3123 Culmination of The Restoration Saga
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:08:02 -0500
From: Keith Elshaw <keith@TOTANGO.NET>
Subject: Culmination of The Restoration Saga
Another big piece of the puzzle (the last?) has fallen into place in my
quest to make the music sound as clean and rich as it can.
I have always had two main goals:
- take the noise, clicks, scratches and as much distortion away as possible;
- make it all sound big and fit in sonically with selections recorded in
more recent times.
The first was relatively easy - just spend 3 years re-drawing wave-forms by
hand (my excuse for being kind of a crazy person).
The solution to the second part proved elusive until recently. It too drove
me crazy.
After removing the noise and artifacts of the record surfaces, I could
easily make the sound brighter and use other tricks of the audio trade to
add definition, apparent loundness and bring out nuances - all nice things.
But, equalisation, limiting and such do not do the job of adding dimension -
what I was after.
It's fine to boost specific frequencies in the lower part of the spectrum to
add some meat. It makes it better - but not good enough.
Well, I found a way to make it all sound warm, round and fat in another way;
how to add that extra dimension. To everything - no matter how thin. Without
making it boomy (the goal, of course). Lots of bottom - but velvety and
warm. This includes even the good quality Pugliese and Di Sarli from the
50's, etc.
The solution involves increasing the intensity of certain harmonics. The
nice thing about it is that it is dynamic - following the touch of the
players. It's not a blanket addition, but rather a gentle and musical
augmentation here and there.
But what a difference! It's quite fabulous to hear a round and warm Firpo,
for instance. Troilo. Fresedo. Pugliese 40's. Lomuto. Calo. Donato.
D'Arienzo. Everyone.
I've found the way to make you feel the bottom - not just hear it (half
imagined because it's not there on CDs on the market).
It also allows you to even-out the sound of tandas. Nothing has to be
thinner than the rest anymore.
In fact, it works so well that I often have to "add" to the modern material
to make it sound as round as the old stuff I play. How's that for a switch?
This felicitous effect is subtle - it still just sounds like you're
listening to old records (minus the noise, scratches, dust, etc.). But if it
is taken away, you REALLY notice it.
It's the same as if you have a nice round bottom happening in a dance hall
from a sub-woofer (which I highly recommend for every milonga everywhere).
If all of a sudden you turn it off, everyone would wonder what happened to
the sound to make it small in an instant.
I've been re-mastering my entire library the last few weeks (this makes 4
years in a row I've done that) - and I'm in awe of what I'm hearing.
Although I personally don't (and won't) use MP3's, the format is good for
what it was intended - audio on the web. I have made a whole slew of new
examples of my work and put MP3 excerpts on https://ToTANGO.net which are
easy to download. Lots of before and after comparisons.
Many very fine people around the world have been supporting my explorations
and struggles over the last three years. Although it's a shame I can't
mention everyone because the list would be just too long, I would
particularly like to acknowledge the invaluable support of:
Victor Crichton, Dolores Longo, Dan Boccia, Simona Gandrabur, Paul
Montpetit, John Lowry, Joe Vasquenz, Konstantin Koslov, Lydia Henson, Randy
Pittman, Paul Lange, Stephen Brown, Michel Glaize and Toby Morris.
And the many others with whom I have been in personal touch - you know who
you are!
I am full of gratitude.
Heartfelt thanks.
Keith
TangoK the Obsessed DJ
