The Missing Octave(s) - Audacity Remastering to Restore Tracks

[DizRotus]

The Reg Williamson record cleaning system (see: https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/155914-bjesus-a-miracleby-dizrotus/) eliminates most of the pops & ticks, but please share any better filter.

[DizRotus]

Chris-

 

Notwithstanding the title of your thread, I notice that you referred to the corrected tracks as "unmastered."  I will use that designation to refer to tracks upon which you've worked your magic.  Original tracks are referred to as "mastered."

 

I've now listened to eleven unmastered tracks from Rumours (Super Deluxe).  They sound excellent.

 

Unfortunately, my method was far from scientific.  I first listened to the unmastered tracks using Klipsch X4 IEMs modified to utilize the balanced (differential output) mode of the Pono player.  I had never listened to the corresponding mastered tracks under the same conditions.  So as not to confuse the unmastered tracks from the mastered tracks, I loaded them onto separate microSD cards, which makes rapid comparisons difficult.

 

I have selectively listened to some of the original mastered tracks.  There is clearly a difference.  My initial subjective impression is that your unmastered tracks are superior.  While it's too soon to go into great detail, my perception is that the unmastered tracks have greater dynamic range.  The quiet sounds are quiet but distinct, while the louder sounds are loud without overwhelming everything else.

 

I'll listen through speakers and enlist family and friends as Guinea Pigs.  I won't identify which is which to see what they say.

 

Thank you for undertaking this Herculean task.

Edited December 11, 2015 by DizRotus

[Chris A]

One of the reasons why I include the Audacity equalization files (small XML files) is that the recipients get to see what was done to the files for reference, and to allow them to alter the equalization curves for their own personal tastes.

 

The EQ that I apply to the files was chosen for my setup, in my listening position, and meeting my needs, which may be different than the recipients.  Those EQ files also invite the recipients to tweak for their own purposes.

 

Usually, what needs to be done to each track is fairly obvious in terms of the gross changes.  What's not so obvious is the fine tuning.  Even now, I still go back and tune up my tracks that have been unmastered from days or months before.  Just like woodworking, sewing, or anything else requiring a bit of skill, the more you know and do it, the better the results. 

 

Here are the EQ files that go with the tracks that Neil is talking about:

 

Second Hand News - for Neil.XML
02-Dreams-corrected for Neil.XML

Never Going Back Again - Fleetwood Mac for Neil.XML

Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac for Neil.XML

05-Go Your Own Way-corrected for Neil.XML

Songbird - Fleetwood Mac for Neil.XML

The Chain - Fleetwood Mac for Neil.XML

08-You Make Loving Fun-corrected for Neil.XML

09-I Don't Want To Know-corrected for Neil.XML

10-Oh Daddy-corrected for Neil.XML

11-Gold Dust Woman-corrected for Neil.XML

 

Chris

Edited December 12, 2015 by Chris A

[Chris A]

Thank you for undertaking this Herculean task.

 

The part of this unmastering stuff that I've found to be "herculean" is the fact that everything that I've learned has been first hand.  Anyone else that chooses to do it has the benefit of my initial slogging through the BS and inaccuracies that abound on this subject...and there are a lot of inaccuracies, trust me. 

 

I still plan to do videos of how to do it in a bite-sized learning approach. [My expected time window this past fall to do those videos disappeared, unfortunately.]  Perhaps in the next few months, some "how to" videos will appear on YouTube. 

 

I've found that once you understand a handful of basic observations of things to look for on the raw tracks, and the typical operations using Audacity, anyone can do it and it doesn't take a lot of time to learn. 

 

Nothing is preventing anyone from doing it in the mean time.  If you have any questions about the process, or any issues, feel free to ask them here: I'm around to answer those sort of questions based on my experiences to date.  Who knows--perhaps I already have starting EQ curves for the specific tracks you're working on available that you can try out for tweaking.

 

Chris

[Chris A]

Having said that, here is a listing of the albums that I have on my foobar2000 flac library that I can help you with directly, arranged by genre.  You can also open this text file up within MS Excel to make sorting easier.

 

Chris A album list.txt

Edited December 14, 2015 by Chris A

[DizRotus]

Thanks Chris.

The time just gets away, doesn't it?

