Being in the archival business I always provide copies of the raw 
transfer, both 44.1 & 96kHz copies. For individual clients, (the ones 
that find media in grandma's attic, for example) I will also provide a 
"listenable" copy because, more often than not, the original is so noisy 
that it is hard to listen to. I'm always more than happy to go further 
with with restoration if the client desires and I make that clear. I 
also make clear what can be expected at what cost as every situation is 
different.

Steve's situation is different still, based on his description. Steve 
has to avoid the groove wear which means that he has to work above or 
below the wear, whichever sounds better (been there, done that). When 
you have to work at or towards the bottom of the groove, you often get 
this swishing sound (from encountering the bottom of the groove) that is 
rotational and often will change in pitch slightly with each rotation as 
the stylus works towards the center of the disk. This, coupled with the 
fact that the signal to noise is very poor in that area, presents an 
almost insurmountable problem for restoration software. Being hands on 
familiar with many of them, I can say that each one (Cedar, iZotope, 
Sonic solutions, etc.) handles the situation slightly different and none 
of them have all of the answers. The best advice that I can give to 
Steve (along with my condolences) is to go with what he knows best 
because it's very labor intensive to achieve any results.

I realize that, in many cases, I'm preaching to the choir so, my 
apologies to those individuals.

I only wish that I had better news for Steve Smolian.

Corey

Corey Bailey Audio Engineering
www.baileyzone.net

On 2/3/2019 2:46 PM, Richard L. Hess wrote:
> Hi, Steve,
>
> For private clients, I often provide a raw copy of the disk with 
> semi-appropriate EQ and then a final copy with all the cleaning bells 
> and whistles. I have not played with Cedar for a while, and have never 
> owned it, but I suspect that on something like you have neither Cedar 
> nor iZotope RX will provide a miracle.
>
> Hearing the original usually makes them happy for what I could do.
>
> Actually, I'm doing that with a tape now--that's horrid and the person 
> who recorded it knows it and she was pleased what I could resurrect.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
>
> On 2019-02-03 5:24 p.m., Tim Gillett wrote:
>> Hi Steve, getting those particular worn acoustic disc recordings to 
>> sound great on ANY system, speakers or headphones, sounds like a tall 
>> order to me. Perhaps a note should be attached to the final mp3 files 
>> stating the age of the recordings and the lack of good, unworn copies.
>>
>> Working with poor recordings can be disheartening when we know ahead 
>> of time that they will never sound great, and that probably the 
>> ordinary listener will not be impressed.  Sometimes I try to explain 
>> to a customer how much *worse* the final result would have sounded 
>> if  it had been produced without the necessary  equipment and skill.
>>
>>
>> Tim Gillett
>>
>> Perth,
>> Western Australia
>>