| I fear that this little gimmick will make the "serious" mastering guys faint-- or just shriek, maybe.
One time I was given a few records by a "name" cello player, long since out of print, with an eye to transfering them to CD and revive (somehow) the fellow's career. While these were professional recordings, they were of the era of orchestral recordings that began and ended with a stereo pair thirty or forty million miles away from the nearest player. I *guess* this was the standard of the industry at the time, but it sure made everything seem teeny-tiny, except for the grande finales that *finally* filled up the stereo field. Mostly, it sounded dim and in a galaxy far, far away,
So...
After sussing out what the actual reverb in the hall at the time was doing, I concocted an "e'verb" in Digital Performer that did the same thing, only more so. I layered a whole lotta this 'verb into the mix, and SUDDENLY IT ALL CAME ALIVE! Suddenly, there were the players, in three dimensions, not adrift on some yonder shore, but right there! The "identitfying factors" just hinted at in the original mix were honed and highlighted and brought out.
I was pretty vague with the customer exactly what I'd done... but they really liked the result. |