Playing "Original" lo-fi music on modern sound sys

[Lawrence]

Any thoughts on how to make "original" or "classic" lo-fi music sound the best on modern systems? Do you fiddle with the equalization so as to try to replicate what a 1940s sound system would produce, boost the bass or treble, or what?

I have always found that playing lo-fi music at the same equalization as hi-fi music (or boosting it in a futile attempt to "make up" for the lack of bass and treble) makes it sound tinny and thumpy, so I end up lowering the bass and treble, and boosting the midrange if I do any boosting. But I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on it, especially those inclined toward classic music.

[Ron]

For lo-fi music, obviously it depends on the song. But I guess I usually boost the bass and treble effectively, although what I really do is drop the midrange and adjust the master volume up. When the horns come blasting in on certain songs, dropping the midrange a bit takes the edge off it. In general, since the lo-fi recordings were limited in dynamic range, specifically being light on bass and treble, it makes sense to me to boost the little there is a bit. Why not?

[Mr Awesomer]

In general, since the lo-fi recordings were limited in dynamic range, specifically being light on bass and treble, it makes sense to me to boost the little there is a bit. Why not?

Dynamic range has nothing to do with bass and treble. Dynamic range is a reference to the difference between how soft and how loud something is. In terms of recording it's how big a difference between low volume and high volume sound you can record, not specificly the tone of said sounds. Yes, dynamic range is a limitation of 78s, it is also a limitation of LPs. The bigger issue is the lack of frequency range in older recordings which is why you would want to boost the bass and treble for those dancers who don't listen.

[CafeSavoy]

Sometimes i try mono to see if they sound better that way.

[KevinSchaper]

For music through a PA, especially a weak one, high dynamic range can be a bad thing - the quiet parts get lost in the noise and relfections and stuff in a way that they don't thru a good home stereo.

This is a really good question, I can't really ever decide what to boost on old stuff either - I mean, I usually boost the lows trying to get the bass to stand out - and maybe a little bit of high..

When I've got it, I use my BBE doodad, which is basically just a high and low eq with some funky phase stuff going on, and it seems to help a fair amount with old music.

I actually think a parametric eq might do more good, to pump up the bass notes (which, my 5 bander kind of misses at 63hz & 200hz, I think), and then to bring down the painful harsh mid stuff without losing the lower mid where a lot of the music is.

but on the other hand.. I picked up an Isham Jones LP, and happened to be listening to it thru an older pre-amp that haz hi and lo filters, and I actually kinda liked it with them on - because it ditched the rumble and surface noise.. and the trouble with boosting the high and low without cutoffs in the right places is that you end up boosting a lot of bad stuff too.

[Mike]

Rayned, I haven't tried that... how would that improve the sound? Are some recordings unbalanced?

[Ron]

My bad, I meant frequency range. I should know better. I'm do engineering in telecom, and for voice transmission, a big thing is squashing the voice to fit the available bandwidth by both filtering and compressing it.

[Ron]

In general, since the lo-fi recordings were limited in dynamic range, specifically being light on bass and treble, it makes sense to me to boost the little there is a bit. Why not?

Whoa, is that English? Talk about brain dyslexia. Besides frequency range, I think I meant something like "..boost them a little bit."

[mark0tz]

I'm do engineering in telecom, and ...

[Lawrence]

For music through a PA, especially a weak one, high dynamic range can be a bad thing - the quiet parts get lost in the noise and relfections and stuff in a way that they don't thru a good home stereo.

Ron, Kevin described why I do the exact opposite of boosting the bass and treble: it increases the "noise" contained in those frequencies so as to FURTHER distort the music and make it sound worse, not enhance the sound. Once I stopped thinking of trying to compensate for lo-fi limitations and instead focused upon replicating what a 1940s sound system would sound like (again, less bass and treble), I found that the music sounded better and clearer. There is no way it will ever sound like a modern recording, so I figured I should stop trying to make it sound like one and treating it as if it was a modern recording.

I was curious how many others have noted the same thing, or if I'm just fooling myself.

[Lawrence]

Sometimes i try mono to see if they sound better that way.

Do tell, because I didn't think that would make a difference unless the remastering really stinks so as to create different sound images in the right/left speakers. A stereo split of a mono signal theoretically should produce that same sound in both channels.

The only benefit I have found for using mono is with minidiscs. When recording on a minidisc player, the player/recorder automatically conserves disc space so that I can get twice as much music on the same space. Now that I don't use minidiscs, though, it's a somewhat useless advantage.

[sonofvu]

I found that if I don't boost the base dancers can't follow the beat of the song. But if I boost the base I get noise and even distortion from the speakers. I try to boost the base just enough for people to get the beat and then no more. It is a dicey proposition since I'm in the DJ booth and not on the floor dancing and what I hear is not really what teh dancers are hearing.

[yedancer]

I found that if I don't boost the base dancers can't follow the beat of the song. But if I boost the base I get noise and even distortion from the speakers. I try to boost the base just enough for people to get the beat and then no more. It is a dicey proposition since I'm in the DJ booth and not on the floor dancing and what I hear is not really what teh dancers are hearing.

You mean bass?

[Mr Awesomer]

I'm not a good speller/grammer person, but it's bass.

[KevinSchaper]

I still can't shut up about this - at the Vancouver exchange I got to DJ on this big crazy V-DOSC setup at the Commodore Ballroom.. and it needed almost no eq on anything.. the old stuff sounded SO good on it.

I think it cost more than a lot of the buildings we DJ in, but jeezus it was nice.