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Ok. The first three are engineering tools, the fourth an unrelated movie score. Or is it?
Here are my few cents on the audio enhancing often done to many vintage film scores as they get readied for release on CD.
The three most common tools for the engineer are those mentioned above. There are other black boxes and plugins and whatnot, but the above get the most attention. In my humble opinion, often too much attention. Especially with older mono recordings.
EQ enhancing (increasing or diminishing the dynamic range) is the most tolerable artificial enhancement in the actual recorded audio for me, often helping add resonance and oomph to a timid low end in the cellos and basses or helping add some "air" around the high strings and so forth. But the second tool, noise reduction, is more troublesome for me. Unless absolutely necessary (such as when addressing vinyl transfers and inherent surface noise) I find the attempts to remove tape hiss frequently actually removing something, rather than helping things. After noise reduction is applied (even with the best programs) the string harmonics often just sound weird, or the phasing of the instrumental colors that once blended perfectly now seem just a bit artificial and so on. I'm just not a fan of trying to squish out all of the hiss and artificially convert an old mono recording into a new digital recording. It is what it is. Give me pure, clear mono over oddly squished, then artificially re-expanded sound and I'm a happy camper. But I admit sometimes the process is necessary when the signal to noise level is just too severe. But I'd still rather have those instances just gently helped, rather then drastically addressed.
By far, for me, the most sadly over-used tool is the reverb. At its best, it does wonders for opening up the spread of strings, for example, in recordings made in tiny rooms. It can also work miracles with solo woodwinds, for example, that are close-miked and playing solo passages that otherwise appear very "dry" within the orchestral sound. But I think it's best applied somewhere during the mixing process, when engineers have all the channels still available to them. Individual solos and various instrumental sounds can be enhanced without washing over the entire orchestra. If some sort of overall room reverb sound is going to be artificially introduced, I again prefer it to be done with extreme prejudice. If too much is applied, the positions of the instruments becomes ambiguous and blurry, two liabilities to me in a recording. It's no secret I generally dread the so-called "concert hall" sound for this music. I simply prefer close miking and crisp, detailed instrumental sound, even when recorded in small-ish rooms. Admittedly, if the room is closet-sized, and the orchestra too big for the room (like what happened to Jerry Goldsmith with INCHON), then something needs to be done to help the sound. But in a place like Abbey Road or Air Studios and so forth, the rich results from the natural room reverb are sufficient for me. No need for an artificial boost.
I'm finding what FSM has been doing with older mono recordings to be the most pleasing, and I'm adopting it myself these days. When the mono sound is too dry, a gentle assist with stereo reverb keeps the music from being "dead" in the center and enhances the listening experience. And happily FSM is judicious when they do it. If the recording has a lot of punchy brass and other dynamic sounds, they leave it alone for the most part. When it's more string-dominated, or full of individual colors and whatnot, they enhance it. I think mono sound should definitely be enhanced on a case by case basis. Some original mono recordings are crisp and dynamic and sound best when left alone, while others may be too dry and pinched and assistance is warranted.
And THE VIKINGS? It's my all time favorite example of why I hate too much artificial "enhancing" done to a recording, especially an older mono one.
UA issued a mono album in the late fifties, with the score being recorded with very pinched sound in Italy. But it was what it was. UA also issued an "enhanced" artificial stereo version, which made the sound worse, with a washed out and blurry quality running rampant. Then later CD releases from different labels brought the soundtrack out yet again, but continued to artificially "fix" the sound even further. It finally just got unlistenable. I actually went back to the ancient first generation old fifties mono LP and made a CDR of it... and it's the best sounding version to date, totally untampered with, with warts and all.
Here endeth my thoughts on audio enhancements.
--Doug
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