One man's approach to remastering

Summary

It may be a shame that many significant performers did not arrange to live their lives in times when recording technology was fully developed, but that is no reason to dismiss their performances. The aim of remastering is to make these performances accessible to a modern audience, in terms of both physical availability and the most informative sonic presentation possible. This I call the music to muck ratio, as its determination is necessarily a subjective matter.

I shall outline the processes involved in remastering from 78 rpm originals, with particular reference to a specific example, George Formby Junior's recording of ‘Rhythm in the Alphabet’, issued in 1938 by Regal Zonophone (catalogue number MR 2890).

Having decided on the material required, a suitable source disc has to be found. Curiously enough, this is often easier with art music than more popular fare which, although it sold in greater numbers, was played far more often and looked after less well, being essentially Gebrauchsmusik. In the case of Formby, the situation is not helped by the ubiquitous banjolele solo, recorded close to the microphone and starting half way through the side, when the average steel needle would already be past its best. Aside from the question of wear, there is also the matter of pressing material to consider. The largest market for George Formby's recordings outside the UK was Australia, renowned for producing beautiful laminated pressings of superb appearance, although this was sometimes achieved by over-polishing the metal parts, causing some loss of high-frequency detail.