Turning old....into gold!! (Audio)

[Midnight Toker]

The recent Beatles Revolver boxed set discussion about making music sound "modern" prompted me to post this find.

How about taking REALLY old crackly mono recordings and deconstructing them via spectral seperation, then processing individual frequencies as desired, then remixing w/ added panning for a true stereo outcome.

The results can be mindblowing!! It's like Robert Johnson himself has been brought back to life!!


Here is the link from the YouTube description w/ more samples. https://www.monotostereo.info/

Oddly enough, the basic root of their process is pretty much the same thing I have been doing w/ my Led Zeppelin bootlegs for the past 30+ years...all on outboard PA gear! (Remixing a 2 track source by means of splitting the signal multiple times, each running through it's own eq assigned to a small group of frequencies, then processing those (adding reverb to just the voc/gtr/snare of a dry soundboard, some compression and gain on the bass/kick, aural expander to fatten the low mids (rhythm), then mix it all together on top of the original source w/ added stereo seperation. The results really breathe fresh life into an otherwise flat/dry recording.)

 

[Teleguy61]

Very interesting, thanks.

 

[Midnight Toker]

And for comparison....the original.

 

[GGJaguar]

Very cool to compare the original and cleaned up versions. Amazing!

 

[geoguy]

That cleaned-up recording sounds great!

I've also enjoyed listening to some slowed-down Robert Johnson recordings. They make his voice sound much more natural, and in the case of this tune drop the key from an unlikely F# to the more-likely key of E:

 

[DrumBob]

Certain record companies that reissue 60's garage rock on compilations are now filtering out all the scratchy surface noise on certain songs where no master tape was available. They have to use the vinyl 45 records as the source, and many of them are scratched and scuffed up and so rare, that it's nearly impossible to find pristine copies. Very few master tapes of local garage bands were preserved, and often, the only thing available are acetates, and as you probably know, those only play cleanly four or five times before they degrade and start sounding terrible.

Norton Records has released several compilation LPs of New York garage bands taken from acetates. None of these songs were ever released on vinyl, and they did a great job of cleaning them up.

 

[kitniyatran]

That cleaned-up recording sounds great!

I've also enjoyed listening to some slowed-down Robert Johnson recordings. They make his voice sound much more natural, and in the case of this tune drop the key from an unlikely F# to the more-likely key of E:

I'm sorry the slowed down version sounded lifeless to me. But then again I like tenor and falsetto voice anyway

 

[dreadnut]

THE Blues!