17-04-2021, 07:46 AM
I remember playing a CD of Paul Robeson. It sounded dull and lifeless. I hasten to add it wasn't one that Ted remastered. I dug out a 78 of one of the tracks and roughly sync'ed it to the CD. The CD had a near silent background but the music lived and breathed on the 78.
There are also psycho-acoustic effects if there is too little background noise. In real life there's always a certain amount of background noise. Even in the finest concert halls you've still got humans breathing. Sound coming out of absolute silence has an uncannny and somewhat unsettling feel to it. It's even worse if you strip away all the noise from older 78s. They were often recorded in a very dead acoustic which sounds truly horrible. A bit of background noise adds life to the sound. Of course you could add a little artificial reverb but should you? These are questions that a good remastering engineer has to ask of him or herself.
There are also psycho-acoustic effects if there is too little background noise. In real life there's always a certain amount of background noise. Even in the finest concert halls you've still got humans breathing. Sound coming out of absolute silence has an uncannny and somewhat unsettling feel to it. It's even worse if you strip away all the noise from older 78s. They were often recorded in a very dead acoustic which sounds truly horrible. A bit of background noise adds life to the sound. Of course you could add a little artificial reverb but should you? These are questions that a good remastering engineer has to ask of him or herself.
www.borinsky.co.uk Jeffrey Borinsky www.becg.tv
