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Jammer · Joined: 19 Jan 2011 Posts: 5

Hi folks.

I am a big OTR fan, my favorites are the 1950's Sci Fis and CBSMT.Here is what I would like to do if it is legal, as copyright law is a factor of worry.

I would like to start with my favorite episodes of old radio shows (Sci Fi) and Digitally remaster them from the best quality sources and remixed/remove advertisements and convert them back to Ipod size files - The goal being the best quality and small size of of an audio-file (perhaps a low bit rate/ variable bit rate mp3 or ACC) I have years of experience remixing mostly a single track in order to improve a single audio channel as much as possible- an attempt to make dirty-mono recordings sound like newer stereo ones with more fullness to the tone without over doing things, and it will take time, but I feel I'm the man for the job, as I am dying to start right now!

Once I find the best quality recordings of many OTR shows I can save them to 64 bit wave files for editing (past cd quality) and start removing advertising, removing hiss, and one BIG improvement I can make is to insert a tiny time delay between a Right and Left channel to simulate good stereo separation. I have remixed audio as a hobby for almost 15 years, it will be very easy to make these recordings sound better, even most Stereo like. For example: Some of the old tape recordings have typical 60 cycle BUZZ on them- Very annoying, but easy to wipe out when mixed into stereo and next each channel they cancels the other one's buzz out- gone. Hiss can be removed, tiny amounts of re-verb can provide more fullness, but I would never want to over produce any of the original sound-effects.

I have had the handle Jammer for many years. I love all kinds of music and went to school to learn to mix audio, while I actually learned a lot more about mixing on my own computer after writing my own songs. I record Alternative Banjo Instrumentals ALTERNATIVE GENRE- not bluegrass. As a matter of fact I normally spent a great deal more time producing a single instrumental track than I do writing the instrumental. In other words I have spent many years learning how to change the tone of my instrument by remixing a single track every way possible. Not all of my instrumentals have the best tone, almost none are bluegrass, mostly Jazz like- Here is one of my pages of mp3s- If one song sounds bad please move on to the next as there are many, some are not my best. www.songplanet.com/jammer -- some are better than others,' having trouble deleting instrumentals. These mp3s might give folks an idea of how much of a change heavy producing can do for a bare bones single cheap microphone recorded audio track. OTR is mostly all mono- AM radio recordings, and many may agree tons of them would sound better remixed.

I managed to change the tone quality of my banjo so far that some refuse to believe it's not a guitar. I would be interested if we have a demand for such a project out there. The most drastic change would be less or no hiss, no advertisements, and a stereo separation which would sound great with headphones. Of course EQ, reverb, echos and a host of other things can be done but my goal wold be to only clean up the sound and add just a hint of a stereo separation. I learned how to make mono recordings to sound like fairly full stereo recordings. I very much would like to remaster some of these radio shows, but I still wish to keep a small file size when done, perhaps a final file being a VBR MP3 or a low bit-rate AAC file which Itunes/Ipod/WinAmp and many other players are moving to now.

Please contact me and let me know what you think. I have been remixing single tracks into much improved ones for many years. I believe in my heart that I can take many of the OTR shows and clean the audio up without over-producing or adding unwanted effects etc... My goal is only the cleanest recording possible with just a hint of stereo separation. I feel the difference would be most noticeable and early trials are very favorable.

I need to know if there is any interest in this, as it takes a long time to get the best results and I wold not want to do all of that if few members wanted to hear remixes to clean up the worse parts of such audio files.

I feel I can make these shows sound great if we have an interest in hearing remixes. My goal is to clean up the bad sounds and only do enough to improve the tone quality and nothing more.

I hope everyone will weigh in on this idea. If I get a green light I will be sure to label the files in another way so they never get confused with the originals. Also I am thinking perhaps I could release a solid TEN HOUR LONG Episodes. (Such as in CBSRMT).

My goal is to clean up the audio, to make it more clear, add a slight audio lag between the channels in order to produce a fuller stereo like effect AND to remove all commercials.

Please share your thoughts about this as I am almost ready to start.

Thanks,

Terry

human · Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 233

What you're proposing sounds pretty cool, as long as you exercise some restraint. No need to add sound effects and stuff that wasn't there in the first place. That was the major downside of the "remastered" Star Trek. The stuff they added didn't really fit in with the original stuff. That and they cut each episode's running time by about nine minutes.

That said, I have to wonder how much "remixing" you can do when all you have to work with is a mono source. A lot of those old recordings were done live with a single mic. There wasn't any post production as we know it today where are separate tracks for everything and these are mixed down to two channels.

Jammer · Joined: 19 Jan 2011 Posts: 5

Jammer · Joined: 19 Jan 2011 Posts: 5

I hope the Admin does not mind me saying this. It seems I have found many interested people in this project that have posted on another OTR radio site. If anyone is curious how things progress I will likely be on the Relic Radio forums. There was much more interest over there, so it only seemed logical.

Cheers,

Terry

human · Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 233

When you get a couple of episodes done, post and let us know so those of us here who are interested can hear the difference. It really does sound like a cool idea.

Jimbo · Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 190 Location: Georgia, USA

It's funny as I read this I am also doing similar things: I am trying to fix the sound (almost impossible) on the series "Tales of the Texas Rangers" and I am also attempting to clean up "Lum and Abner" (this is proving to be successful; also on the early Lum and Abner I removing about 5 minutes worth of crummy organ music and horrible Horlick's commericals. If I ever pass them back to anyone, I will note this. Plus I am greatly improving the sound (at least, so far.)

