This will be a series of posts about these classic recordings from 100 years ago! Like many of you, I became fanatic about jazz (and other music) at an early age. Later, when I was 16, the late jazz critic John S Wilson published in the New York Times
I have several observations with respect to the restoration of this track. First, because I listen to a lot of historical material having widely varying spectral balance, I have a small Yamaha mixer between my computer audio playback, with separate feeds to Sennheiser HD650 headphones and a pair of small Mackie loudspeakers. The music sources, an outboard CD player and whatever the computer gets from the internet, go through a pair of inputs (for stereo), which have 3 bands of boost-cut EQ -- a 100 Hz shelf, a broad band centered at 2.5 kHz, and a 10 kHz shelf. I do virtually all of my serious listening with the phones.
The most commonly needed EQ is the 100 Hz shelf, which compensates for the LF response of whatever the recording or mastering engineer was listening to; it is also quite helpful with poorly recorded speech. Boosting the 2.5 kHz band also helps with speech and vocals. The 10 kHz shelf sometimes recovers missing cymbals, and restores the HF rolloff that the mastering engineer used to kill record scratch.
I found that this track was greatly improved by maximum LF boost (15 dB), a few dB cut of the mid, and I'd guess 6 dB boost of the 10 kHz shelf. What this seems to have accomplished is to partially compensate for the mid-rangy response of the horn. Aurally, I found that having more of the lows not only helped trombone and bass sax a lot, but also helped the brass stand out (because it gave the ear some contrasting sound). The mid and HF EQ improved the presence of the band.
My second observation is to pass along what I learned around 40 years ago from the late Richard Heyser, who revolutionized pro audio with invention of very advanced instrumentation to measure sound systems, mics, loudspeakers, and even the sound in rooms; and equally important, by teaching of the practical application of mathematical transforms. One of his predictions, which I would love to see some grad students tackle, is that if the mathematical complex response of those horns could be computed or measured, music recorded through it could be convolved with that response to restore what had actually been recorded! What I did with my ears on the track was a very primitive attempt at that without instrumentation. What Heyser was talking about was the "complex" response of the horn, which includes small time differences between different notes that result from the exact shape of the horn. And that's a bunch of grad students publishing really important (meaning USEFUL) work.
And this aside. About 20 years ago, I put together a CD collecting all of the recordings of Prez on clarinet from the late 30s. I owned most of the material on various CDs, but their sound balance varied widely, thanks to differing EQ used by various labels and even individual engineers, and also to the practice of rolling off the lows to get rid of turntable rumble and the highs to eliminate record scratch and hiss. I also chased down some rare air checks. I typically spent a day or more on each track, in attempt to get closer to what transpired in the studio. I've shared this with several friends and musicians (including Buddy DeFranco, who loved it).
On the same trip West the well-known "on the street" photo of the Oliver band was taken on San Francisco's Market Street, with Oliver in denim, Baby Dodds in overalls and Lil holding her hands over her ears. Great post, Lewis.
Jones was also the composer of the blues standard "Trouble In Mind", and played piano on the first known recording of it.
I’m curious about this New Strand Theater in the ad, since that’s about half a mile from my house. No sign of a theater in that location these days.
I have several observations with respect to the restoration of this track. First, because I listen to a lot of historical material having widely varying spectral balance, I have a small Yamaha mixer between my computer audio playback, with separate feeds to Sennheiser HD650 headphones and a pair of small Mackie loudspeakers. The music sources, an outboard CD player and whatever the computer gets from the internet, go through a pair of inputs (for stereo), which have 3 bands of boost-cut EQ -- a 100 Hz shelf, a broad band centered at 2.5 kHz, and a 10 kHz shelf. I do virtually all of my serious listening with the phones.
The most commonly needed EQ is the 100 Hz shelf, which compensates for the LF response of whatever the recording or mastering engineer was listening to; it is also quite helpful with poorly recorded speech. Boosting the 2.5 kHz band also helps with speech and vocals. The 10 kHz shelf sometimes recovers missing cymbals, and restores the HF rolloff that the mastering engineer used to kill record scratch.
I found that this track was greatly improved by maximum LF boost (15 dB), a few dB cut of the mid, and I'd guess 6 dB boost of the 10 kHz shelf. What this seems to have accomplished is to partially compensate for the mid-rangy response of the horn. Aurally, I found that having more of the lows not only helped trombone and bass sax a lot, but also helped the brass stand out (because it gave the ear some contrasting sound). The mid and HF EQ improved the presence of the band.
My second observation is to pass along what I learned around 40 years ago from the late Richard Heyser, who revolutionized pro audio with invention of very advanced instrumentation to measure sound systems, mics, loudspeakers, and even the sound in rooms; and equally important, by teaching of the practical application of mathematical transforms. One of his predictions, which I would love to see some grad students tackle, is that if the mathematical complex response of those horns could be computed or measured, music recorded through it could be convolved with that response to restore what had actually been recorded! What I did with my ears on the track was a very primitive attempt at that without instrumentation. What Heyser was talking about was the "complex" response of the horn, which includes small time differences between different notes that result from the exact shape of the horn. And that's a bunch of grad students publishing really important (meaning USEFUL) work.
And this aside. About 20 years ago, I put together a CD collecting all of the recordings of Prez on clarinet from the late 30s. I owned most of the material on various CDs, but their sound balance varied widely, thanks to differing EQ used by various labels and even individual engineers, and also to the practice of rolling off the lows to get rid of turntable rumble and the highs to eliminate record scratch and hiss. I also chased down some rare air checks. I typically spent a day or more on each track, in attempt to get closer to what transpired in the studio. I've shared this with several friends and musicians (including Buddy DeFranco, who loved it).
On the same trip West the well-known "on the street" photo of the Oliver band was taken on San Francisco's Market Street, with Oliver in denim, Baby Dodds in overalls and Lil holding her hands over her ears. Great post, Lewis.