Hi,
I have this audio clip of some voices from a 78rpm record, but something went wrong when it was transferred and the pitch is heavily shifting up and down. I am new to audio restoration and would like to know if there's any way to fix the pitch and maybe remove some noise too, so i could identify what is being said/sung in the clip.

It sounds like the turntable was having problems. Can you retransfer the record? As to removing the noise. What software do you have?

I didn't transfer the record, I'm trying to find out what record was used here by figuring out the words, currently i have audacity and FL studio but no advanced restoration software

Audacity has some good software tools for denoising.

I have never used FL studio.

The record turntable setup that was used had some real problems.

There is a new free NR software for Audacity.

https://github.com/intel/openvino-pl...sion/README.md

Which you may want to try.

Without NR software it is going to be difficult to do what you want to do.

Best of luck!

Thank you!

These speed problems have probably been introduced by an incompetent operator. The operator may have even assumed that the speed problem was because the 78RPM disc was old and deteriorated, which is almost impossible for that particular problem.

It almost sounds as if the turntable was cranked by hand. It doesnt even sound like a 78RPM disc recording, but that may be because it has been heavily processed which can remove important clues. Better to upload the raw capture file with no processing.

It may be possible to digitally correct the speed issue to some extent but so much easier in every way to just transfer the disc properly and likely there will be no such speed or noise issues.

Do you only have 7 seconds of the recording? A much longer sample, including the very beginning and end may reveal more clues as to what was going on.

they might've manipulated the turntable on purpose for some reason, i wouldnt know. the clip i sent has the only real audible vocals, but there is some bird chirping earlier on, probably an imitation. I can't pinpoint the beginning or ending, as it's very buried

Are you sure that it has not been reversed?

i didnt think of that, does it look reversed?

Listening usually reveals that before looking.

i dont know asi only listened on a phone but it sounds reversed and slowing down in spots. A longer clip would help.

Are you SURE this is a 78 rpm record? It doesn't sound like an acetate off-center... it sounds like a badly played back tape... maybe a tape made on a rim-drive dictation machine.

Has anyone actually seen the original material?
--scott

I guess it's possible then that this recording was a creative exercise where the voices were deliberately distorted and not meant to be intelligible or even enjoyable. Just part of an overall created soundscape.

Ideally we'd find out from the producer themself what were their intentions for this piece.

after a bit of digging i found a longer clip

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Uje...ew?usp=sharing

other people have analysed the crackle pattern and it appears to be 78rpm, it's not really visible here as this clip is heavily filtered

I want to see a picture of the acetate.
--scott

Sorry I don't have a picture of it. I don't know what record this audio originates from, that's what I'm trying to find out

Okay, I bet a nickel that this is a home recording made to an acetate and if this is the case the first step is to get a clean dub off the disc with the correct size stylus and it may take several different sizes of stylus because the record wear may vary across the surface.

Once you can hear a properly made dub without any wacky processing done to it, then you might be able to figure out where you are. But a picture would help much more.

It is likely one of these: https://www.phonozoic.net/recordio/agslv.jpg and as you might expect, most early home recordings were made by people who didn't have any idea what they were doing so on top of dealing with primitive technology and poor storage conditions you also have to deal with someone who didn't know where to put the microphone and how to set the groove depth properly.
--scott

I don’t have access to the physical record, just this digital transfer, which was heavily filtered. I believe it’s most likely from a commercial disc, not a home recording, since there are similar commercial records with imitated bird chirping and singing. The audio I included was a poor transfer of a properly recorded disc, the person who transferred it has done similar work with other commercial discs.

How can anybody be so incompetent as to get this off a properly recorded disc?

There are plenty of 78s of bird calls... Dickie Bird Records were made by some outfit out of Chicago for children. And there was a whole library of dozens of volumes from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Somewhere around here I have a Brazilian one too. Talk to Kurt Nauck, at Nauck's Vintage Records, he's probably heard them all.

Really.... you think this is a dub off a properly recorded disc? And they haven't shot the guy that did it yet?
--scott

It’s likely that this was purposely transferred this way to create a soundscape. The voices in the clip are buried beneath other sounds, so the focus was probably on the bird chirping rather than the singing. There are hundreds of potential records that could fit this general description, which is why I’m trying to decipher the words in the clip to figure out what the song might be about, so I can narrow it down.

I don't usually say this but I think you are on a "never ending quest" and that you will never find an answer to what you are looking for.

A good transfer is essential in getting good (or in this case passable) results. Without that you are basically on a "fool's errand" when it comes to getting good results <no offense meant>

Is there no way to find out who did the transfer? and have them do the transfer again.

We had a client a number of years ago who had some acetate records that she wanted transferred. The acetate was delaminating so there was no way we could do the transfers. We contacted a company in Nashville who specialize in restoring these records. We noticed that the acetates were done on glass disc, probably during the 2nd world war. We inquired of the Nashville company how to best ship these to them and followed their instructions to the letter even buying some old 33 rpm records to use as "shields". The records were sent via FedEx and the package clearly marked with FRAGILE and GLASS stickers and we paid extra for "special handling". The disc arrived in Nashville in a million pieces and there was no way to reassemble them. This was a "fools errand" from the start as I could already guess that they would not survive their journey. I think you are in the same situation.

Best of luck!

No transfer was ever done. This is not a transfer. This is someone scratching a 78. This is turntablism, not playback and much of the confusion in this thread came from using the word "transfer" which means something very specific.
--scott

I agree. This was NOT a TRANSFER but someone attempt at doing <UNKNOWN> FWIW

Sorry, I guess I used the wrong term, but either way I'm just trying to fix the shifting pitch. Are there any tools or methods that could help?

Some standard tools are RX Wow and Flutter and Celemony Capstan. You could download a free time limited trial of an RX version which has it and see how it goes but it only works on music, not speech and works best on "polyphonic" music such as an orchestra with different instruments playing. It doesnt fix everything and manually overriding it may sometimes be necessary.