If you want to talk particulars, we can do that...
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Brad · Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 4:11 pm Post subject:

I tried to clean up some shows with Adobe Audition, which is a pretty good program, but it took forever and the results were much less than I was expecting.

But if you want to try it, more power to you. Good luck with your efforts and welcome to the forum.

Brad
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Jammer · Joined: 19 Jan 2011 Posts: 5

Jammer · Joined: 19 Jan 2011 Posts: 5

Jimbo · Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 190 Location: Georgia, USA

tomtj · Joined: 24 Jan 2011 Posts: 4

I am all for the efforts to cleanup the sound!

Jimbo · Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 190 Location: Georgia, USA

Are you guys pro-music (in OTR) or against it?

If I make *my* OTR music-free, does that make me a bad guy? I'm 100% for preservation of OTR in it's original form but I bypass all the music. Am I a heel?
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boston blackie · Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 90 Location: illinois

Hey Jimbo, my wife speeds forward through all the music that appears on OTR, like many comedy shows had in the earlier years. I am listening to the content of the show, not their music. I think the music was there for the live audience. Sort of entertainment while it gave the actors a break.

Jimbo · Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 190 Location: Georgia, USA

That music just doesn't work anymore Smile

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tomtj · Joined: 24 Jan 2011 Posts: 4

Jammer,
I was inspired by you. I went out and found the mp3 editing tool Audacity, and picked a CBSRMT file to work on. I did nothing like you were talking about, as less than a novice, it wasn't even up for consideration. But I do feel like I had a good result at removing the commercial breaks out of CBSRMT "episode 32, After the Verdict." I loaded my edited file out to the ftp location under the folder tomtj, with the prefix, "cut". If somebody would care to do a spot check, I think it is already to replace the one in the member area. And with the simplest wisp of encouragement, I would work on others periodically. It was kind of fun for a geek like me. I think it's a good and worthwhile improvement if you guys agree. With 45,000 files out there, we are sure to have plenty of simple improvements that could be made short of Jammer's skill set.

Tony

tomtj · Joined: 24 Jan 2011 Posts: 4

Jammer,
I just re-read your inital post here. I just wanted to weigh in against compiling a ten hour collection of episodes in a single stream. At least I would like to see the original episodes maintained as an option. Having the hour long "bite size" episodes is very desirable to me.

Tony

Zap · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 53 Location: Los Angeles, CA USA

I like the ideas for cleaning up the sound. As others have said, as long as it doesn't add any 'effects' or unnatural elements to the recordings, then great.

I'm glad I'm not alone in skipping most of the music numbers. They always seem to me like filler As I generally listen while in bed before I drift off, I hate having to bother skipping past long music breaks to get back to the show.

About the only exception to this is the Les Paul Trio as the musical guest on various comedy shows in the 40's. There's some mind-blowing (pre Mary Ford) performances of Les's from that era that feature electric guitar sounds 30 years ahead of their time.

Jimbo · Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 190 Location: Georgia, USA

W@ell as you may have read, you can find a few of them that I have done already, here: http://www.mysteryshows.com/mysteryclub/Jimbo/

There is a part of me that feels very very guilty about doing this... I know the purists are howling. Part of me is howling about it too - but I've been listening long enough to not want to hear 2:00 openings and 2:30 minute musical numbers and needless things in there.

I hope you will check out and enjoy the shows - more coming..
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Zap · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 53 Location: Los Angeles, CA USA

Been checking out your cleanups.

Just an aside, speaking of production techniques; does anyone know if the openings of many shows were pre-recorded, or just played live each broadcast?

I ask because many show's opening themes or 'opening skits- Like Lum and Abner's thats our ring bit' sound so precisely exact each time that I figure it has to be pre-recorded. It's always made me wonder how they did it way back when... IE; play a pre-recorded theme off a disk, then go live to the announcer?

I've always wanted to know more technical details of how the shows were done: IE mic layouts, broadcast and recording equipment and setup, the live sound mixing and engineering in the booth from various mics and pre-recorded elements, especially of a stage performance with several actors, announcer, orchestra, plus sound man. The fact that much of it sounds so seamless and like 'one mic' actually means much more production went into the sound than we tend to think, because I know enough about audio to know that excellent sound from multiple sources on a big sound stage NEVER happens by accident.

I've read as much as I've been able to find on the tech aspects of OTR, but details are hard to come by.

Anyway, just an aside!

Jimbo · Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 190 Location: Georgia, USA

I think the answer to your question varies... however, I think 90% of the music in the show openings (at least prior to 1945 or so) were different each time - used a live orchestra or organ, etc..
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Mungo · Joined: 14 May 2013 Posts: 5 Location: Dale Arden's Bedroom

I'm a fan of adverts in some of the progs. Like Space Patrol they give such a good insight into USA 1950's. So wouldn't want them taken out.

But I'm all for cleaning up the audio and getting rid of hiss & crackle etc. Theres a lot of this talk and know how over on the 'internet archive' web site.

Its interesting following the adverts and how much they influenced the progs and stars of the day. A good example is Barry Craig CI.
http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Barrie-Craig.html

Its also funny sometimes to hear how bad, cringe worthy some adverts were and how the stars had to try and read them. The Lux Radio theatre ones are a good example.