Post by Adrian Gregg on Dec 5, 2007 5:07:48 GMT
Remastering VS Revisionism
I was cleaning up some 16 Inch Ts discs of a few aussie Grace Gibson radio type productions. The discs themselves are in ok shape. A bit of groove wear which using a slightly larger stylus fixed. a few pops which were removed manually and some slight crackle which was dealt with. Now the dilemma is When an effect is "played in" via Grams you can clearly hear surface noise and the fact that the Effect disc is of a lower "FI" than the main prog. No I stoped work here and made up 3 copies of each show. Each copy had been manually fixed equed etc. except for the music cues and sfx which were taken from disc.
To cut a bloody long story short. I made 3 versions of each show.
Ver. One cleaned up as per usual (my own prefered copy)
Ver. Two cleaned up with the effects given a major clean
Ver. Three Replaced SFX where possible with Period effects but from better sources EQing the effects to "Match" program.
Now I like Ver one it’s my "archive" Copy ( although the raw "reads" sit pride of place)
and to my ears ver two is ok sounds much better when the effects come in, but you can tell they are in a studio somewhat.
Ver three is great as the effects sound seamless with the quality of the spoken parts. But its a faked up version
But to a historian I’m kinda buggering things up a bit. If you wanted to seriously research archive radio and heard Ver Three you would have a VERY VERY false memory of the mechanics of radio production in it's hey day.
Ver. One is how the thing was aired but the pressure "from above" is to remove EVERY instance of extraneous noise including those on original BDcast.like chairs moving, Traffic noise (ok ive only ever heard this once or twice) people turning scripts over, coughing -clearing voice, dropping pencils, squeaking noises, the spot efx man making noises accidentally Etc Etc. its worse with Variety you have to remove "out of key singers" Jokes that Bomed etc etc.
What im getting at is that those like me with the heavy task of restoration. can we go too far in our work where the program has changed so much that to compare the orig Raw Transfer and the "Restored" is riducular its sound like 2 diffrant productions not the same programme! . and i'm talking about fiddling with stuff that went out, bits that the public took at the time for granted, they could be taken in with the drama of the show without worrying about scratchy Effects discs and someone turning the page in a script. But in today’s "everything perfect" generation are we leaving history with a rather F**ked up picture of things.
You see I'd like em to preserve "What Went Out" first and our efforts to make it acceptable to today’s ipod kids LAST. I’ve already seen hundreds of discs destroyed because the egos of the guys restoring them came 1st. and what are we left with Re-Tooled shows that bear a slight resemblance to what lay on those discs.
I was cleaning up some 16 Inch Ts discs of a few aussie Grace Gibson radio type productions. The discs themselves are in ok shape. A bit of groove wear which using a slightly larger stylus fixed. a few pops which were removed manually and some slight crackle which was dealt with. Now the dilemma is When an effect is "played in" via Grams you can clearly hear surface noise and the fact that the Effect disc is of a lower "FI" than the main prog. No I stoped work here and made up 3 copies of each show. Each copy had been manually fixed equed etc. except for the music cues and sfx which were taken from disc.
To cut a bloody long story short. I made 3 versions of each show.
Ver. One cleaned up as per usual (my own prefered copy)
Ver. Two cleaned up with the effects given a major clean
Ver. Three Replaced SFX where possible with Period effects but from better sources EQing the effects to "Match" program.
Now I like Ver one it’s my "archive" Copy ( although the raw "reads" sit pride of place)
and to my ears ver two is ok sounds much better when the effects come in, but you can tell they are in a studio somewhat.
Ver three is great as the effects sound seamless with the quality of the spoken parts. But its a faked up version
But to a historian I’m kinda buggering things up a bit. If you wanted to seriously research archive radio and heard Ver Three you would have a VERY VERY false memory of the mechanics of radio production in it's hey day.
Ver. One is how the thing was aired but the pressure "from above" is to remove EVERY instance of extraneous noise including those on original BDcast.like chairs moving, Traffic noise (ok ive only ever heard this once or twice) people turning scripts over, coughing -clearing voice, dropping pencils, squeaking noises, the spot efx man making noises accidentally Etc Etc. its worse with Variety you have to remove "out of key singers" Jokes that Bomed etc etc.
What im getting at is that those like me with the heavy task of restoration. can we go too far in our work where the program has changed so much that to compare the orig Raw Transfer and the "Restored" is riducular its sound like 2 diffrant productions not the same programme! . and i'm talking about fiddling with stuff that went out, bits that the public took at the time for granted, they could be taken in with the drama of the show without worrying about scratchy Effects discs and someone turning the page in a script. But in today’s "everything perfect" generation are we leaving history with a rather F**ked up picture of things.
You see I'd like em to preserve "What Went Out" first and our efforts to make it acceptable to today’s ipod kids LAST. I’ve already seen hundreds of discs destroyed because the egos of the guys restoring them came 1st. and what are we left with Re-Tooled shows that bear a slight resemblance to what lay on those discs.