INTERESTING AUDIO

Came across a tape from Steven to Curtis to the Batan family recorded around Christmas 1993. A father and son, Steven and Adam, took turns reading a picture book about an Indian brave who got injured on a Buffalo hunt. At one point Adam's sibling entered the room and Adam told the sibling to "get out of here" and threatened them in the way kids do. The story was followed briefly by Adam playing Power Rangers. On the other side of the tape, a fiddle tune. 

INTERESTING AUDIO

Came across a mixtape which at one point on the A side featured a young girl reading picture books. The two books (in part) were "No Moon, No Milk" by Chris Babcock and "Waiting for the Thursday Boat" by Robert Munsch. Methinks the same girl recorded the stories when she was a child, then taped the songs over them several years later when she was a teenager. 

BRINGING THE FUTURE TO THE PAST: SPERDVAC ANNOUNCES BREAKTHROUGH IN AUDIO RESTORATION

Hello Sperdvac Members,

While we’re waiting for a big announcement regarding our online presence, we thought we’d share a breakthrough in audio restoration spearheaded by our own President Corey Harker.

Many of us grew up in an era where we had to accept transmission problems and volume drops due to transmission problems so common to old radio as part of our listening experience. Now Corey has taken us on the first step to a future where that isn’t true.

He used artificial intelligence tools that are available now in the form of plugins for digital audio workstations and a lot of trial and error to create a process that is repeatable and as he calls it, “amazing.”

He provided the sample of an episode of 'The Nichols Family' that was broadcast on December 7, 1941 to the board to deliver proof of concept and we were so impressed we wanted to share it with you as well.

You can access the files on Mixcloud, a file sharing service, here (restored) and (original) here.

As Corey notes, the original recording was dubbed from terrible sounding Memovox plastic dictation discs.

Corey has devised a way to use emerging AI technology to effectively reduce artifacts, sound disturbances, add fidelity and complete depth of sound for muffled recordings.

He’s also working on 'War Of The Worlds' and aims to clean up surviving recordings of D-day Broadcasts as well.

It’s our mission at SPERDVAC to preserve classic radio in the best format and sound possible both for our current entertainment and for history.

Check out the linked recordings and listen to the difference and know that your membership in SPERDVAC is helping to make this future possible. And hey, if you are getting this message as a free member - please consider supporting this work with a paid membership.

Corey’s next upgrade is to add the new Icons line of product enhancements for CEDAR 8, which until recently was the gold standard for audio restoration software. We are looking to raise $1,200 for this purchase. If you’d like to support that effort, please consider a donation to SPERDVAC via our PayPal account, sperdvac3@gmail.com

Best,

Sean Dougherty

Membership Chair 

INTERESTING AUDIO: FIDDLING IN THE OTTAWA VALLY IV

The fourth and final tape of people playing fiddle music in the Ottawa valley featured what seemed to be an afternoon jam at a public venue. The musicians talked about the music and how they should play it. There was also talk of roast beef and potatoes, the price of something, someone injuring herself, somebody's work schedule, someone driving to Sault Ste. Marie, how old one person's grown children were, whether a woman and her husband should have Chinese food for supper, and the musicians wrapping up, talking about the weather and saying their goodbyes. 

INTERESTING AUDIO: FIDDLING IN THE OTTAWA VALLEY III

Came across another tape of fiddle music in the Ottawa valley featuring many people talking in the background. I think it may have been recorded at a dance or something. At one point someone asked about the song that was just played. 

INTERESTING AUDIO

On the one side of a tape which was a dub of songs from the 1978 compilation "Funny Bone Favourites" a young boy taped what I asume to be his baby brother crying. At the end of that side of the tape, he was telling what I asume to be his toddler brother they were going to listen to "Funny Bones."

INTERESTING AUDIO: FIDDLING IN THE OTTAWA VALLEY II

Listened to a home recorded cassette that was a dub of the official tape of the 1995 Grand Masters Fiddling Championship held in the Ottawa valley and featuring performers from every province except Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

INTERESTING AUDIO: FIDDLING IN THE OTTAWA VALLEY I

Tape 1: Some men and women having a fiddler's song circle. Talk about playing the music. At one point, one of the women asked, "Do yous want some tea." The men refused as they didn't want to be distracted. Talk about deer hunting and what to do with the meat, how quickly the carcass rots. Talk about dancing to fiddle music. Three of the men's names were Ross, Gord and Bill. One of the men mentioned that he was born in Douglas and worked in Toronto and Montreal. Some of the tunes were accompanied by spoons. There was electrical interference in some spots.

INTERESTING AUDIO

Came across a 16-message album recently of a Billy Graham School of Evangelism presented at Lake Louise, Alberta in October 2002. The 15 tapes (one was missing) each contained a different speaker and one of them was Charles Price. During his seminar, Pastor Price gave the pastors attending the seminar time to consult with each other over a question he had posed. During the five minutes or so of this, people were coming up and talking to him, including a pastor who had taken one of Charles Price's courses back in 1979 or 1980. The man asked him about how various other pastors Pastor Price had worked with at the time were doing. 

