Digitization of rare recordings in gramophone records/ Audio Cassettes

[Moloy Ghosh]

Hello everyone, this is Moloy Ghosh, resident of Delhi NCR, but originally from Kolkata involved in a rather unconventional venture on my own in restoration of old and are recordings mainly in Gramophone records ( any type)/ Audio Cassettes. My digitization is not only limited to first stage recording ( that almost all of my so called competitors do) but going a step ahead by remastering the final audio output. This involves complete removal of hissing sounds that are so common in LPs/ Cassettes and also enhancing the audio quality on the whole with special emphasis on some of the background instruments that were not very clear in the original recordings, dividing the songs in relevant tracks just like commercial CDs and last but not the least making a cover page that is a replica of the original LP/ Cassette. This aspect has been covered in the last 2 yrs in some of the leading print and electronic media mainly in Delhi, Kolkata & Bangalore:you may check the scanned copies, sample output, price lists etc in my blog: audiorestorations.blogspot.in, looking forward to helping my old music lover friends here in restoring their prized collections! I am contactable @ 07428359116

 

[miroflex]

Hello everyone, this is Moloy Ghosh, resident of Delhi NCR, but originally from Kolkata involved in a rather unconventional venture on my own in restoration of old and are recordings mainly in Gramophone records ( any type)/ Audio Cassettes. My digitization is not only limited to first stage recording ( that almost all of my so called competitors do) but going a step ahead by remastering the final audio output. This involves complete removal of hissing sounds that are so common in LPs/ Cassettes and also enhancing the audio quality on the whole with special emphasis on some of the background instruments that were not very clear in the original recordings, dividing the songs in relevant tracks just like commercial CDs and last but not the least making a cover page that is a replica of the original LP/ Cassette. This aspect has been covered in the last 2 yrs in some of the leading print and electronic media mainly in Delhi, Kolkata & Bangalore:you may check the scanned copies, sample output, price lists etc in my blog: audiorestorations.blogspot.in, looking forward to helping my old music lover friends here in restoring their prized collections! I am contactable @ 07428359116

Welcome to the forum Moloy. I look forward to your posts.

Regards.

 

[gobble]

Hi Moloy

The fonts on the price list are too old fashioned fanciful and unreadable.
A few details about how you do the conversion, what software amd hardware and some blogging about what iterations in the process are used will make your service more saleable.

Just my 2P.

--G0bble

 

[Hiten]

Hello Moloy,
First digital track in your blog is excellent. I am no expert but other tracks I find high frequency range a little bit prominent. Also on 78s samples I find some sibilance. High frequencies were not that much of a problem on vinyl media. Only loud plus lower range are little difficult to get in the groove. I guess probably too much noise/hiss removal is done which removed important data. I am guessing only and may be wrong as I have not heard these records.
As Gobble has said if possible please mention equipments you are using. Also would not recommend any mastering on already mastered and RIAA applied and reverse applied vinyl media. Overall very good recordings.
regards

 

[sumitdipsite2005]

I recently took Moloy's help in digitizing some 1990s LPs and Cassettes. Although i do appreciate his help in fast-tracking things because of the time constraints i had but the quality of the output left a lot to be desired, particularly based on my high expectation considering this was supposed to be a "professional" audio "restoration" expert doing the recordings at a solid price of @ rs 5.50/min (so basically an LP average costing came to Rs 300 per LP and a cassette average costing came to approx Rs 200 per cassette).

Now the cassette recording was the real dampener. As i quickly realized after the recording of the 1st lot (25-26 cassettes), that the output was filled with distorted sound recordings. Moloy did gave the reasoning as cassette "stickiness" but the same cassette gave a perfect recording on a professional cassette deck (Mantaza). So the equipment (a mere simple tape recorder) used for a "professional" audio "restoration" of cassettes was basically a big flop.

The LP recording seemed alright before i gave them to one of my audiophile friend to give a listen to. And this was the feedback -

Sound Quality is Lovely Including Beautiful Stereo Phonic Sound With The Obvious Hissing, Clicking Sound and Yeah It's a Part of Vinyl RIp So, We Can Ignore These Things.

But The Thing We Can't Ignore is in The First Track - Woh To Bana Apna (S.P Balu & Asha Bhosle), After Followed By S.P Balu's Line (Pyar Dilbar Ka) During @ 02:19 Sec The Chorus Part --> (Ba Ba Bare Ba) Has Been Skipped, Again After Followed By Asha Bhosle's Line (Aa Tujhko Pyare) Than This Line --> (Gale Se Laga Loon) @ 03:06 Sec Skipped Abruptly, Than Again a Huge Glitch Coming in Our Way..In This Line -->(Aao Ji Ban Than Ke Tum, Milan Ki Aaye Mast Ghadi) @ 03:19 to 03:21 Sec, In The Middle Portion of This Line The Exact Words Which are Missing/Skipping is ("Tum, Milan Ki Aaye") Still, I Haven't Checked Remaining (2,3,4,5) Tracks Yet.

Well the feedback speaks for itself. The lesser said the better. Moloy seems to have completely failed to restore areas with the skips and moreover could not even recognize these skips during the recording as i had put him on watch for these so that i could replace/return the LPs if they have these inherent skips.

So overall, once again i really Moloy as a person and as an individual but the professional output needs lots of improvement. My concern is not about the money it costed but my concern is -

IS YOUR SERVICE WORTH THE MONEY INVESTED? - BIG NO.
CAN THIS SAME QUALITY BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT A PROFESSIONAL HELP (but by just using proper equipments) - BIG YES.
IS IT REALLY AUDIO RESTORATION - NO. It is more like audio recording. Like source - like recording without any improvement/restoration.

Hope this review will be helpful to someone else before investing as heavily as i did on these restorations (oops recordings i meant!).