Anyone REALLY good with getting distortion out of a needledropped 45? I have a problem track.

Crazy distortion inherent (i think) to the 45. Can anyone work a miracle for me?

 

Stupid question - checked your stulus? Is it stereo (thus, is it on one or the other channel)? Is it sssssibalenccceee...?

Just want to make sure the distortion is on the record, not the playing itself.

Other 45's you play on it sound fine?

Big one: what does the distortion sound like?

 

Unfortunately, a lot of styrene 45s simply have had the highs ground off their grooves by numerous and often suboptimal playback, and there isn't a thing that can be done about it.

 

play it through water on the grooves, sometimes improves playback.....
helps with crackles and pops.....

 

Not good for the vinyl if you’re concerned about future plays though.

 

Good thing 45s usually aren't vinyl then!

Wet play might turn existing dirt in to mud, but anything that can be dissolved by water can also be removed by a record cleaning machine in the future. That Elvis should have been cleaned better before a transfer though.

 

20 years of experience here.

The first thing you want to do is clean the record as best as you can.

Second, you want to ensure that your stylus is clean, and your tracking is set correctly. At this point, you should be using a stylus that will ride over the grooves (conical if it's a mono record) or go as far as using a shibata/microline type stylus to dig deep into the groove and bypass the record wear. If the record is made of styrene, be very, very careful if you take the chance using a shibata/microline stylus. You could possibly carve the grooves out, rendering your record useless. In those cases, have your recorder running when you do that initial pass.

After that, whatever distortion you wind up with will have to be dealt with using software.

The final option is to find a better record.

 

Probably even worse for styrene...

 

Excuse me? In the last 17 years I've remastered probably 300 45's, ONE of them was styrene. The vast majority are vinyl. Styrene records require a 1 mil conical stylus.

Wet playing should be only a very last final desperate act, because it can cause a glued-shank stylus to fall off.

 

It makes sense, post 2000, that the injection molding tooling used for mass producing 7" styrene records by the majors is long gone. That doesn't mean it wasn't the main medium for a majority of 45s for decades.

Styrene 45s don't need a different cartridge, they are normal microgroove records like LPs. You may get different results with different stylii, but I still contend that the best stylus you've got, regardless of its more sophisticated profile, is likely to extract more audio from the disc.

Someone here said "you're ruining your styrene records with that elliptical", so I put them to the test - playing the same 45 on "repeat" for two hours, and comparing the after: 45's get ruined on my AT pl120.

Anyway, would be helpful to know what record that @VeeFan64 is trying to play, and on what equipment, upon his return. The solution might be to order the CD out of the Amazon penny bin.

 

I don't have the 45 to physically dub it. I received a WAV file of the dub. I'm pretty confident this is a styrene disc, with distortion inherent to the 45, and one that isn't easy to find (read: you can't find one online to buy at all). So, just wondering if any gurus with a special technique or very good software could help out.

 

This too.

 

Once that distortion is in that file, no way to fix it. If you had the original 45, you might have had options. What 45 is it, give us some information.

 

Stereo styrene 45 singles SHOULD NOT be played with 1 mil conicals. Use a .6 or .7 mil conical or a .3 x .7 mil elliptical or .4 x .7 mil elliptical for playing them.

 

I would recommend seeking out Izotope RX. It is a suite of tools aimed at audio restoration. It is absolutely magical. It has recovered things that you would never think to be recoverable.

 

I've probably mastered more 45s than you, but the reason you've not come across more styrene is probably just a consequence of your geographical location. I'm out here in the west, and more styrene was pressed and sold out here.

Elliptical styli are harmless to styrene.

 

Distortion is not inherent to styrene, and I have hundreds of them to prove it. I have styrene pressings that are as clean and quiet as can be. I have made some of my best needledrops from styrene pressings, especially from the 80s. On the flip, I have many distorted vinyl pressings.

The bottom line is that you cannot tell what type of pressing a record is by the distortion.

 

Experience is the key here, not armchair speculation. I'm not accusing you specifically of that, but i'm sure i'm seeing some of it in these responses.

My experience is that i've salvaged a few records from the garbage can by playing them with a microline stylus, and they played clean.

My experience says "whatever works" to get the job done.

This! ^ However, there is no one software or software suite that can do it all. I often use three or four for more difficult jobs.

 

I've seen microline and line contact styli personally chew styrene a time or two. Not all do. Get a styrene junk 45 you don't care about before you commit a scarce 45 you can't easily replace. Better to lose a less than a Dollar common 45 than something which costs you $30 or more to replace or that which takes you years to find a playable or nice copy of.. I use whatever gets me the best playback. Sometimes microline does that, but most of the time the broadcast conical or mild elliptical is where I begin. Experience from dealing with hundreds if not thousands of 45 singles from 1949 to today is what I base this on, and dealing with them in all stages of condition from pristine to well worn.

 

Here's a short sample of the OP's music file he wanted cleaned up some and what I was able to do. The needledrop sounds like it is a bad record, bad stylus or a dirty stylus. Maybe a combo of all three. The clean version isn't perfect though it is more listenable.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/14ashok1herj370/Pat Boone - Run To Me Baby 45 DUB sample.wav?dl=0

 

Yours sounds better than the rough start. This record sounds like it's been played either with a dirty or bad stylus, or the record was a poor pressing. arisinwind, your work on this sounded better than the beginning.

 

Popsike shows one was sold on the auction site about five years ago, bid up to and sold at $45, and apparently no other one has shown up ever since. There must be a story about that release. It could be that this original file has come from that exact copy?

 

If the WAV file is in stereo, and the recording is mono or in this case dual mono (this is why we need more info) you may sum the L +R channels to reduce the distortion and noise.

 

I listened to it, and it's in stereo. I think he best course of action is to search for a better copy of that 45 and do a better needledrop. Maybe he'll get lucky with enough digging and find it on a tape.

 

The record was needle dropped in stereo but the music is mono. I was able to remove most of the distortion.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1mo4yennj14kz1m/Pat Boone - Run To Me Baby 45 DUB b.mp3?dl=0