The Swezey Digital Filter Program			June 15, 2014

Advice on Digitizing Phonograph Recordings for use with this Program

Overview

The  program is NOT a general purpose WAVE Editor Program.
Instead I have concentrated my efforts specifically on filtering and restoration issues.

As a result you need a good WAVE Editor Program to capture the recording to an audio file.

One free program that is pretty good is called Audacity and is availiable on the web at:
http://audicty.sourceforge.net

WAVE Editor Programs will allow you to capture incoming audio to a WAV File for later filtering by the program.

Turnable

Obviously you will need some sort of turntable / record player to play your records.
I have no recommendations about what you should use.

78 RPM related issues

Many modern turntables don't support the 78 RPM speed.
Audacity allows you to record 78s at 33 1/3 RPM or 45 RPM and then shift the signal mathematically.

I recommend using 45 RPM to get the best results if you do it this way.

Remember that 78s were NOT recorded using the RIAA euqalization curve.
You need to "undo" this in Audacity BEFORE you convert the speed.
Audacity has instructions about this on their website.

If you do this you need to turn off "Undo RIAA Equalization" under Auto Options" when you filter the 
record in the program. Otherewise it will happen twice.

If you plan to use this approach a lot you can default "Undo RIAA Equalization" to OFF under 
"Controls" on the Main menu of the program.

Needles for 33 1/3 and 45 RPM records are smaller than those for the older 78 RPM records.
You will get better results purchasing a 78 RPM needle even if you record your 78s at 45 RPM.

Selecting a digital audio format

The program only supports MS-Windows PCM WAV file formats.
Audio files have to be converted to one of these formats to use the program.

I recommend recording either in CD quality (44100 samples per second / 16 bit sample size / 2 channels) or in DVD quality (96000 samples per second / 24 bit / 2 channels).

I find CD quality is usually enough for most recordings.
I believe professional archivists generally use DVD quality.

The program will run slower if you use DVD quality as there is a lot more processing.

Stereo vrs Monaural

Generally speaking ALL 78 RPM records predate the advent of stereo and are monaural recordings.

However, if you record the record in stereo the program can reduce some noises by comparing the two 
slightly different channels.

I recommend ALWAYS making the original capture recording in STEREO.

Backup the file

After you have captured the recording you may want to trim dead time off of the beginning and ending.

I recommend ALWAYS leaving at least two extra seconds at the beginning and ending of each recording.

Once you have captured the recording to an audio file I recommend backing it up in that raw form.

At this point the file should be ready to be used as input to the program.

My Web site: http://www.winternet.com/~swezeyt/dsp.htm
Your comments are always welcome, please e-mail me at: swezeyt@winternet.com

Thank you for trying the Swezey Digital Filter Program!

(c) 2014, Thomas F. Swezey. All rights reserved. 06/15/2014)