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Author Topic: Mastering  (Read 2605 times)

michi95

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Mastering
« on: January 19, 2013, 12:01:59 am »

Quote
If it was Jefferson Airplane's intent to give me an "AM radio style" mastering back in 67 - then so be it.

I doubt that the resulting quality of the recording published on vinyl was intentionally created.
It is based on the technical recording capabilities (audio hardware) they could use and the competencies of the audio engineers at that time and place.

There exist no original recording in the true meaning of live played music and its audio quality (the sonic richness when people play their instruments).
The originally released vinyls and even the magnetic recordings are only bad copies (adulterated and noticeably audible distorted during the recording process).
So remastering is not a bad (and forbidden) act of destroying an original recording (because that does not exist at all).

Of course it is always possible to make things even worse (we all know horribly remastered CDs).

I am just on my way to remaster (digitally of course) the horrible analog (!!!) remastered Beatles CD.
And this means that my remastering will create a much better and broader dynamic range.
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Vocalpoint

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Mastering
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2013, 09:06:48 am »

I doubt that the resulting quality of the recording published on vinyl was intentionally created.
It is based on the technical recording capabilities (audio hardware) they could use and the competencies of the audio engineers at that time and place.

There exist no original recording in the true meaning of live played music and its audio quality (the sonic richness when people play their instruments). The originally released vinyls and even the magnetic recordings are only bad copies (adulterated and noticeably audible distorted during the recording process). So remastering is not a bad (and forbidden) act of destroying an original recording (because that does not exist at all).

I am just on my way to remaster (digitally of course) the horrible analog (!!!) remastered Beatles CD.
And this means that my remastering will create a much better and broader dynamic range.

Hmm...after thinking it through (and wanting to keep the actual "dynamic range" chat going) - responding to this...is probably not a good thing - so I am going to take the high road. :)

VP
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michi95

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Mastering
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2013, 05:21:17 pm »

Hmm...after thinking it through (and wanting to keep the actual "dynamic range" chat going) - responding to this...is probably not a good thing - so I am going to take the high road. :)

VP
Off topic ?
I don't think so !
If you think (and it seems to me like you do) that all my arguments are nonsense then go into details.
Or what might be the purpose of an audio related internet forum ?
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Vocalpoint

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Mastering
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2013, 05:43:07 pm »

If you think (and it seems to me like you do) that all my arguments are nonsense then go into details.

Apologies - but what I really think - has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.

Let's try and circle back to the excellent DR tool and dynamic range chat.

VP

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Datman

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Re: Mastering
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2013, 10:17:12 pm »

I would like to continue a discussion about mastering. I put my mastered version of Surrealistic pillow up on soundcloud if anyone wants to hear go here   http://soundcloud.com/thedats/jefferson-airplane

If you heard how bad the record sound, you get a hint in-between the songs.

Personally I don’t think they mastered music back then the way they did because they didn’t have good equipment or engineers. They definitely had the capability to record as good even better that many of today’s digital recordings. It’s something that has evolved into what it is today. Back then the end user did not have systems that would play today’s high output digital recordings most things from the 60s is mastered bass lite.

If anyone is interested if a few days I’ll take that one down and put up something from the 70’s that I think turn out great.
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Vocalpoint

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Re: Mastering
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2013, 11:24:55 pm »

I would like to continue a discussion about mastering. I put my mastered version of Surrealistic pillow up on soundcloud if anyone wants to hear go here   http://soundcloud.com/thedats/jefferson-airplane

I dropped you an email with my thoughts on the Airplane posting.

VP
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Datman

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Re: Mastering
« Reply #6 on: January 20, 2013, 11:19:14 am »

Thanks for your assessment I think it was spot on. I was very aggressive with the bass on this one. On the fades in-between the songs yes you can hear it kick in and out that is so bad because of how poor the condition of the record is. Believe it or not the un-treated sounded far worse.

What seems to happen on well recorded, mastered and pressed records that are in great shape the software works great. On poor records what ever aspect of it that sounds poor gets magnified and becomes more audible. What you were hearing that sounded like a noise gate is a special setting in the software that on a clean record sounds fantastic compared to how the noise gate plug-in sounded.  IMHO the worst part about needle drops is that -30db or more floor noise that when you have the volume up as the songs fade becomes a nasty grinding sound that errks me, the software really helps that.
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Datman

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Re: Mastering
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2013, 05:00:44 pm »

I wanted to put up a good one. Just to prove vinyl can sound fantastic. The only thing I can pick apart is the fades sound a little choppy but it sounds better than the floor noise.

https://soundcloud.com/thedats/steely-dan-aja
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