def load_raw(raw_pickle_file):
    """
    Load a pickle file of raw recordings.

    Parameters
    ----------
    raw_pickle_file : str
        Path to a pickle file which contains raw recordings.

    Returns
    -------
    dict
        The loaded pickle file.
    """
    with open(raw_pickle_file, 'rb') as f:
        raw = pickle.load(f)
    logging.info("Loaded %i recordings.", len(raw['handwriting_datasets']))
    return raw