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From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad


Both Ted and I have copies of John RT's drawings of the split block. I only got 
to know him in 1982, but discussing this tool with him it was very clear that 
he knew precisely what to listen for in the sound from the split block. It 
relied on a stick-slip movement of the tape that gave the proper speed 
piecemeal of the tape across the head; fast movement was essential to get a 
signal, because it relies on induction. His appreciation of the sound of a 
click related to its nature from a magnetic pickup (or dynamic, they are both 
velocity pickups): it has a pulse going in one direction, connected to a sharp 
pulse going to the other direction, passing zero very steeply.

Cutting short pieces of tape out was the standard practice in the old days, 
even used by Marston III. It obviously distorted the timeline, and that is why 
John RT's blooping was so important.

The video shows a younger John RT (1970s?), and I shall have to watch it with 
the sound. It looks as if it is partly a fun show.

Thank you, John Haley for providing this flashback!


George

----------------------

Ted Kendall <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I wouldn't laugh, if I were you. The subject of the film is John R T 
> Davies, under whom I studied restoration techniques. Crackpot some of 
> this may seem, but it worked, and there are hundreds of his remastered 
> LPs and CDs to prove it. By the time I knew him, the cutting out of 
> clicks had been supplanted by judicious use of a Packburn, or my Front 
> End, whose design he inspired, and blooping the remaining clicks by 
> removal of oxide. The peculiar motion of the tape in the split block (or 
> decerealiser) enabled one to locate the click very accurately and scrape 
> oxide with such precision that the click sank into the surrounding 
> surface noise. Until CEDAR came along, this was the best method of 
> getting muck out whilst leaving the music intact. A pioneer, and a 
> visionary. May he rest in peace.
> 
> 
> On 24/04/2018 17:04, John Haley wrote:
> > Hold everything!  We are obviously doing it (audio restoration) all wrong.
> > Here's how it's really done!  (I may need trumpet lessons).
> >
> > https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/558590687847299/
> >
> > Here's the thing.  Will future generations laugh as hard at what we do
> > today?
> >
> > Best,
> > John Haley
> >
> 
> 
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