OT: For Rush fans - Remastering Vapor Trails
David Whiteman
RE-MASTERING "VAPOR TRAILS" AT HOME
Written by Mark C. Daniels and Michael Yount
*Re-mastering process conceived by Michael Yount*
I may not be the best person to represent the "_Vapor Trails_ was
mixed/mastered wrong" side of the Sound Wars argument. Just weeks ago,
I would've told you that anyone who thought the album was of poor sound
quality and contained distortion was an anal-retentive audiophile with
inflexible notions of what a CD should sound like.
But then I discovered that these audiophiles weren't crazy... there
/was/ distortion on _Vapor Trails_, and although /I/ couldn't really
hear it, /they/could. What changed my mind was a multiple-page thread
on a Rush bulletin board. It was there that a dissatisfied fan named
Michael Yount had posted a "_Vapor Trails_ re-mastering" method he had
come up with. Yount's process could be done at home by just about
anyone. Using free audio programs available on the Web, one could
eliminate unwanted distortion from all thirteen _Vapor Trails_ songs in
about one hour. Yount had also uploaded to the Internet short samples of
"Secret Touch" and "Ceiling Unlimited" that had undergone his
re-mastering techniques. I listened to these samples and became a believer.
To my ears, Yount's "re-mastered" versions of the songs were better than
the original versions. I couldn't hear any distortion before on the
released songs, but I could certainly hear the lack of distortion now,
on Yount's re-mastered songs! On these "clean" versions of the songs, I
heard subtle musical nuances I'd never noticed before. Perhaps these
"anal-retentive audiophiles" had been onto something all along, I thought.
It's not my intention to point the finger at any band member, producer,
or engineer and say, "The album is full of distortion and it's /your/
fault!" In fact, I don't know whether the original album contained
Rush's intended sound or whether an unwanted mistake was made somewhere
along the line. The only thing I'm sure of is /I prefer Yount's
re-mastered album to the original/. Maybe you will, too.
Yount's re-mastering techniques neither add nor subtract musical notes
to the songs. Likewise, the frequency ranges are neither raised nor
lowered. The music on the re-mastered album remains as "pure" as before
- perhaps even more pure, since the CD has been cleaned of distortion
and more intentionally created music is revealed.
I believe everyone should have a copy of _Vapor Trails_ that pleases
their ears. If you like the released version, continue to listen to
it. But I encourage everyone - especially those who've complained of
the sound quality - to at least /try/ Michael Yount's re-mastering
process. I think you'll like this "re-mastered" _Vapor Trails_ more
than the original. Now here's Mr. Yount to explain the details of the
re-mastering process...
MCD
The following is a recommended list of tools required to perform this task:
1. A rather fast PC with plenty of memory and a CD-R/RW drive will
be greatly beneficial. (My personal system is an AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz with
640 MB RAM, and the process for the entire CD takes me slightly more
than an hour to complete.) The calculations to be performed by the
various audio-processing applications are extremely CPU-intensive, and
will consume large amounts of memory in the process. A rather powerful
PC is not an absolute necessity, but it more than likely is the ultimate
deciding factor in whether this project takes you 1 hour or 4 hours to
complete.
2. Exact Audio Copy v0.9 Beta 4 (www.exactaudiocopy.de/eac09b4.exe
<http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/eac09b4.exe>) - 1.2 MB. Even though most
digital audio editors now include the ability to extract digital audio
from CDs quite well, I still prefer EAC. When configured properly to
match your PC and CD/DVD-ROM drive specifications, EAC's speed and
accuracy is truly impressive.
3. Cool Edit Pro v2.0
(http://ftp.syntrillium.com/pub/cep/cepsetup.exe) - 19.34 MB. This is
one of the more intuitive and popular digital audio editors available,
and has online support. It has an extremely elegant user interface, and
is quite simple to learn how to use efficiently. Even though the link
provided points to a time-limited demo version, it is fully functional,
and it will allow plenty of time for you to perform all of the same
tasks as the registered version. Do not hesitate to dive into the
included help files, as they provide a wealth of information about the
settings for the different areas of the program.
4. Waves Masters Bundle v3.5
(www.waves.com/download/3.5/WavesMasters3.5NoDocs.exe
<http://www.waves.com/download/3.5/WavesMasters3.5NoDocs.exe>) - 6.53
MB. Again, a link to a fully functional, time-limited trial version (14
days), but worth its weight in gold! Waves Ltd. has what many consider
to be the "Rolls Royce" of audio plug-ins, and you will see why soon.