[Delicious2]

Fascinating thread Chris.  Thanks for all your work.  I've had mixed results trying it out with Audacity 2.1.1 on my PC laptop with Sennheiser HD600 headphones as the "target" speakers.  May switch to my khorns at some point.  The xml curves for Boston aren't to my liking.  They just seem to suck the life out of the music whether the single one applied to More Than A Feeling or the two applied to Something About You.  Am I doing something wrong?

 

 

 

 

Are these the curves you intended since they don't seem to have much bass boost?

 

On the other hand I had very satisfying results with Jaco's Donna Lee.  I find it difficult to understand the mixing/mastering decisions made by the professionals on this tune.  The original really robs the power of his bass and is so lackluster with nothing above 10k.  Your eq curve really makes it so much more listenable.

 

 

 

 

I note that with my attempts the fundamental shape of the bass isn't filling in after eq as in your examples.  For display of the Frequency Analysis I imitated what I saw with your screencaps: Algorithm - Spectrum, Function - Hanning window, Size - 4096, Axis - Log frequency.  Is that correct?

 

 

[Chris A]

I've had mixed results trying it out with Audacity 2.1.1 on my PC laptop with Sennheiser HD600 headphones as the "target" speakers. May switch to my khorns at some point.

 

 

I recommend moving to Khorns if possible if you're using those XML files without customizing them, although you could still use the headphones to check the results afterwards. 

 

I'm not a fan of headphones since they tend to sound different and not as good to my ears as a good stereo pair of loudspeakers.  I find that headphones make me want to mix the music hotter and hotter over time--until I have to take them off and let my ears rest.  That doesn't happen with the Jubs.

 

The key to all this is to customize the tracks to your tastes.  If you've EQed your Khorns to have flat frequency response across their passband (about 32-17000 Hz), particularly the midbass frequencies of 90-250 Hz in the room mode region, then the results of EQing will be more portable to your headphones and other loudspeakers/setups.

 

 

...For display of the Frequency Analysis I imitated what I saw with your screencaps: Algorithm - Spectrum, Function - Hanning window, Size - 4096, Axis - Log frequency. Is that correct?

 

All correct except for the size: I now use the full resolution of the sample size--65536 data points.  This will give you more resolution on the low frequency end, but it will also shift the plot to the right, since now the autoscaled "Plot Spectrum" plots will show resolution down below 1 Hz. 

 

 

I note that with my attempts the fundamental shape of the bass isn't filling in after eq as in your examples.

 

I usually start with reducing the high frequencies until the frequency spectrum curve shows pretty much a straight decrease-slope line, with the right-hand side of the curve passing through -72 dB at 8 kHz as a first try, then I adjust the slope of the curve on the right to taste, tilting it up or down as required through listening.

 

I boost the bass below 100 Hz with a peak centered on 30 Hz.  I usually have to move the EQ curve up to the +12 dB point as a first try.  Using 30 Hz will get the fundamentals of the bass (double bass or electric bass have an open response at 41 Hz) and kick drum (usually a peak at 35 Hz or slightly lower). You can keep trying different amounts of boost until you arrive at something approaching a straight line on the plot below 100 Hz, joining the slope across the rest of the spectrum.

 

Let me know if this doesn't work for you. 

 

Chris

[Chris A]

The xml curves for Boston aren't to my liking. They just seem to suck the life out of the music whether the single one applied to More Than A Feeling or the two applied to Something About You. Am I doing something wrong?

 

Not necessarily.  Over time, and since those first tries at unmastering tracks, I've changed my listening position in-room to not sitting in a leather-covered chair, which I found reflected too much HF energy back to my ears and caused me to mix the results to be a bit dull. 

 

Later tracks found in this thread have other learning curve adjustments.  As a rule, the further forward in time that you select an XML EQ curve posted here, the more consistent the results.  I haven't updated the curves online, but many of the tracks I've since updated from my initial tries to something more "live" sounding. 

 

I've found that once the tracks have been migrated toward a straighter line "1/f curve", adjusting them for brilliance is a snap.  I use a curve like the one you see below and run it once or twice in series to increase the track's brilliance level.  It takes a few seconds to do it:

 

 

Chris

Edited December 22, 2015 by Chris A

[Chris A]

Another point to be made that maybe isn't obvious to first-time users is that the XML EQ curves that are provided here will generally push the tracks back to a straight line 1/f curve.  If the sound is too different or otherwise unsatisfying for your tastes, there's an easy way to get an interim solution: start moving the EQ points back to the middle line ("0 dB") on the EQ view, then listen again.  At some point, your track will begin to sound just like it did when you started, but now you have a visual on which parts of its EQ curve are causing the most issues and which parts aren't.  Over time, your ears will develop to where you can begin to move just those frequencies that are causing the issues.  Like anything else, a little practice helps greatly.  If you need tutorials on ear training, I've got one or two sources that I can recommend.

