If you thought that all one needs to do to make a compact disc is switch on a recording machine, press the odd button or two and sit back to listen you just don't know the half of it, as members of the Recorded Music Society found out at their latest meeting.
Accustomed to listening to music already recorded and restored they were unprepared for an extraordinary insight into the restoration of old recordings. Turning old 78s into LPs is obviously difficult enough but Peter Harrison, a sound engineer and s
pecialist in the art and magic of sound restoration, took them on a magic roundabout of sounds, techniques and delicately intricate restoration achieved by modern technology and digital engineering. Even those who have never touched a computer were fascinated by it all. It begins with cleaning the records ready for digitalisation while the most important thing of all is not to alter anything but somehow produce discs sounding just as they did in the studio. He demonstrated by getting everyone to listen to different tones of the same notes repeated several times and to identify the differences. Apparently it is all done by maths and very sophisticated software. Amid a wealth of terminology, de-noising, rumbles and clicks were only a few; He played poetry read by Robert Donat, songs from the 20s and 30s, music recorded by Jelly Roll Norton and finished with a tumultuous rendering of Balthazar's Feast made into a disc from wax cylinders of a performance recorded in 1908.
At the same meeting members discussed the alteration of the constitution in order to allow the chairman to be re-elected annually for period of not more than four years. This was voted yes almost unanimously and will be put into place before the next AGM.
Meetings are held once a fortnight on Thursdays at 7.30pm at Saviour's and St Peter's Church hall. For more information phone 738995.
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