The particular plug-in that we will be using from this bundle of gems is
the 'L2 UltraMaximizer.' It is a DirectX plug-in that utilizes
"intelligent" look-ahead algorithms to detect upcoming peaks in the
audio that go out-of-bounds. It allows for impressive volume maximizing
and proper peak-limiting without introducing distortion in the process.
Here is the L2 User Guide in pdf format:
(http://www.waves.com/download/pdf/L2.pdf).
Once all of the necessary software has been downloaded and installed,
the first step is to extract the digital audio from the CD. Exact Audio
Copy is fairly straightforward in its operation (after initial setup and
configuration). Just create a folder somewhere on your hard drive where
you want to extract the wave files to, and let EAC do its job. Use the
'Copy Uncompressed' option (or 'F5') when you're ready to extract.
Here's a summarized outline of the steps that will need to be performed
to each wave file:
· Remove DC offset
· Convert to 32-bit resolution
· Run Cool Edit Pro 'Clip Restoration'
· Run 'Waves L2 UltraMaximizer
· Convert to 16-bit resolution and Save
1. First, after all of the audio has been extracted from the CD,
some preparation needs to be done to the files before processing. Load
each of the wave files into Cool Edit Pro and begin by removing the DC
offset. The can be done by selecting Effects > Amplitude > Amplify >
Center Wave. This is done to center the waveform along the baseline
(-inf), and to ensure that additional artifacts are not introduced to
the audio during processing.
2. Next, the files must be converted to 32-bit resolution to allow
for more precise editing. This can be done by selecting Edit > Convert
Sample Type > Resolution=32. This will yield a much improved end result
than processing through at 16-bit.
3. Now, run Cool Edit Pro's "Clip Restoration" feature to rebuild
the clipped peaks of the audio. Perform this by selecting Effects >
Noise Reduction > Clip Restoration > Restore Normal. This will
eliminate the flat lines along the top and bottom of the waveform, thus
removing the cause of the static.
4. After the clipped peaks have been restored, use the Waves L2
UltraMaximizer DirectX plug-in to bring the peaks within range, but
limiting the peaks properly without introducing harsh clipping in the
process. The L2 plug-in "intelligently" redraws the peaks instead of
performing a hard 'brick wall' limiting approach (which, for some
reason, was done somewhere along the line to Rush's "Vapor Trails" CD.
This is simply the equivalent of taking scissors to the waveform and
cutting off the excess. There are applications where this approach is
desired, but not here.) Access the L2 plug-in by selecting Effects >
DirectX > Waves > L2. If the plug-in does not show on the list, select
"Refresh Effects List" from the Effects menu. The preferred settings
for L2 can be chosen by simply choosing the "Hi Res CD Master" preset
from the drop-down menu, but change the Threshold value to 0.0 dB. Even
though I am suggesting using a built-in preset for quick configuration,
it will still be a good idea to ensure these parameters are configured
as follows: Threshold = 0.0 dB; Out Ceiling = 0.2 dB; ARC = Enabled;
Quantize = 16 bit; Dither = Type 1; Shaping = Ultra.
5. Finally, the files must be converted back to 16-bit resolution in
order to be played through audio CD players. Select Edit > Convert
Sample Type. Now, ensure that these parameters are configured as
follows: Resolution = 16; Enable Dithering = Checked; Dither Depth =
0.5; pdf = Shaped Triangular; Noise Shaping = 44.1 KHz.
After this has been completed, all that is left to do is to save the
file, overwriting the original if desired. From this point, you can
either encode the wave files to MP3 format, or burn a new CD using the
newly saved wave files. Using any particular CD authoring application
(such as Easy CD Creator or Nero) will most likely achieve the same
results, since wave files are uncompressed audio and require no internal
processing (encoding or decoding) during the CD writing stage. It boils
down to a matter of personal preference and what you are already
familiar with.
I hope everyone finds this useful, and finds the outcome to be a more
enjoyable listening experience. I always welcome suggestions for
improvement, as I would not have reached this point without the
invaluable assistance of others along the way. This is not a perfect
solution to the problem, but it is a good start. Hopefully, those that
have been dissatisfied with the sound quality of "Vapor Trails" will be
happy at last. Hopefully, we can all listen to a version of the album
that satisfies our ears.
FINIS
news
re-releases. Might have to try this with them.
peace
Mark
massivegrooves
Hmmmm...I like it just fine as is...
in article ut4j8e9...@corp.supernews.com, David Whiteman at
dlwhi...@NOSPAMmindspringREMOVE.com wrote on 11/13/02 8:00 AM:
dave VV
same here, there is some slight distortion but not on every second of a song.
too hot on the initial recording I would guess, not the mixdown or mastering.
btw i like the job the guy did on the mix.
dave VV
like a rat in a maze who says: "watch me choose my own direction."
are you under the illusion the path is winding your way?