 

EDIT: A link to some free software distributed by Harman International (Sean Olive) that they use to for their loudspeaker listeners: http://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.ca/

 

For me, my main objective is to make sure to tame the stridency of the tracks so that they sound good at both low and high volumes, and that the bass instrumentation is restored to as close to live unamplified performance levels as I can get them. This is particularly true of kick drum transients in the 30-50 Hz band and bass down to 40 Hz--and sometimes below 40 Hz for 5- and 6-string electric bass used in jazz recordings. For pipe organ performance, the difference is like that between the living and the dead: restoring bass lines down to 17 Hz is a religious experience.

 

What you will find is that after successfully accomplishing unmastering, your recordings will have a presence and balanced performance that sounds far better than any version of the tracks bought in whatever disc format or download data rate/bit depth.  It's a completely new listening experience. 

 

And I don't ever turn my subs off: they're an integral part of my left and right loudspeakers for stereo recordings--another loudspeaker "way" that's seamlessly integrated.

 

YMMV.

 

Chris

Edited December 24, 2015 by Chris A

[Chris A]

It's been a year since I started unmastering stereo CDs--and probably something approaching a couple of thousand hours spent converting stereo tracks back to something much closer to what the musicians originally recorded. 

 

My experiences in this have forever changed the way that I look at hi-fi, and have help me to create a much more satisfying listening experience for myself and my listeners.  The results of my 7000+ unmastered tracks have significantly increased my knowledge on the types of mastering practices employed by genre and mastering house, and has been extremely revealing of industry practices and norms.

 

I highly recommend giving your unmastering skills a try: you won't be disappointed by what you get back.

 

Chris

[mustang guy]

This is a great thread and needed bumped. Go to the top and start over. There was a lot covered. https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/155096-the-missing-octaves-audacity-remastering-to-restore-tracks/?hl=foobar

Edited March 18, 2016 by mustang guy

[Chris A]

See this if you want to hear unmastered music files.  Thanks goes to Craig in helping me to weave my way through Google Drive.

 

Chris

[Chris A]

A partial listing of the rock artists that I've unmastered some of their music:

 

Atlanta Rhythm Section, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Back Door Slam, Bad Company, Billy Joel, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Bobby McFerrin, Boston, Bruce Springsteen, Buffalo Springfield, Carole King, Chicago, Christine McVie, Clapton Eric, Collins Phil, Cream, Creed, Creedence Clearwater, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Dan Fogelberg, Dire Straits, Dr. John, Electric Light Orchestra, Elton John, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood, Gary Wright, Genesis, Gino Vannelli, Grand Funk Railroad, Harry Nilsson, Heart, Jackson Browne, James Newton Howard & Friends, James Taylor, Jethro Tull, Jim Croce, Joe Cocker, Joe Walsh, John Fogerty, Joni Mitchell, Joni Mitchell & The L.A. Express, Journey, Kansas, Karla Bonoff, Kenny Loggins, Led Zeppelin, Linda Ronstadt, Loggins & Messina, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mike, Nicolette Larson, Pat Benatar, Paul Simon, Peter Frampton, Peter Gabriel, Peter, Paul And Mary, Phil Collins, Pink Floyd, Roger Hodgson, Rolling Stones, Rush, Santana, Seals & Crofts, Simon & Garfunkel, Stacey Kent, Steely Dan, Steve Winwood, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sting, Supertramp, Tears For Fears, Ted Nugent, The Alan Parsons Project, The Allman Brothers Band, The Beach, The Beatles, The Cars, The Doobie Brothers, The Doors, The Eagles, The Edgar Winter Group, The Guess Who, The Marshall Tucker Band, The Moody Blues, The Police, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Three Dog Night, Tony Levin Band, Toto, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Van Morrison, Yes, ZZ Top

 

Chris

[Chris A]

A partial listing of jazz artists that I've unmastered some of their music (or intend to unmaster in the near future):

 

