78's

Special Interest Groups Recording Techniques
1

I am attempting to transfer some 78 records to CD’s. Instructions say to play
turntable at 33 and adjust the speed through Audacity. I can not find how to do that. Help!

2

Record at 33 1/3 as it says - then select the whole recording (Ctrl-A) - then from Effects dropdown click the Change Speed - and change the vinyl rpm “to” dropdown to 78 ( a 134.0% change) - and then click the OK button - then test the result.

WC

3

Thanks

4

I don’t know what kind of turntable you are using but generally 78’s reproduce better with a larger stylus than one uses for LP’s. I have a separate cartridge which I plug in to the tonearm when I find a 78 that I want to transfer.

Cheerio

5

Building on Merv’s good comment on a stylus for 78s - the other problem that you encounter with 78s is the the RIAA equalisation curve for 78s is different to that for Vinyl - so ideally you need a pre-amp withe special input for 78’s or some switchable circuitry - probably as rare as hen’s teeth.

It may be possible to deal with this in software via Audacity, but it’s not something I have experience of (my parents threw out my carefully amassed collection of 78s when I went to university many years ago - and I’m still bitter about it). Anybody else like to comment on this - the RIAA not my 78s that is…?

Update: see the related thread on “45 to 78 rpm speed conversion with Audacity” also in this section of the forum where alatham expalins the situation well.

WC