Album: JBL Sessions

In 1973 James B. Lansing Sound released an unusual album, a breakdown of a recording session in order to demonstrate some basic truths about speaker design.  The LP had various instruments recorded in isolation, and then combined -- as well as some test tones.  The point was to point out that speaker specifications, which often claimed response from 20-20,000 Hertz, were bogus.  Precious little musical signal exists below 50 Hz, and almost none above 10 or 12,000.

Audiophiles (and "so-called audiophiles") debate all day long about needing response to 30,000 cycles or more in order to hear imaging, but simple A - B tests prove that they can't hear the difference blindfolded.

This album, instructional as it was, also contained some pretty damn fine music.

Of course, it's never been reissued on CD -- and the copy I owned was bought second-hand, and not suitable for digitizing.  After A LOT of research I finally found files of it online last week, and have been busy cleaning them up to make a CD-R of it.  Mostly for nostalgia's sake.

Some interesting revelations.

1. There are supposed to be 3-second bursts of test tones at 20K, 19K, 18K etc. all the way down to 10K.  On the digital file I downloaded from somebody's dub of the LP, the 20K test tone WAS NOT THERE at all.  The file showed no signal there at all.  Just vinyl surface noise.  Was this a cartridge limitation, an album pressing limitation, a recording studio limitation?  I don't think so.  19K was right where it should be.
   
2. I started out cleaning up the test tones, but -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- record surface noise was especially overwhelming on these pure sine signals.  After a few minutes of fruitless effort, I decided what the fuck.  I zeroed out the vinyl signal and laid in 3-second bursts of digital tone generator -- easy to do with my software, and much more accurate, and now meaningful (whereas they wouldn't have been before).
   
3. But my hearing, at my advanced age, is such that I cannot hear any of the tones above 14K.  I'm pretty clear on 12, 11 and 10K but the higher ones?  I can see them but not hear them.
   
4. The instrument recordings sound sweet.  There's a little groove rumble on this dub but it's a good dub.  Never heard a vinyl rip without groove rumble.
   
5. By the time I'm done this'll be a pretty interesting test disc -- despite being 43 years old.
   

No-Noise.

I'm able, through careful digital editing, to remove all of the pops and clicks and, through selective equalization, to mitigate most of the transient "swishes" (that's what I call them) caused by dirt in the grooves. When a passage is thus cleaned up it sounds almost as good as a CD.

Except for the surface noise.

It's not just rumble. There's a constant low-level noise, kind of a whooshing noise, which is the sound of the needle being pulled down 1500 feet of vinyl canyon. Every vinyl dub I've heard has it, unless they're treated with No-Noise(TM) or another similar noise reduction paradigm that takes a sample of the surface noise, then inverts it and lays it over the original.

Doing so reduces the surface noise.

But at the expense of the real signal, which becomes masked, muted, smoothed out. A good deal of the very high-frequency content that determines timbre and character disappears.

I don't like that sound, and I'll leave the surface noise in rather than compromise the music. I've been playing around with lots of noise reduction paradigms -- my software has many controls to play with -- but NONE of them does the job satisfactorily to my ears.

Picky. Picky. Picky.












<Speaking of picky. Paradigm will be in my next rant about misused words.>

My next rant will be about pedants.

And pedos.

I gave up. Sides 1, 2 & 4 of the LP are workable files, with just some pops and clicks to deal with.

Side 3 has constant distortion -- if you look at the waveforms, they're asymmetrical, with almost no positive-going voltage. I tried mixing the left and right channels, I tried mixing in out-of-phase signal, I tried all kinds of filters and noise repair and click repair and NOTHING would touch it. The distortion isn't peaky waveforms -- which I know how to fix -- they're asymmetrical waveforms... and the whole frigging side is that way.

Not possible to repair given my technology and any reasonable amount of time.

So I ordered a copy of the LP online and will re-dub side three. Hopefully it'll sound better -- and equally hopefully, it won't sound SO MUCH better that I feel inclined to re-dub and re-clean sides 1, 2 & 4!

The album arrived Saturday.

It was advertised as "vinyl is mint, but the cover shows some water damage." What arrived is "cover is mint but the vinyl is severely trashed, with constant bacon-frying even after exhaustive cleaning." I pulled a cup & a half of dust & dirt out of each side, and still it sounds like utter crap. I can't even imagine trying to clean it up.

Do I buy another copy?

Splice in just a few seconds here & there (small enough samples to contemplate cleaning them up) to replace the worst distortion in the old files?

I'm torn.

I spent over an hour cleaning up the first half-second of audio, and it's still unacceptable.

I ordered another copy. The discs are rated NM+.

We'll see.

The second copy sounded even worse than the first.  Geez, doesn't anybody actually LISTEN to albums anymore before grading them?  Both were totally unacceptable, for even casual listening.