¡Cubanismo!; Ana Caram; Andre Previn; Anouar Brahem; Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers; Art Pepper; Art Tatum; Bela Fleck & The Flecktones; Bennie Green; Benny Green & Russell Malone; Bill Evans; Billy Cobham; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Bob Mintzer Big Band; Brian Bromberg; Brown Ruth; Bud Powell; Cannonball Adderley; Carl Perkins; Charlie Haden & Hank Jones; Charlie Haden , Joe Henderson , Al Foster; Charlie Haden / Hampton Hawes; Charlie Parker; Christy Baron; Chuck Mangione; Cliff Jordan; Clifford Brown Sonny Rollins Max Roach Quintet; Count Basie; Curtis Counce; Dave Brubeck & Gerry Mulligan; Dave Brubeck Quartet; Dave Grusin; Dave Koz; Dave Siebels With Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band; David Chesky; David Sanborn; Dena DeRose; Dexter Gordon; Diana Krall; Dizzy Gillespie / Sonny Stitt / Sonny Rollins; Donald Fagen; Duke Ellington; Duke Pearson; Eddy Louiss & Michel Petrucciani; Esperanza Spalding; Eva Cassidy; Flim & The BB's; Fourplay; Frank Sinatra; Freddie Hubbard; Geoffrey Keezer; Geri Allen Trio; Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band; Grover Washington Jr.; Halie Loren; Hampton Hawes; Harold Land; Herbie Hancock; Herbie Mann; Hiromi; Holly Cole Trio; Jaco Pastorius; Jane Monheit; Jean-Luc Ponty; Jean-Pierre Rampal / Claude Bolling; Jimmy Cobb / Roy Hargrove; Jimmy Smith; Joe Sample; Joe Williams; John Abercrombie Quartet r; John Coltrane; John Klemmer; John McLaughlin , Al Di Meola , Paco De Lucia; Jon Anderson; Joshua Redman; Keith Jarrett; Kenny Barron; Kenny Garrett; Kenny Rankin; Lee Morgan; Louis Smith; Mahavishnu Orchestra; Marcus Miller; Matthew Shipp; Maynard Ferguson; McCoy Tyner; Michel Petrucciani; Miles Davis; Morelenbaum² / Sakamoto; Mulgrew Miller; Nikki Yanofsky; Norah Jones; Oliver Nelson; Oregon; Oscar Peterson Trio; Paquito D'Rivera; Pat Metheny Group; Patricia Barber; Peter White; Ray Obiedo - [1990] Iguana; Red Garland; Red Norvo; Rick Braun; Sara K.; Sonny Clark; Sonny Rollins; Spyro Gyra; Stacey Kent; Stan Getz; Stanley Clarke; Tal Wilkenfeld; Thad Jones; The Crusaders; The Dave Brubeck Quartet; The Gene Harris Quartet; The Geri Allen Trio; The Horace Silver Quintet; The Modern Jazz Quartet; The Rat Pack; The Ray Brown Trio; The Ray Brown Trio Featuring Gene Harris & Jeff Hamilton; The Roy Hargrove/Christian McBride/Stephen Scott Trio; Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker; Thelonious Monk; Thom Rotella; Tierney Sutton; Tina Brooks; Tito Puente; Tom Scott; Tony Bennett, Bill Evans; Tony Scott; Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra; Ute Lemper; Vince Guaraldi Trio; Warren Hill; Weather Report; Will Scruggs; Wynton Marsalis; Xiomara; Yellowjackets

[Chris A]

New Age artists:

 

Annie Locke, Bernward Koch, Bill Douglas, Bruce BecVar, Checkfield, Chilly Gonzales, Chris Spheeris, Constance Demby, David Arkenstone, David Lanz, Don Harriss, Enya, George Winston, Georgia Kelly, Harold Budd, Hearts Of Space, Herb Ernst, Iasos, Ira Stein / Russel Walder, Jim Chappell, Kevin Braheny, Kitaro, Liz Story, Mannheim Steamroller, Mark Sloniker, Michael Hedges, Mike Oldfield, Moroccan Spirit, Patrick O'Hearn, Ray Lynch, Richard Burmer, Steven Halpern, Susumu Yokota, Suzanne Ciani, The Art Of Noise, Tim O'Neill, Tony Scott, Uakti, Vangelis, Voyager, Wendy Carlos

Edited March 19, 2016 by Chris A

[Chris A]

One of the sleepers in the unmastered recordings bunch happens to be John Coltrane recordings. 

 

Right now, I'm listening to Blue Train, and I find it difficult to change the music to anything else--it's almost hypnotic.  I can hear the genius now that everyone talked about.  And it sounds a lot more realistic than the CD (i.e., the EQ used on all the Coltrane recordings is quite strident and excessive, IMO).  A Love Supreme and Giant Steps are just as engaging.