INTERESTING AUDIO: MORE CIVIL WAR AUTO TOURS

    Came across three tapes and a cd of auto tours of Civil War sites discussing battles. Two were from Spotsylvania National Military Park, one was from Richmond National Battlefield Park and one was from Chicamauga. 

INTERESTING AUDIO: AUTO TOURS IN AMERICA AND ACROSS THE POND

Came across a few cds of auto tours, including two Civil War ones: Fort Donelson and Shiloh National Military Park.

Also came across a tour of Longleat Safari Park. 

INTERESTING AUDIO

Came across two albums dubbed onto tape of Lancashire poetry read by a guy named Ryan. One was from 1980 and the other from 1982.

INTERESTING AUDIO

Came across another really interesting cassette.

First, there was a dub of a record album that was a comic revue about Lancashire featuring material about etiquette, expressions, language, and songs. 

That was followed by what I believe was Mike Harding's "Red Specs Album" from 1981. 

This cut off and the tape ended with a few cuts from a record album of classical music pieces. 

INTERESTING AUDIO

Came across a couple audio cds recently of a man speaking in Russian. Mentions of Los Angeles, Paris and Moslems.    

Also came across four data cds of the New Testament in Russian. 

INTERESTING AUDIO

A little boy, about six or seven, singing songs, one about the wind and one about turkeys before Thanksgiving. 

INTERESTING AUDIO

Two pre-pubescent boys pretending to be radio announcers with one doing most of the talking. Station was called "CKBY-FM." A sports report with reference to real life CKWS Kingston sports anchor Max Jackson followed by a commercial for cat food. This was followed by a weather report which included "Alberta, Saskatchewan and them countries." Then more fake commercials for dog food, Charlie's Tuna, and a mental institution, telling how to get into it. Then the news including fictitious movie star having a heart attack, a girl being killed by a car on a bicycle and having to posthumously pay 5 thousand dollars to repair the five dollars worth of damage she caused the vehicle, Ayatollah Khomeini being assasinated (referring to him as a d***head), Eskimoes wanting all the snow gone from the east where they live and being stupid, an item about intercontinental balistic missiles, then into more supposed news stories but sounded like he was reading from a children's book of facts talking about Cardinal Richelieu and nebulae among other things. 

Later, the second kid, Robbie, who had helped deliver the sports and the weather, told jokes, sounding like he was reading from a joke book. The main kid then announced the upcoming song was Olivia Newton John's "Make a Move on Me" thus dating this tape to 1981. 

Later, the same main kid reading commercials which sounded like he was reading pamphlets or something of the kind. One was for a food dehydrator, another for Hunt's tomato sauce and the third for a cold medicine with mention of the drugstore in the town where I live.

Later on the tape, a younger kid teasing another kid named Greg about being a baby. An older, possibly third, kid said "As long as you don't wear that to school."

On the other side of the tape, TV audio from "The Young and the Restless" possibly from December 31, 1981.

Break 1: Sani-Flush, promo "The Allen Thick Show" on CTV.   

Kid from side A making weird noises into the microphone over the TV.

INTERESTING AUDIO

Came across a tape with Haloween sound effects on one side and an audio drama on the other side about a young man heading to a haunted mansion named Elm Hall in Mississippi which he had inherited from a relative. 

INTERESTING AUDIO

Came across a couple of comedy albums dubbed onto tape recently.

The first was recorded in the summer of 1988 by a Newfoundland comedian whose act consisted of telling jokes (the great majority of them dirty) and singing bits of songs, mostly Newfoundland songs but also John Denver's "Country Roads." It was dubbed from a tape.

The second album was Wes Harrison's "The One and Only" and was dubbed from a record. 

Also, a few days prior to finding those two albums, I came across, on the other side of a tape whose first side featured classical music, some routines by comedian Lord Buckley.

INTERESTING AUDIO

Came across a tape of a couple services from a church in Regina. It seemed like the services were held in July sometime in the late eighties. Mention of a Mrs. Kern passing away. Also mention of Citizens Against Gambling opposing proposed casinos for the city. Services were led by a female minister. 

INTERESTING AUDIO

At the beginning of a commercially produced Jerry Lee Lewis live album, there was the beginning of a boy band song from the nineties. In the middle of the B side of the tape, there was a few seconds of a rap song. Bet someone's parent or grandparent was mad.

A commercially produced tape of the story of Sir Lancelot.             

A commercially produced tape featuring the story of King Arthur and the Sable Knight.

A homemade mixtape from March 1, 1991 featuring mainly rap songs with a young white boy at the end of the first side pretending to be a deejay and using black slang, telling people what was coming up on the other side.