Haydn

Thanks - that's a great explanation

I mentioned this in another thread, but it wasn't the main question. Forgive my ignorance on this one please. Can someone explain what a transfer is? I know that the transfers are important, and that the quality of the transfer it a major factor in the quality of a CD re-issue of old music, but I haven't seen an explanation of what a transfer actually is. I'm talking about transfers of old jazz originally recorded in the 1930s and 1940s.

Thanks for that Allen. I've found something similar. I edit the sound of recordings using a Mac program called Amadeus Pro which has a 31 band equaliser. I've noticed that most of the harshness (or 'shrillness' as you put it) seems to be around 2.5k and 5k, so when I lower the level of these frequencies a little, the harshness is noticeably reduced. I've also found that old recordings on CD often benefit from "opening up" the treble by boosting the higher frequencies - so that's where it gets complicated and time-consuming. Some things I would like to understand properly: 1. What exactly is a 'transfer'? 2. Why does the problem of harsh treble sounds on transfers specifically affect old 1930s/40s jazz? What is it about recordings from this time that causes the problem?

I'm a big fan of 1930s jazz, which I buy on CD and download. I've noticed a big problem with harsh treble sounds on some tracks. Recently I've discovered that the same music on original 78s doesn't seem to have this problem. I've posted about this subject on the 'swing djs' forum - http://www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2245 - and although we have discussed it, no-one there has explained simply clearly (in a way that I can understand) what actually causes the trebles to sound harsh. I wondered if anyone here could explain what makes the trebles on some 1930s jazz on CD sound bad? Here are some examples of songs which seem to suffer from harsh treble sounds: A-Tisket, A-Tasket, Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald 1937 Doin' The Jive, Glenn Miller 1937 Gotta Pebble In My Shoe, Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald 1938 Free Wheeling, Artie Shaw 1937 Ya Got Me, Tommy Dorsey 1938