 

 

Highly recommended...

 

Chris

[Chris A]

The Dark Art of Mastering Music

 

 

...Professional audio engineers operate out of carefully calibrated rooms designed to eradicate odd resonances and echoes, and their speakers cost more than your car. But since so few people can listen to a record in such a high-end environment, the music must be adapted to sound as good as possible in all the forms and spaces it will eventually occupy—7" vinyl, MP3 files played from laptop speakers, or movie theater surround-sound, to name a few—and each of these platforms has different requirements and restrictions.

 

Laptop speakers can’t get very loud, and it doesn’t take much volume on a high or low note for them to start bleating or fuzzing...

 

Essentially, wherever you hear music, whether it’s in your car or over the credits of your favorite sitcom, that music has been adjusted by a mastering engineer who’s thinking about the acoustics and logistics of where you’re sitting and how you might want to feel there.

 

The mastering engineers I spoke to for this story kept using the same phrase when describing their job: “to make the song competitive in the marketplace.”

 

And now, the marketplace also includes online streaming, which has raised the popularity of listening to music on headphones or portable devices with lousy speakers—platforms that require their own kind of mastering.

 

...In 2014, the Montreal-based firm MixGenius launched LANDR, a cloud-based mastering service that automates the mastering process using algorithms that detect genre, and allow you to select a specific style of mastering. The process is “instant,” and it costs between $2-20 per track, or a $9/month subscription for MP3 files...

 

...The same day that Metallica released the record, they also released its original stems to Guitar Hero 3, and players noticed that the video game’s versions sounded much better than the originals. Wily fans extracted raw audio from the Guitar Hero renditions and remastered the album, correcting what had offended them in the original mix and master. The result is now, in some circles, the “real” Death Magnetic.

 

Did you ever start feeling nervous when you sat down in a restaurant that you've never been to before, and your server shows up looking like a meth addict, complete with ugly body piercings, blackened eyelids, and large tattoos that you're pretty sure that you don't want your children or grandchildren ever to see?

 

That's the way that I feel about CDs and download tracks produced for the mass marketplace today. 

 

Nowhere in the linked article did anyone say anything about "be faithful to the music as it was played".  Witness now how bad the mastering practices have really gotten...they're now lower than "the lowest common denominator" (LCD).  Trashing fidelity is par for the course.

 

So...en guarde...that dystopian future that you keep reading about in fiction and seeing in the movie theaters is actually already here.  Being able to unmaster your own recordings has now become a required skill...and no longer a nice thing to know how to do--in my opinion. 

 

Today is a good day to start the learning curve on how to do it.

 

Chris

[garyrc]

I've thought about why the mastering engineers do it.  Some reasons may be noble, to fix really bad problemts in the final mixes, and really otherwise, for "commercialization" (i.e., a euphemism to justify really screwing up the music in the name of increasing potential sales). For instance, most of the time it's to make the tracks "louder", i.e., devoid of dynamics by using multi-band compressors, or simply clipping the music peaks such that the average SPL levels are higher. Most of the damage is done at this point.

 

What I want to know is whether they have any evidence that these screwed up, compressed or clipped recordings sell better.  Did they distribute two sets of certain recordings (with slightly different ID numbers) with one set compressed, clipped and screwed over, and the other set issued without this processing, then compare the sales?  I believe this is what was done with different copies of the book Future Shock, with different colored covers, or copies of the novel Princess Daisy with cover pictures utilizing different facial expressions.  Or they proceeding without evidence, using the same arm chair theorizing that reduces quality, and perhaps sales, in many industries?  Are they that dumb?

[Chris A]

What I want to know is whether they have any evidence that these screwed up, compressed or clipped recordings sell better.

I think that you've hit it - it's a self-perpetuating culture of trashing music in the name of "commercialization"...that clearly isn't.  At least not for those of us that can hear and put value to high fidelity.

 

There is a JAES paper that was written ~2008-2010 that showed that compression actually decreases sales, but the culture of mastering is somehow now immune to rational arguments. 

 

I believe that it will take a real disruptional change in buying habits from those that prefer hi-fi music in order for this situation to change, and I believe that the current mastering houses and even the current proponent musicians and A&E staff of this culture to pass into retirement for this toxic culture of "mastering for commercialization" to begin to subside.

 

Chris