Post by CountryCrock on Aug 25, 2023 2:48:36 GMT
It, actually, sounds pretty decent for an amateur recording made in an auditorium during that era.
Things like that (usually) sound as if someone had just propped-up a cheap crystal microphone in front of an AM radio's speaker: (disappointingly) resulting in muffled and shrill audio (with, nearly almost all the time as well, a ground problem "buzz" interference).
The upload of the "Stowe tape" I heard didn't have any of those...which, makes me wonder(?): if the audio-visual department of that school had a (mono) recorder along the lines of a FERROGRAPH model "5"-or-something? Here (the U.S.), in the early-'60s, an imported machine like that would've cost $300 (the stereo model "6" would've been over $400; while, by contrast, every American school's language dept. was using a $150 3M/Wollensak in a metal housing the size of a waffle iron --- vs. those aforementioned British Ferrographs looking like a fifty pound suitcase). It's not at all like the Tinkertoy-esque GRUNDIG portables the "Star Club" material had probably been recorded with.
Unfortunately, of course, they didn't have a four-input mic mixer-or-anything (to have gotten a ten-times better sound balance!). It's weird, though, how if the recordist (supposedly?) was as close to the stage as remembered: the mic didn't register the vocals (even a tad-more coherent) as adequately as it did the drums and guitars. The EQ range of boosting (male) vocals sits between 650Hz - 1500Hz. However, they're too faint on the source to expect just tweaking that would fix things without needing sophisticated A.I. tools.
Yes, the (then-recent) addition of Ringo's drumming is the immediate thing noticeable about the "energy" of the band's performing at this developing moment. All the pieces were finally in place for a shot at fame. There was no way Pete Best would've made even a concert in that venue sound as charged-up as Ringo's infusion into the group was (clearly) setting a trajectory toward (and, I'm not even a "Ringo guy"; my fave drummers are: Dino Danelli, Nick Ceroli, Frank DeVito, and Mel Taylor).
Things like that (usually) sound as if someone had just propped-up a cheap crystal microphone in front of an AM radio's speaker: (disappointingly) resulting in muffled and shrill audio (with, nearly almost all the time as well, a ground problem "buzz" interference).
The upload of the "Stowe tape" I heard didn't have any of those...which, makes me wonder(?): if the audio-visual department of that school had a (mono) recorder along the lines of a FERROGRAPH model "5"-or-something? Here (the U.S.), in the early-'60s, an imported machine like that would've cost $300 (the stereo model "6" would've been over $400; while, by contrast, every American school's language dept. was using a $150 3M/Wollensak in a metal housing the size of a waffle iron --- vs. those aforementioned British Ferrographs looking like a fifty pound suitcase). It's not at all like the Tinkertoy-esque GRUNDIG portables the "Star Club" material had probably been recorded with.
Unfortunately, of course, they didn't have a four-input mic mixer-or-anything (to have gotten a ten-times better sound balance!). It's weird, though, how if the recordist (supposedly?) was as close to the stage as remembered: the mic didn't register the vocals (even a tad-more coherent) as adequately as it did the drums and guitars. The EQ range of boosting (male) vocals sits between 650Hz - 1500Hz. However, they're too faint on the source to expect just tweaking that would fix things without needing sophisticated A.I. tools.
Yes, the (then-recent) addition of Ringo's drumming is the immediate thing noticeable about the "energy" of the band's performing at this developing moment. All the pieces were finally in place for a shot at fame. There was no way Pete Best would've made even a concert in that venue sound as charged-up as Ringo's infusion into the group was (clearly) setting a trajectory toward (and, I'm not even a "Ringo guy"; my fave drummers are: Dino Danelli, Nick Ceroli, Frank DeVito, and Mel Taylor).