=================================
short run cd duplication
http://www.ironpoet.com/store
P. Moss
news:20021113144527...@mb-ce.aol.com...
> >Hmmmm...I like it just fine as is...
>
> same here, there is some slight distortion but not on every second of a
song.
> too hot on the initial recording I would guess, not the mixdown or
mastering.
> btw i like the job the guy did on the mix.
Read this:
http://prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/articles/8A133F52D0FD71AB86256C2E005DA
F1C
P. Moss
> Cool. There were similar problems with the last round of Hendrix
> re-releases. Might have to try this with them.
Check this out:
http://home.pacific.net.au/~spaceman/jimi/clipping.htm
Mastering by George Marino, the guy who also trashed the latest Dream
Theater and Jerry Cantrell CDs.
Timo Peterse
dave VV
yeah, the mastering is probably the evil doer here but it could also be the
level the instruments were recorded at. (probably both) As for the article,
i've been telling people the same thing (basically) for quite some time, i do
mastering myself.
now read this:
www.ironpoet.com/store/master.htm
scroll down to the 'notes section.'
dave VV
vapor trails should take a vacation. perhaps to 'the great white north.'
i love the album, and the little imperfections do not bother my enjoyment of
it.
Loren Sanders
>when playing them physically loud, like I have done with my Jimi records
since 1971, I began to feel slightly "ill" and had to turn the volume >down.
There was something wrong with the sound going into my body and soul. I now
understand that this feeling was caused by the digital >clipping, which is
something unnatural.
But is this guy serious? ;-)
Loren - Who now KNOWS that there are people out there who have far more time
on thier hands than I ever will! LOL
"P. Moss" <psm...@nospam-qx.net> wrote in message
news:ut5lled...@corp.supernews.com...
P. Moss
> one last note, i think anyone who is annoyed that freaking much by the
sound of
> vapor trails should take a vacation.
OTOH, I think it's inexcusable. This practice (loud, louder, LOUDEST) has
been going on for some time, and it is completely pointless. You don't have
to be a pointy-headed audiophile (everyone is quick to berate others with
the "take a vaction" and "too much time on your hands" comments) to realize
that it sucks. Every time I have that Degradation Trip CD in the changer, I
have to go running across the room to turn the volume down cause Marino has
that bastard screaming out of the speakers. All loud, all the time. No
point. If the errant mastering guys would just do *less*, both sides (those
who care and those who don't) could be happy.
http://georgegraham.com/compress.html
dave VV
>been going on for some time, and it is completely pointless.
well i certainly agree with that. i hate loud it if don't have punch. as for
everyone wanting to have their cd 'louder' than that other band, surely radio
stations/mtv/whatever limits their overall program material so that loudness
would not be heard in these mediums anyway. fact is, the more you push a cd to
it's limits, the more the sound suffers.
i keep a happy medium with my mastering.
still.....the rush cd does not bother me a bit.
DougOrama
<dlwhi...@NOSPAMmindspringREMOVE.com> wrote:
>Got this from a friend...
>
> RE-MASTERING "VAPOR TRAILS" AT HOME
You can re-master it until the cows come home, but it will still have
Geddy Lee on vocals.
Doug
_____________________________________________________
DougOrama.net Sports and Concert Photos
S Frank
to show up in the Effects->DirectX area of Cool Edit Pro 2.0?
I have rebooted and clicked "refresh effects list" several times.
"David Whiteman" <dlwhi...@NOSPAMmindspringREMOVE.com> wrote in message
news:ut4j8e9...@corp.supernews.com...
dave VV
>to show up in the Effects->DirectX area of Cool Edit Pro 2.0?
do you have the correct version of directx? sure......it's a dumb question!
Michael A. Vickers
>You can re-master it until the cows come home, but it will still have
>Geddy Lee on vocals.
Yes, thank goodness.
Michael
And you still play God... how'd you get so good? - CG
S Frank
I reinstalled win98 a few months ago and had forgotten to
upgrade my DX. I had 5.0 or something ancient like that.
I upgraded to 8.1 and it worked fine. No requirements
are listed for any DX version, but I thought the latest would
be the best bet.
shane
"dave VV" <wa...@aol.complain> wrote in message
news:20021115000216...@mb-fw.aol.com...
dave VV
>I reinstalled win98 a few months ago and had forgotten to
>upgrade my DX.
i'll be damned, not a dumb
question after all! glad to hear ya got it churning!