Advice on Old Recording.

[Atom Bomb]

I have been asked to 'spruce up' some tracks for this friend of the family. The orginal recordings were done reel to reel. Hes since had them recordings done over into digital format. He says Mp3 im hoping it is to wav ??!!!!! I'm also assuming its all been trasferred over to 2 stero tracks??

So. That said. And again ill have to update once i get the audio files.

Where would i start with something like this. Being a freind its free and i have till october to work on it. So time is not an issue?

Suggestions?

 

[Waltz Mastering]

I have been asked to 'spruce up' some tracks for this friend of the family.

Suggestions?

You would need to hear the recordings to know for sure, but in a basic sense when you say "spruce up", I would imagine a little eq and leveling is needed, but you could go as far as noise reduction... hard to say.

 

[oretez]

Unfortunately, in your scenario the most important step in any 'sprucing up' has already been taken out of your hands: the analog to digital transfer.

If the files are MP3's and your friend feels they need 'sprucing up' you are now in black hole disastrous territory.

My first suggestion would be to find out 'how' the digital occurred . . . For example was any research done on any noise reduction that was used on original recordings. While you can't remove artifacts imposed by the analog NR by mirroring some of the processes you can get a file with more potential 'sprucing up' options. Even though it might take longer if you can convince your friend to let you do the conversions or at least make sure that you have a file you can work with is the second half of that suggestion.

Second suggestion is to get a little better focus on what 'sprucing up' means to your friend. If their expectations are unrealistic it is far better to pass on the project. Pretty much the only people who understand and respect what it takes to do a little 'sprucing up' are those who can do it . . . Do they have a sample of what they would find to be acceptable (with record to sound) . . . If you can't establish some fairly straightforward parameters ('sprucing up' fails to functional description of expectations on any level) and are presented with indifferently digitized MP3's . . . Again the recommendation is to pass

If you don't pass, even a little sprucing up pretty much uses every tool in the tool kit: NR, EQ, dynamics, time based effects but any and all is entirely dependent not merely on 'quality' of raw material but specific content. But depending on quality of original recordings, if they were digitized effectively, all they might require is a little clean up of 'hiss'. But MP3 files will actually make dealing with that type of artifact more difficult

But would need to hear some type of sample before anything more specific could be suggested

 

[rayc]

You 1st task will be deciding if it sounds fine as is or not. Listen to it a few times. Is the sound appropraite for what it is (sometimes old tape noise has its own pluses) or does it need something?
Make copies and work on the copies.
Big issues for you. I hope there's some tape lead in on the digital tracks so you can take a tape noise fingerprint to deal with that issue.
You'd actually be better off getting the tapes & the machine with them & doing your own conversion to digital & then processing for noise, any hum etc. followed by trying to "spruce up" the recorded stuff.
that's going to depend on what you get though.
You might need to EQ or MBComp, enhance (a maximizer), limit, a combination of 1 or 2, all of them, which sequence etc etc etc etc etc.
I recently "spruced up" some mid 70's mono tracks from a reel machine for someone.
I worked with wave files - recorded into waverepair, dealt with the noise in waverepair too. The tracks then sounded ok but they were quiet and no bottom end.
I imported the cleaner tracks into Cakewalk proaudio to use the VSTs.
To deal with the request I used the MDA Stereo plug to get a little bit of stereo image.
There was a lack of bottom end (NOT due to denoising but the source material) so (after trying about 20 different plugs) I used a little of the sonicmaximiser plug (naughty but it does have uses - needs to be done subtly),
a little bit of EQ tweaking post max &
I used the Classic Limiter plug to listen to what would come out & that sounded OK.
All in all it came out pretty well - I liked it in mono so did a run of each.
Best quality going in means you'll have a better shot so get the reels & player if you can.
Good luck

 

[Atom Bomb]

Wow im impressed some of those usggestions i actually thought to myself last night and shook my head thinking i was crazy. NICE.

As nice as it would be to have the reel and player thats just not possible. Im 6000 Km's away from it. I doubt they want to ship it to me either.

So anyways i got the songs from the guy and 'to his recollection' they mic'd the room once. Did their mixing in relatation to the drums and eq'd and adjusted their instrument volumes accordingly. Which clearly can be heard. It just sounds 'far away'

It doesnt sound terrible? it also doesnt sound good. Its terrible but they did honestly give it the old college try if that makes sense. 1970 Small town boys resources in our town even know suck. So that in mind this is/was a stellar effort.

I should post a clip up online for you to hear and make suggestions. I think i know what i have to do. You people and your suggestions just solidified my thought that much more. SO. I'll do what i can.

Won't be tonight though... Got a Social Distortion concert tonight WooWoo first time too. Ive waited 15 years for this. lol.

 

[TimOBrien]

Garbage In = Garbage Out

If you get MP3s the biggest problem you'll have is that 80% of the file information is already thrown away (thats why the file sizes on MP3s are so small...)

There is no magic button to press, you're going to have to make a lot of decisions based on what's there when you actually get the files in your hands.

Its more art than science....