# Remastered Classics



## bfBrian (Aug 12, 2018)

I rarely ever hear about remasters for classic performances, but there are sometimes obvious recording deficiencies. Some great performances have been captured with equipment that failed to respond to bass frequencies very well, or added significant noise that is distracting during quiet periods.

I understand that classical music fans are often purists, and most would consider any attempt at noise reduction to be blasphemous, as it's expected to corrupt the pristine sound of the instruments. I've tried a few commercial noise reduction products, and I understand the concern. I had some humorous results (like the one that wiped out all the recorded reverb, which would have been a neat trick if that's what it was supposed to do.) It's hard to get substantial reduction of noise without introducing artifacts that are as bad or worse, or otherwise distorting the musical content.

Long story short, I wrote my own algorithm, which I applied to pieces in my library that I felt needed it. I did this for my own personal benefit, and whenever I listen to those pieces, I use the version with less noise (some residual noise remains, which is part of preventing artifacts), because I took care to preserve the music. Some of those pieces also had spectral balance issues, so I did what I could to improve those as well (when applicable).

Since I was going through all this work for myself, I figured I might as well share the results. So I have posted some of the pieces to youtube.

So far, I only have a few pieces from Borodin and Saint Saens, because those are the pieces in my library that I wanted to hear often, but that had some issue or other that needed to be addressed to increase my satisfaction.

I'm pleased with the results, and figured others may be as well. You can listen here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/alexdlrg

Here's Danse Macabre:





and here's Polovtsian Dances.





If anyone can think of a recording that would benefit from some noise reduction and spectral rebalancing, please let me know. If I like the piece enough to add it to my library, I'll likely try my hand at "fixing" whatever is deficient.


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