Daniel R. Thompson and Professor David Day, Library
EDISON DIAMOND DISC RE-CREATIONS
Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph, made a vast collection of recordings from around the world. He reissued many on what is known as clay records or “Edison Diamond Disc Re-Creations.” Brigham Young University owns a substantial collection of these recordings. Unfortunately, because of their fragile format they are currently not easily available to the general public.
With support from BYU’s ORCA Mentoring Grant I was able to research and restore a selection of Edison Diamond Disc Re-Creations and make them available to the public through the Harold B. Lee Library. Fortunately, through the generosity of an outside source and the mentoring process I was also able to obtain additional Edison Diamond Disc Re-Creations not in BYU’s Collection and restore and add them to the BYU Library.
As I began my research on how to restore such a great piece of Americana, I discovered there is a society and museum in Eastern America in the process of restoring Edison recordings. I listened to some of the work they have restored and concluded that there is a need for more research to improve the audio restoration process. As I sought out restored Edison recordings I learned what standards in restoration have been established, and set my goal to raise these standards through my research. The challenge however was deciding when to call something restored and deciding on the best way to preserve what has been restored.
Edison Diamond Discs are said to sound best when played on an Edison Diamond Disc Reproducer. Unfortunately, the majority of the Reproducers are run down, broken, or in need of the proper needle. Those in good condition are either in museums or in private collections. Also, they were not designed to transfer the audio information to an external piece of hardware. Making such modifications would, according to some, ruin the sonic quality of the recording. So I did the next best thing.
Edison Diamond Disc Re-Creations play at 80 rpm’s (not the standard 78 rpms of the day). To overcome this problem, I used a Technics SL-1200MK2 record player. It has the ability to dial in the exact rpm’s, as well as the ability to adjust to the thickness of each record (or disc height). Normal records are approximately 1 mm thick, however, Edison Diamond Disc are approximately 5mm (the exact height is dependent upon the individual disc).
Because the needle (or stylus) used on an Edison Reproducer was not available , my next step was to find the closest match. Having only the discs to work with, I searched the Internet and found that most people were using 3-mil styli on Edison Discs, however upon close examination of the discs and the styli (magnified 75x) I found that a 3-mil stylus does not sit in the groove of the discs completely. I also found that a stylus of 2.5-mil had just the opposite affect. It hit the bottom of the groove but did not touch the sides. After examining several types and mil’s of styli I found that a stylus of 2.7-mil with a Spherical tip was a perfect fit and gave the best direct audible quality.
For those who are strictly concerned about transferring and preserving these recordings, the settings used to give the highest fidelity in disc playback and transfer are published in the CD booklet of the restored CD’s. For those who are equally concerned about improving or enhancing the quality of these recordings, they should be aware that there are dozens of different tools available in audio restoration, their cost and effectiveness varying greatly. Because of the ORCA, I was lucky enough to have at my disposal several of these restoration and cleaning tools. One was the Restoration Bundle by Waves and another was the Cedar Cambridge System (using the DNS, Dynamic Noise Suppression, plug-in multiple times).
Knowing that audio today can be digitally sampled at 192 kHz or better and that CD’s play at 44.1 kHz 16 bit, I chose to sample these recordings at 48 kHz 24 bit. Once captured into ProTools, and after hours of testing different combinations of the restoration tools, the best result was obtained by taking the following steps: First, run a separate (yet identical) X-Noise on each track. Second, patch both tracks into Cedar and run a Gain boost followed by two DNS’ (one mid+high and the other low). Then send both tracks back to ProTools and run another X-Noise on each one before combining them into a stereo Aux. On the Aux track use a Focusrite d2 6-Band EQ, a Focusrite d3 Compressor/Limiter and a DigiRack Limiter II. The settings for each of these different devices are also found in each CD booklet. Note that each was modified slightly according to the needs of each individual recording. (because no two recordings are the same).
The final product is preserved on both an Audio CD (44.1 kHz 16 bit) and on the Harold B. Lee Library Media Server for convenient patron access.
THE MARTYRDOM OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH
Joseph Smith was the first President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In a constant effort to obtain and preserve artifacts surrounding the life of the Prophet and the Restoration and advancement of the Church in these Latter-days, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University are putting together a comprehensive study surrounding his life. As part of this effort I have obtained a recording from the personal family archives of President John Taylor and his son Frank Y. Taylor giving an account of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The family has graciously agreed to donate the recording to BYU and the Church.
On this recording (which I restored using similar procedures as in the Edison Diamond Discs Re-Creations) there is an account from President Taylor relating the events which took place in the Carthage Jail surrounding the death of Joseph Smith as well as an account of how John Taylor lived to become the 3rd President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is also a recording of Addison Richey singing “The Seer,” a song President Gordon B. Hinckley fondly remembers. The final product of these recordings is preserved on both an Audio CD and on the Harold B. Lee Library Media Server.