Badly engineered/recorded performances

[Mark]

Thought we could have a thread where we nominate performances which we think are good/great/outstanding, but which (to our ears) have been poorly recorded, mixed or engineered.

I have two nominations - both of them recordings of Brahms' 'A German Requiem':



This one is terrific, but sounds (variously) hollow, flat and unbalanced. Twiddle with the EQ, and suddenly its beauty shines through. I actually took this recording into Nero 7 and gave it a working over: a 'tune-up' to bring out its colours, textures and contrasts. Something I'll soon also be doing with this recording:



This English language version of Brahms' masterpiece affords an excellent opportunity for those who don't speak German to really hear and understand the work's texts. That is, once you bugger about with the EQ. If you leave it as it is, you get a sound that's inarticulate pretty much across the board (except for the soloists, who fare much better), yet oddly over-prominent (to the point of near distortion) in places in the mid-to-high frequency range.


What will YOU nominate?

[George]

Fortunately, it has the greatest Waldstein I have ever heard.

Fortunately, that performance of that work sounds OK.

Unfortunately, the Moonlight and a few others just sound terrible.

[Mark]

Aaaah! That's better. Just 're-engineered' that Jessop German Requiem. Sounds gorgeous now ... and much more natural.

[George]

Aaaah! That's better. Just 're-engineered' that Jessop German Requiem. Sounds gorgeous now ... and much more natural.

Is there no end to your talents? 

[Mark]

Is there no end to your talents? 

Dunno about that. I just twiddled till I was satisfied, ran a test burn and it sounded much better. Now converting the new version to MP3.

[George]

I just twiddled till I was satisfied...

Me too, though it had nothing to do with music. 

[71 dB]

The orchestra is recorded well but the singers are placed very irritatingly in the sound image. Bass Robert Pomakov sings in the right speaker. Soprano Olga Pasichnyk sings similarly in the left speaker. The stereo separation of singers is too large and 3D-depth of sound is missing. The singers are too close.

[M forever]

Thought we could have a thread where we nominate performances which we think are good/great/outstanding, but which (to our ears) have been poorly recorded, mixed or engineered.

I have two nominations - both of them recordings of Brahms' 'A German Requiem':



This one is terrific, but sounds (variously) hollow, flat and unbalanced. Twiddle with the EQ, and suddenly its beauty shines through. I actually took this recording into Nero 7 and gave it a working over: a 'tune-up' to bring out its colours, textures and contrasts.

It would be interesting if you could post longer clips of that, "before Mark" and "after Mark", but without telling us, then we can listen to both and hear which one we think sounds better.

What will YOU nominate?

Dunno. There are *way* too many badly engineered recordings out there and in here (in my collection, I mean). *Waaaay* to many just to "nominate" only a few.

*Waaaaaaaaaaaaay* too many.

It is much more interesting to talk about exceptionally good recordings. And why we find them so good. And maybe post clips of them to illustrate that. That would also be interesting because it might tell a lot of people what's wrong with their setups and how they could be improved.

[Greta]

I agree, that would be interesting, and a good way to find out about new recordings to put on the wishlist...   

I have a lot of bad ones too. Some I'm almost embarrassed to have! 

[Mark]

Okay, here's what part of the original English adaptation (second of the two CDs in my OP) sounds like:

Before Mark

And here's how it sounds now I've 'tweaked' it to my own satisfaction (and taste, naturally):

After Mark

Now, I'm not saying that what I've done is 'better', 'superior' or any other superlative. No doubt the 'experts' here will think I've made it too bright and clinical. But to my ears, the vocals are clearer and less congested in my 're-engineered' version than they are in the original. This is partly due to an EQ tweak, and partly due to a 20% increase/widening of the stereo image. Personally, I can hear each word far more crisply and articulately (even those sung by the choir) in my version than I can in the original. And as I bought this recording in order to better get to know the meaning of the texts in this great work, I figure it makes sense that I should be able to hear each word as clearly as possible.

Feel free to hurl abuse or heap praise accordingly.

[techniquest]

Khachaturian Piano Concerto on Naxos. So disappointingly recorded / produced that I gave it away to a charity shop.

[M forever]

It would have been better if you had just called the clips A and B, but anyway, after spotchecking here and there, I tink your version does actually sounds slightly better, a little "brighter" but the degree of brightness really reaching the end user also has a lot to do with the playback chain anyway, but actually really a bit clearer and more transparent.
I am positivey surprised. Usually when people do stuff like that at home, the results are pretty bad, sometimes really abysmal (like that one guy who "remasters" recordings and posts them on RMCR and Operashare all the time, his "remasterings" are absolutely horrible and totally destroy the recordings).

I have a problem with the text though. Why are they singing in English? It's called "Ein Deutsches Requiem" and there is a reason for that. I think while you are at it, you should redub the vocal parts with the correct text.

[Mark]

It would have been better if you had just called the clips A and B, but anyway, after spotchecking here and there, I tink your version does actually sounds slightly better, a little "brighter" but the degree of brightness really reaching the end user also has a lot to do with the playback chain anyway, but actually really a bit clearer and more transparent.
I am positivey surprised. Usually when people do stuff like that at home, the results are pretty bad, sometimes really abysmal (like that one guy who "remasters" recordings and posts them on RMCR and Operashare all the time, his "remasterings" are absolutely horrible and totally destroy the recordings).

I have a problem with the text though. Why are they singing in English? It's called "Ein Deutsches Requiem" and there is a reason for that. I think while you are at it, you should redub the vocal parts with the correct text.

Thanks, M.

RE: the text, Lord alone knows why Shaw adapted the original. But Shaw's dead now, so we can't expect him to give an answer here any time soon.

[Brian]

Khachaturian Piano Concerto on Naxos. So disappointingly recorded / produced that I gave it away to a charity shop.

Nominating old Naxos discs is like shooting fish in a barrel. Whatever they were doing from 1988 - 1998 (and in a few cases, since then), it was seriously bad.

[Greta]

I have a couple of Infinity Digital discs from that period that sound like they were recorded in a bathtub. 

[Mark]

Nominating old Naxos discs is like shooting fish in a barrel. Whatever they were doing from 1988 - 1998 (and in a few cases, since then), it was seriously bad.

The only exceptions to that rule being:

1) Naxos have made some terrific recordings dating from at least the mid-90s onwards (too many to enumerate, actually);
2) Some 'Naxos' titles from their early years aren't recordings made by them at all, but licensed from other labels. And some of these sound pretty good.

[greg]

It's not badly, recorded, just old:


incredible CD, not the best recording. They even apologize in the booklet about the pops and stuff during the 9th sonata:

[Mark]

I agree somewhat about the Klemperer. It can distort terribly when the chorus gets going. Only, less so now that I bought a second copy. Rather bizarrely, the first copy I had of that GRoC reissue distorted dreadfully. I got rid of it. Then I bought it again, and now the distortion barely seems to occur. I'd love to know what the original recording sounds like.

[Que]

Mark,

I'm not a stickler on sound quality and recordings at all.
But if one label deserves an honorary place in the "Recording Quality Hall of Eternal Shame" it is Nimbus. In the recordings I know of them (not too many - I avoid Nimbus like the plague) the amount of reverb defies any description. Sounds like the recording studio was/is in an empty swimming pool.

And the issues in their historical recording series, recorded with the use of a giant horn, sound ludicrous too! 



Q

[Mark]

Que, this CD says Nimbus ain't all bad - a terrific recording (and performance):