Vinyl Record Restoration

Be it 78s, 45s or LPs, these plastic disks changed the world, for they not only provided accurate recordings of the times, but also expanded the art form of music to mass audiences in all parts of the world. 

Vinyl Record Information

Thomas Edison is generally credited for the creation of records and record players.  Most of his early work was done on cylinders.  In 1905 cylinders had peaked in popularity as discs and disc players, like the Victrola  were really taking off.  Edison was fully devoted to cylinder phonographs, but became concerned with the rising popularity of the discs. Edison began developing his own disc player and discs secretly. 

The goal was to create a better sounding disc that would outperform the competitors shellac records, that were prone to excessive wear and warping.  They created 10 inch records that would run for 5 minutes per side at roughly 80 rpm. They created a mixture of  plastic mixed with wood and shaped it into a heat-resistant disc.

Of all the strange materials used over the years in the manufacture of sound recordings,  Vinyl has proven to be the most consistent. This combination of materials is said to have a shelf life of at least 100 years and that early speculation has proven itself as we now near the 100th anniversary of the vinyl record and the format continues to thrive. 

General Record Restoration Techniques 

The process of restoring your records can be just about as complicated as you'd like it to be.  There are numerous steps suggested by the true audiophiles...most of us choose the ones we find most important and throw the rest out with the bathwater.  We'll list all of these here as mini-topics...feel free to launch as many as you care about.  

Choosing The Tools

Screen Shot

On most older records, clicks and pops are the most common type of noise that you'll face.  This zoomed in view of DC SIX shows you a typical 78 recording in the upper window (yellow).  Notice the straight lines that run from the top of the yellow screen to the bottom?  These are impulse noises or clicks and pops.  The file you see below (gray) is what the wave looks like after we've run the DC SIX Impulse Noise Filter on the file.  This is but one step in a 78 Record Restoration, but you can see that DC SIX has been very successful in removing these impulse noises. 

An Educated Taste Test

How much of a difference can the Enhanced Audio products make in your audio life?  Why don't you try them for yourself?  We have demos and Getting started tutorial guides for both products listed below.  Download both the demo and the Getting Started Tutorial guide...the tutorials don't take a great deal of time, but they give you a fantastic idea just how powerful our products are.  

We've provided Record Restoration Quick Start guides for both DC SIX and DC Millennium.  The Getting Started Guides are in PDF form and only depend on you using the demo versions of both products.  These tutorials do not take a great deal of time, but they are jam-packed with info and perfect for quickly learning both products.  By now, you've probably decided on either a $59 or $199 investment...depending on the feature set you liked the best.  Just download either of the Getting Started Guides along with the demos and you'll be ready to start real 45 Record Restoration. These are PDF files and best viewed with Adobe Acrobat.  This is a free software product that you can download at www.download.com

Example Files

This is a typical old recording of a 78 RPM record.  We used a variety of filters to remove the clicks, pops, hiss and other disturbances.  With 78 Record Restoration, the goals are similar to any other record restoration...to make your file sound authentic, yet noise free and clean.

Will I Need Anything Else?

Each and every system is different.  You've also got to know what it will take to make your ears happy.  For example...Sound Blasters are very popular sound cards...unfortunately, popularity doesn't make them good...just popular.  There are potentially many products that could help you...depending on the scale of the restoration project you want to undertake.  We've created a page that outlines many of these product categories, plus the individual products that we recommend.  Just click here to go there.