# A Question About Restored Sound of Classic Recordings



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

In the case of a recording like Callas' Armida or Ponselle's Traviata, do any of you understand enough of the restoring process to foresee them being able to one day have these brought back to the realm of acceptable sound? I am ignorant of the process. I think film restoration is more successful as a process. Lucky for me my favorite aria in Armida actually had really good sound compared to the rest of the opera recording.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

What would you consider acceptable sound?


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

I do a lot of audio restoration. It's pretty analogous to restoring old movies or photos: you sharpen up what's there, remove unwanted noise. Sometimes you can do minor dynamics enhancement, which is akin to adding color to B&W photos. But you're limited to what is there, you can't create bass notes that weren't captured or room resonances that weren't captured.

There's a certain charm to old silent movies, and historical photos. They are what they are. It's the same with vintage recordings: "acceptable sound" is not the goal. The goal is simply to make what's there sound as good as you can, given the limits of the source material. Sometimes that leaves you with something to work with. More often it doesn't.

Here's a fascinating look at the state of the art in restoration:


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> What would you consider acceptable sound?


I find many of Ponselle's recordings from the 20's to have much better sound than Callas' Armida or Aida recordings from almost 30 years later.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I find many of Ponselle's recordings from the 20's to have much better sound than Callas' Armida or Aida recordings from almost 30 years later.


here's something even better




although I know you're too _cultured_ for this sort of abstract stuff


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I find many of Ponselle's recordings from the 20's to have much better sound than Callas' Armida or Aida recordings from almost 30 years later.


That's the difference between something done for the purposes of commercial release, usually in a studio, and a radio broadcast or other unofficial recording of a live performance.


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