Sound recording

Methods and media for sound recording are varied and have undergone significant changes between the first time sound was actually recorded for later playback until now.

Replicating Gramophone recording from modern sources.

Step 1

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Make your subject audio monophonic, since stero was not introduced until the late 1950's

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Step 2

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Add noise by creating a loop about 1/8 of the length of your subject audio; you do not want the listener to hear where the loop starts and ends, and making it long ensures enough time so that the listener can't remember what was at the start and what was at the end of the loop.

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Use a constant "crackle" and hiss as your basic bed, and add pops here and there. Add some pops at regular intervals to make it sound like there is a scratch that the "stylus" passed over with each turn of the disc.

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Step 3

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Make sure the noise is also mono, and then use the loop you have 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.

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Step 4

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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.

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Step 5

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Apply EQ to your mix

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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). 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, and their physical size limited their movement and hence their frequency response.

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You may also want to remove some of the low frequencies, perhaps all below 125Hz

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

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A little hint: once mixed down, select parts of your track where you've placed some large "pops" to simulate a crack in the record and immediately after each pop cut out about 1/2 second of audio. This will give the illusion that the stylus jumped off the surface of the record at the point of the crack.

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