Abstract:

Broadly speaking, historical recordings (ca. 1880--1950) are considered low quality, and when they are reissued it is regarded as an improvement when noises are removed, or according to modern psychoacoustic criteria, pushed into frequency bands where they are masked. However, a recording is a report of an acoustic event, and some of the elements or features of the original sounds must have been available to contemporary listeners, or they would not have accepted the recordings in the first place. Similarly, we may want to retrieve these elements, and for that purpose it is important to identify them. The paper points out some of the fundamental elements of the sounds that have been recorded and discusses the degree to which they may be retrieved in modern replay, either directly from original recordings or via signal-processed transfers. Reference is made to work by D. C. Miller based on his early recognition that the recording process transforms the elements it is desired to retrieve. In a similar manner that Miller compensated his recordings for measurement purposes, we may today compensate early recordings for replay purposes. The presentation will be accompanied by very short comparative excerpts of historical sound recordings.