Of course I was using the RIAA preamps available but it worked.

Later I started using vintage monaural tube amps with switchable recording curves. Now I use the modern but no longer available Souvenir preamp from KAB Electro Acoustic's. This preamp has a built in vertical/lateral switch.

Nowadays with 3d printing replica Dual cartridge sleds are available on eBay. With a refurbished Dual three speed turntable one would be able to open up the world of Edison discs. Of course what type of cartridge, amplifier or computer program chosen is up to the end user.

The OP has done excellent work in restoring these vintage Edison discs.