Making audio sound like it's being played on a gramophone

jbone · Post by **jbone** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:51 pm

I f you do not know what a gramophone is or what it sounds like, do not read the rest of this post.

I have SoundForce 4.5, and I've been playing with various effects, but I figured I'd ask here in case anyone had specific advice. I haven't tried to do this before.

Any suggestions or links to sites with suggestions would be welcome.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 8:12 pm

I suggest a band-pass filter that keeps just the middle frequencies, or a high-pass followed by a low-pass for the same end result, as a start.

No idea how to go about recreating the pops and scratches though.

Digitalex · Post by **Digitalex** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:23 pm

Scintilla wrote: No idea how to go about recreating the pops and scratches though.

He can always sample the pops and scratches from an analog source and overlay it on the original track.

You can also try and modify the sounds here (particularly the gray and brown noise).

http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/soundfx/noise.shtml

maciko · Post by **maciko** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:23 am

Which Gramophone?

Some old units had a frequency response as good as 80Hz-5.5kHz. Perhaps knowing where to tune you EQ is a good start. Furthermore I would also suggest that you might also want to apply a similar curve to the "clicks and crackle" that you would insert, since the "noise" generated was not only due to the medium being played but also to the physical and sometimes electrical aspects of the Gramophone.

jbone · Post by **jbone** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 10:19 pm

maciko wrote:Which Gramophone?

Some old units had a frequency response as good as 80Hz-5.5kHz. Perhaps knowing where to tune you EQ is a good start. Furthermore I would also suggest that you might also want to apply a similar curve to the "clicks and crackle" that you would insert, since the "noise" generated was not only due to the medium being played but also to the physical and sometimes electrical aspects of the Gramophone.

I'm aiming for "good enough to fool 99% of people."

maciko · Post by **maciko** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 4:41 am

jbone wrote:
maciko wrote:Which Gramophone?

Some old units had a frequency response as good as 80Hz-5.5kHz. Perhaps knowing where to tune you EQ is a good start. Furthermore I would also suggest that you might also want to apply a similar curve to the "clicks and crackle" that you would insert, since the "noise" generated was not only due to the medium being played but also to the physical and sometimes electrical aspects of the Gramophone.
I'm aiming for "good enough to fool 99% of people."

Ok Then...

Step 1
Make you subject audio Mono; reason... recording back then were mono so let's keep up appearances.

Step 2
Add noise, create a loop probably 1/8 of the length that your subject audio; reason... you do not want the listener to hear where the loop starts and ends, making it long-ish you create enough time between the start of the loop and the end that the listener can't remember what was at the start and what is at the end.
Use a constant "crackle" and hiss as your basic bed, and add pops here and there, ad some pops at regular intervals to make it sound like there is a scratch that the "stylus" passed over.

Step 3
Make sure the noise is also mono, and then use the loop you've created by copying it until you've filled the track, use cross fades between the copies it will make them blend nicely into each other.

Step 4
Mix the noise with the material, set the noise level about -15dB to -30dB, the louder the noise the "older" or more "damaged" your sound will be.

Step 5
Apply EQ to your mix
Set up an EQ and roll off (turn down) all the frequencies above 8 kHz (the lower the value the older the recording will sound (i.e. 1 kHz sounds older then 8 kHz.) Why as gramophones improved in quality they were able to reproduce higher frequencies, the use of better materials in the stylus made this possible. Old gramophones had very thick styluses hence their physical size limited it's movement and therefore it's frequency response.
You may also want to remove some of the low frequencies, perhaps all below 80Hz

By this time you should have a pretty authentic sounding gramophone replica recording.

A little hint; once mixed down select parts of your track there you've placed some large "pops" and immediately after that pop cut out 1 second of audio and close the gap you've created. This will give you the appearance that the actual "stylus jumped at that point.

Happy Engineerig

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 4:52 am

maciko, very neat post. Maybe you should go over to the AMV Wiki and write it up? I'm pretty sure there's somewhere appropriate for it, maybe if trythil notices this thread he could suggest a spot...

maciko · Post by **maciko** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:20 am

dokool wrote:maciko, very neat post. Maybe you should go over to the AMV Wiki and write it up? I'm pretty sure there's somewhere appropriate for it, maybe if trythil notices this thread he could suggest a spot...

Thanks, look if you like you can copy and paste it user your account if you have one, I'm not that attached to that information I've written here. It's something that I learned in my little audio adventures over the years. The people I've learned from along the way were kind enough to impart their knowledge onto me, and I'm happy to pass on.
Beside I’m a noob in the AMV community, I’ve only discovered its existence a week ago, and I’m yet to create a feature of my own. Thanks just the same but I think I’ll stick to this forum for now.