Re: [ARSCLIST] King Oliver/Louis Armstrong Gennett recordings

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> On 03/06/07, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:
> > The applicable question here is not too hard to define...though
> > difficult to answer! "Is it possible, using a recording of
> > admitted (but not accurately defined) sonic inaccuracy, to
> > recreate using digital methods an accurate recreation of
> > EXACTLY what was recorded using earlier inaccurate methods?!"
> > 
> It depends on the nature of the inaccuracy.
> Equalisation problems can be solved quite easily. Nowadays, many clicks
> and some crackle can be removed digitally. 
> Intermodulation distortion would be very hard to correct. Resonances are
> hard, as they vary with level.
> Bad microphone placement, especially close micing, would be very hard to
> correct unless multi-track tapes exist with the outputs from each mic
> kept separate. (Which is not usual in the 1950s).
> You can't correct a problem until you have analysed it, identified it
> and studied it. Recordings have many different and independent faults.
> 
Remember that these Gennett phonorecords were recorded acoustically...
which means the frequency response was essentially defined by now-
unknown details of the recording horn, as well as the minimal bandwidth
inherent in the acoustic-recording process...

Steven C. Barr