Jazz Record Restorer John R.T. Davies Dies - Page 5

Surface noise not only contains an indispensable abundance of peripheral information but can be shown to provide another extremely valuable asset in the form of an aural "anchor". A constant undercurrent of noise will readily be converted by the ear into an ignored continuity-base for the listening process. The interruption of such constant undercurrent - whether by click or silence - will immediately restore the noise element to perception. A recent American CD devoted to the Boswell Sisters offers an example in which the engineer, believing that a pause in the performance contained no information, on several occasions briefly removed ALL sound - so destroying the continuity of the otherwise constant undercurrent - and requiring aural readjustment on each occasion. Had the engineer left just half of the apparently useless noise, the result would have been the same. It was important that he maintain all the continuity merely to assure the ease of listening which he intended. Automatic Level Control devices will similarly destroy the "anchor" by "pumping".

Assuming that it has been possible to smooth the aforementioned undercurrent, more can be achieved by positioning the noise by colouration. Just as a visual artist will establish or enhance perspectives and distances by colouration (primary colours in foreground being reduced toward blue in middle distance and purple in far distance), a sound engineer can apply a very similar system so that, of choice, a curtain of in eradicable noise can be transferred from a position in front of the programme to one preferably immediately behind the principal sounds or, in some cases, even futher back where its distraction can be minimized. There will be occasions when a shift of such position my seem appropriate during a performance... but, if in doubt, leave well alone: almost any such alteration my be perceived - in which event it will be well to remember that "if you can hear what has been done, then it has been overdone".

Colouration adjustment, largely made at the top of the principal recorded range and in the area immediately above may often seem to interfere with tonal adjustment for "reality" in the same area. Experiment will show that the establishment of a character will call for establishment also of a "horizon" upon which it is possible usefully to alter the perception of a part of the tonal landscape by altering - NOT - at the obvious frequency area - but in an area representing what might be called an anti-node at the other end of the horizon balance (imagine a see-saw). Thus it could be that the demand for colouration of a segment of tonal character at, say 4000c/s may be achieved by an opposite adjustment in an area perhaps around 450c/s. A tell-tale of upper frequency loss appears in sibilant (sss) sounds which, deprived of higher frequencies, will tend to sound more nearly "ssh".

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