About the same time, another guy on the music forum has started a business cleaning records.  He bought himself a $4000 automated vacuum machine, plus he has some fancy enzymatic fluid, plus a cheaper vacuum.  He's very big into vinyl.

The before & after photos and audio files on his website are, no shit, pretty impressive.

So I sent him both copies of "Sessions," with a note that I'm not expecting miracles and would be REALLY SURPRISED if he can resurrect either one of these turds.  So we'll see what approx. $5000 in record cleaning apparatus has to offer.

You are not the only one interested in this music. Look here and you may be able to find some good source. There are digital files posted on SpeedyShare.

Just a little info.

Ah yes, I have visited that site, and many others, during my research on this album. There are LOTS of us who remember it fondly.

Incidentally, that SpeedyShare site no longer hosts the RAR files, and 4 or 5 other sites that linked to them are now broken links. I did find, after a lot of searching, a Russian site that had downloaded the files and re-hosted them.

Sides 1, 2 and 4 are acceptable quality, and that's what I have used so far for my CD-R. However, as I noted on 5/15, side three is not usable. So I'm going through all this trouble for one side, about 12 minutes of audio. I have so far found no joy.

Got a message back today:

Quote :

The records are on their way back to you.

I did a few quick needle drops before and after, and I'll be curious to hear what you think. On the first set, I didn't hear much more than some occasional ticks. The copy with the name written on the cover was a bit noisier.

I'll be very interested to receive them.

Received the records today.

The Totally Trashed copy is still totally trashed. However, the Mostly Trashed copy is now Almost Listenable -- has about 2-3 pops per second, instead of constant. The difference is audible, and measurable, and significant. Not a miracle but a remarkable improvement.

I am proceeding to begin digital cleanup.

The cleaner dude sent me some video files, taken with his iPhone, of playing the records before and after cleaning.

Unfortunately the record was playing out of a speaker across the room, and the dweeb elected to SHOW me the record spinning rather than move the phone to the speaker so I could HEAR what he was showing me.  Listening closely on headphones to his videos, they DO sound pretty good.  I wonder if his needle is riding lower in the groove than mine, and thus bypassing most of the damaged groove?

Gad, I don't miss records at all.

After burning out a bit on this project back in July-August, I decided to try to polish it off before year-end. Back into editing clicks and pops on the 13-minute side 3.

It's not bad. Certainly there's almost none of the constant distortion that made the earlier files unusable. These will be the equal of the files I found online I think.

Eventually.

But Jesus this is fiddly work: I'm sitting here chasing ticks and pops, wearing headphones, with a heating pad on my back and another on my feet. I feel like I'm strapped into the cockpit of an airplane flying 2 inches per minute.

The characteristics that makes one a good employee -- dedication to the job, total attention to what you're doing, etc. -- are the TOTAL OPPOSITE of what makes one successful in retirement. I was never very good at working. I'm better at being retired.

Glad to hear that you are a proficient retiree. I am lousy at retirement; I was much better at working. When my wife told our daughter that I had retired, the kid, then 21, said, "But Dad doesn't know how to not work."

I have known people who lived for their job. When forced to retire by advancing age, they curled up and died within weeks or months.

Me, I never seemed to have enough time to do what I wanted to do when I had a job -- work just took up too much of my day, drained too much energy, made me stressed and irritable. I'm much happier now.

My observations differ from yours. I have had many more friends and acquaintances die while still working, but I can think of only one friend who has died after retiring (and I blame that on him moving back to Texas).

I think the story about people dying because they retired is just an old wives' tale (then again, maybe those old wives were the cause of said demise).

_Howard wrote:

old wives'

"Widows"

I can be such a fucking moron. Whose turn is it to be watching me? You failed!

Earlier today my e-mail froze up, and after trying a few things unsuccessfully to unstick it, I figured what the hell, it's been a while since I rebooted.

COMPLETELY forgetting I had files open for my JBL Sessions project. When you reboot Audacity before saving, you lose everything. I had about 3 hours work in on cleaning up the last two files I was working on -- gone gone gone.

Freaking maroon!

Anyway, I redubbed and am back to start again. At least the big file (12:37 long) is done and saved. Just have to redo a 3:12 and a 3:04. But next time, watch me closer, willya???

I don't know about Apple OS, but when Windows shuts down, any open programs are notified and given time to do whatever cleanup they need. I assume Apple OS does the same.

Did you check to see if Audacity had saved a temp file?

It shoulda saved, but doesn't/didn't. I should know betta.

Doing incremental saves now

Yes I know it's supposed to.

What it comes back with is a file of silence the exact same length as the music file you were working on. Dunno why. Not a problem as long as I'm not in moron mode.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Earlier today my e-mail froze up...

How does an email program freeze up? I have never had that happen.
What email client are you using?