Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site
In the Forum: Didital Things
In the Thread: New sample 24/96 downloads from HDTT
Post Subject: Availability/lowered cost of noise processingPosted by Paul S on: 2/11/2008
Sure, old records are noisy, bandwidth-limited, etc., but perhaps there are ways to mitigate some of these problems, to help even audiophiles get to the special performances available only through older mecanical media? If noise is the big issue, "effective" noise processing has been available for record transcription for many years now. I have not tried to keep pace with it, but my guess is that the usual technological "trickle down" will have simultaneously raised the bar and lowered the costs to regular folks who can be bothered to sniff it out. I do know that this sort of noise cancelling stuff has been used by well-endowed libraries - including the Library of Congress - for well over 2 decades.
Of course, analog people wonder what this sort of processing does to sound and, more importantly, to the gestalt of old recordings. OTOH, digital people have been open to plenty of "processing" so far; so, why not try it? My guess is that there is already +/- an active "underground" that is all over this, so it may well be that lots could be learned fast by interested/prepared parties, and perhaps material is already available for comparison or even for trade/transfer, given the right arangements.
Germane to the noise issue, I have recently been listening to a lot of mediocre re-dubs that have really surprised me in terms of what IS available from old recordings. As I mentioned in comments posted in the Musical Discussions Forum here, I am left to wonder just how good the originals might be, in terms of sonics as well as musical values, and my educated guess is, Priceless. Sure, it MAY be that the performances are so great that they simply overcome the problems. But I am generally pretty critical of sound, itself, and some of these old recordings, for all their obvious problems, somehow manage to get the musical message across in a very satisfying way, with very interesting sound, believe it or not.
Perhaps the biggest question is, are the transfers for audiophiles or music lovers? Despite the odd attraction of the notably-fickle "audiophile" as a marketing target, I would not be surprised to learn that "music lovers" account for more classical recording purchases, if cost-per-sale issues can be resolved. And while it is way outside my ken, I can't help but wonder in the context of this thread so far if the current assessment of the "target market" is a self-actualizing prediciment.
Best regards,
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site