Solti Ring remastered in 24/192

Tags notwithstanding I just listened to Die Walküre Act 1 on Qobuz. It's very good and I will listen to the other Acts soon.

After listening I compared the sound at a few points to the Qobuz 2012 version. Sonically, the 2022 re-master has quieter backgrounds (but is that spaciousness real or artificial?) and cleaner, apparently expanded dynamics (that's better). Musically it is no different of course.

The sonic differences are moderately subtle but seem good to me on a single audition. I assume these days that the noise and non-linear characteristics of the tape and the tape machine used at the time can now be described mathematically and some degree of their inverses applied for correction in the re-mastering process.

 

Has anyone been bold enough to try the re-released Ring on LP yet? £129 for Walkure seems, well, keen, but I love it so much...

 

Removal of noise is interesting, and I'd like to understand how this works. Since the original tape noise is random, its instantaneous value can't be recovered mathematically, so its not just a matter of generating an inverse noise source & subtracting. I assume its removal must involve using some model of the musical signal to regenerate the sound (without noise), but would be very interested to hear from anyone who understands how this is done.

I think something of this nature was done to clean up & separate individual instruments from the mastertape mix for the recent release of the Beatles' Revolver.

 

Cheeky Rossini!

Neither my wife nor I were exactly Wagner fans - more like Wagner cynics actually, based on a combination of his historical associations and some pompous excerpts - but nevertheless a few years ago we saw that Opera North were performing the whole cycle on 4 nights over 6 at Nottingham Royal and booked. Gulp.

We expected it to be educational and good story to tell and a bit of an endurance test... but it was stunningly engaging througout. We still talk about it. We have listened since on CD and vinyl but neither has yet been a patch on the live experience.

 

I was there too! (2015 I think.) Stunning performance, and I vividly remember the sound of the steer-horns in Gotterdammerung.

 

Excellent! Fab wasn’t it

 

I don't know the technology but exploiting information about the unwanted noise and about the wanted signal seems to be the key.

One thing that occurs to me is that with a stereo recording (or with the original multiple tracks that were mixed) you do have more information to work with than you may at first think. For example, two channels with somewhat correlated signal but random tape noise. With more information it strikes me that with a little bit of arithmetic it might be possible to reduce noise without impacting the signal too much.

 

It never is. No hi-fi system can come close to replicating the sound of the theatre experience of a Wagner Opera.(particulary those steerhorns and Wagner tubas)

 

Us too. Equally fab was Bryan Ferry at Tynemouth Castle on the ‘night off’, although we spent the ticket money on a fine meal at Riley’s fish shack and heard the whole show from our table by the beach.

 

Listening to Das Rheingold on Qobuz and comparing it to my much maligned 1984 vinyl transfer, it’s louder but I don’t think it’s better, may even be worse in louder passages.

I think the 1984 vinyl is dismissed because it says digital on the cover but as far as I know it’s a pretty direct transfer from the analogue tapes with little de-hissing and other messing about.

 

Off topic but a Brysonian adjunct to this experience is that, while waiting at Newcastle station for the train home I was looking at a chap, trying to think how I knew him. At the moment I saw a cello case at his feet and a violin case at his partner’s feet I realised he was a cello player from the concert. That was the moment he caught my stare so, rather than come over all stalker, I sauntered over and congratulated both on their performance that week. They were very gracious and we boarded the train in the fullness of time, only to find we had adjacent tables. I was well behaved and left them be save a cheerio as we left the train to change at York.
So did they.
As we settled at adjacent tables on the train from York we shared a lift of the eyebrows to acknowledge the coincidence.
When we all alighted at Retford I broke the ice saying, ‘this is getting spooky now’. Turns out they live two villages over from us but choose to train it to work in Leeds and afford a much better house in north Notts.
It’s a small world.

 

Something along the lines of post #82 here might apply:

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/classical-lps.250520/page-5#post-4237969

 

Found this on another well known site:



Seigfried's funeral march, top 1984, bottom 2022. Make of it what you will.

 

Oh dear!

 

I’m thrilled - it’s saved me £100s