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  • Brief History
  • Waxes, Shells and Stampers
  • Speeds and Pitching
  • Defects in records
  • Playing 78s
  • Transfer from 78s
• Download Area

To understand the sound that comes from early recordings it is important to understand how they were made.

These pages offer introductions by Roger Beardsley on how 78rpm discs were recorded, to handling them and playing them today, and to making trustworthy modern transfers. Roger has also provided information on waxes, shells and stampers, which helps to explain the manufacture of the discs themselves; on defects in records, understanding which can help with noise reduction; and advice on selecting the best playback speed.

There are also documents from the early days, including Maxfield & Harrison's classic 1926 paper on electrical recording (10.5MB), and Columbia's 1930 instructions on the conduct of recording expeditions (5.4MB).

And you can find here an introduction to the procedures used by the CHARM transfer engineer, Andrew Hallifax, who produced all the CHARM sound files.