speed conversion

[Doctor Dad]

I would like to record a 78 on a turntable that only plays 33 and 45. Does Audacity allow for speeding up the file?

[kozikowski]

Yes, certainly. I think the Effect > Change Speed tool should do nicely, but that's not the only problem you're going to run into. Well, I mean you are going to run into speed conversion problems because you can't just slide the frequency response around like that without some consequences, but that's going to be trivial compared to the distortion and noise. The 78 needle is wider than 45 and 33. So instead of remaining firmly and accurately suspended between the two sides of the groove, the stylus is going to sink down to the bottom and pick up all the cat hairs and vinyl garbage down there. On loud passages, it will bounce around the groove like shaking a penny in a tin cup.

But outside of that it should be fine.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

Plus the RIAA equalization curve is differebt for 78s than it is for vinyl. Actually for 78s ther are several diffent RIAA curves sa there were no standards set back in those early days of recording and each manufacturer applied their own RIAA EQ.

WC