Audio restoration hardware:
Turntable: Stanton ST.150 with Stanton 500 cartridge.
Styli from Expert Stylus Company.
Audio restoration software: Use with care!
Audio Restoration: A retired Australian maths professor has designed some low price and incredibly effective products for sound restoration: ClickRepair, Denoise, Denoise LF and Equalizer.
Diamond Cut productions are the makers of the various versions of DC audio restoration software – I’ve used DC6, DC7 and now DC8.
Audacity is a free open source sound editor, with plugins available to deal with many sound restoration issues
HarBal is a “sonic balancing” program, which analyses the spectrum of an entire audio file. It can be useful for compensating for the deficiencies of older recordings.
Sonic Visualiser is a free program developed by Queen Mary University of London for a wide range of sound analysis.
Historic recordings online:
The British Library: Many historic recordings now available online, though not accessible in all parts of the world, due to licensing issues.
The Mapleson Cylinders: full documentation of these fascinating recordings. The audio files no longer work.
Otterhouse: Another restorer of old recordings.
Violinland: Website of Cheniston K Roland, a violin enthusiast, and collector of historic violin recordings.
Neal’s Historical Corner: Another restorer of old recordings.
CHARM: The Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music.
Pristine Audio: Home of some of the most remarkable remasterings of historic recordings to be heard anywhere.
Historic Recordings: More historic recordings available to buy (including some which have appeared on this site.)
78 Heaven: Historic vocal recordings in transfers with minimal processing.
Historic recordings – information
CHARM: The Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music. This includes a number of searchable discographies
DISMARC: Online searchable discography
Victor discography: Online searchable discography of Victor recordings
The Record Collector: The long-running quarterly magazine devoted to historic vocal art.
Classical Recordings Quarterly magazine: Quarterly magazine devoted to historic classical recordings.