BACK TO MONO: 10 Top Tips For beginners restoring mono vinyl using Nero & Wave Repair

TOP 10 TIPS FOR

BACK to MONO

USING WAVE EDITORS

All too often we pay big bucks for music which is supposed to sound better than we remember, only to be bitterly disappointed by badly mixed thin-sounding versions of songs we remember as anything but. Stereo – and our demand for it - is a major part of the problem. This is despite the fact that the greatest record producer of all time – Phil Spector – was largely ignored in his thirty-year-long BACK to MONO campaign. With the resurgence in popularity and respect for Mono, we now find ourselves in a situation where many great Monaural mixes have been lost or destroyed in pandering to an erroneous Stereo obsession.

A Stereo recording is at its best nothing more than someone’s idea of what “reality” should sound like. Since great records have more to do with sonic artistry than reality we’re probably wise to question the place of Stereo in a producer’s vision of the finished product.

Prior to the 1970s, great records lived and died by how great they sounded in Monaural – AM radio, car radios and kids’ record players. A well-produced record had to meet these criteria. It was a Mono mentality with a Monaural final mix as the high point of the entire exercise of record production. In many instances no True Stereo version was ever recorded or envisaged, and the “Stereo Version” was often merely an unfinished version of a mono recording handled by an assistant engineer as a non-priority album track. Two tracks do not constitute True Stereo.

It’s not however the purpose of this site to demonize Stereo per se. Far from it – Spector himself has continued to produce outstanding Stereo recordings of breadth and intensity since 1969. In fact you may find the tools here very useful for adding a Stereo effect to enhance Monaural recordings.

The following tips are designed to help you use readily-available technology to hear your music the way you want to hear it. Think of your computer as a part of your sound system!

BEFORE NOISE REMOVAL

#1. Carefully choose your monitor speakers.

It is of prime importance that your monitors are sensitive across the entire sound spectrum, including your sub-woofer. What sounds acceptable on your monitors should sound spectacular on your home or car system.

#2. Make sure your turntable is optimally “tuned”

for cartridge balance, bias and grounding. Check stylis for grime deposits and wear. I’ve always cleaned vinyl with shampoo-for-oily-hair and a cosmetic wedge against the direction of groove play. Rinse very thoroughly with warm not hot water. Air dry out of the sun, or with a lint-free cloth. After cleaning, play the record and check whether the stylis kicks up any dislodged grime: if so, then clean again. Avoid alcohol-based cleaners and keep your nails trimmed…

#3. Double-check entire wiring set-up for correct and consistent Left & Right channel configuration.

Your turntable-to-computer sound card leads should be quality: read more about shielded audio cables here.

NOISE REMOVAL

(ProTools, Cool Edit/ Adobe Audition, Gold Wave etc are fine software but try using an inexpensive, no-frills (but close to studio-quality) application like Clive Clive Backhams's Wave Repair for critical ripping, editing and noise removal, Additionally the WR software player is paticularly accurate. You can use Nero Wave Editor and Roxio etc for noise and scratch removal but the results will be so-so - See Tip # 5 (note: Vista & Windows 7 issues with Wave Repair can be worked around by going here) disabel

This is Wave Repair workspace with a Stereo WAV file loaded:

#4. If your vinyl source is Mono, and your turntable cartridge is Mono or stereo

your recording will nevertheless show up on your computer as a Stereo 2-channel WAV file. It’s important that you now choose whether Left or Right sounds best. (The amount of wear and/or pressing quality on each side of a vinyl groove will differ, as possibly will your turntable pick-up qualities.)

USING Wave Repair, NOW MOVE THE BEST CHANNEL ACROSS TO REPLACE THE OTHER. (Blocks/Copy L to R, or R to L) Your music file is now best-sounding true Monaural, and you’ve cut your editing time in half.

#5. Avoid aggressive automated filtering for noise & scratch removal: optimal results are best achieved by:

s includes automated scratch removal, filtering aning (Equalization). You’ll retain the warmth of vinyl – not to mention

OpOOOoo

1. Sampling “fingerprints” from run-in and run-out grooves, and “silent” areas between LP tracks.

2. Manually removing clicks by editing your Wave form by Deleting (cracks) or Redrawing wave.

A tinny and hollow fade-out is a sure sign of Digital Overkill. If you’re a newbie to Vinyl-Digital transfers, burn your work onto CDRW and play back on your main sound system as you progress thru the stages. Be patient on your learning curve – it’s entirely possible to create recordings from vinyl which sound far superior to some commercial CD versions.

#6. Don't overload by working "in the red". Watch that VU meter!

It’s much better to boost the overall volume of your finished job than to have to start again because you have “sonic boom”, clipping and problems with crossover. Work near the top end of the green range.

USING NERO WAVE EDITOR

* Many older pop records were sped up during mastering for radio time constraints and to iron out vocalizing flaws, creating an off-pitch tinny sound without much range or “presence”. You can undo this by using Tools/Time Correction if those girl-group epics sound more like The Chipmunks than Uncle Phil.

* Effects/Voice Modification & Effects/Pitch Tuning may be of use for an off-key vocalist but these Effects should only be applied to the entire file, and are best avoided.

* If the original producer has gone overboard with Reverb it can be partially removed by going to Enhancement/Band Extrapolation (Spectral Remixer). I use this application in reverse for reverb removal by creating a “wet” mix which enhances what I want to hear (in High & Low Cut-off Frequencies) and then I add the Dry Signal carefully. Effects/Reverb unfortunately won’t remove excessive reverb, nor will it create a Wall of Sound where none exists. This IS however a filtration application and - as with all filters - may remove some of the music.

Nero Wave Editor allows insertion of audio files – Wave Repair does not.

Wave Repair allows you to fully edit both Left & Right Channels separately – Nero Wave Editor does not.

CREATING A DYNAMIC MONOMIX FROM STEREO

#7. If your source is True Stereo or 60's 2-track (i.e. rhythm on on track & vocals on the other:

The file above is Bill Medley’s “I Surrender” (1963 Reprise). The entire instrumental track is on the right channel (lower Wave form) and Bill’s vocals are entirely on the left (upper Wave form ):

1. Open Nero Wave Editor. Open and highlight your WAV or mp3 file. /Go to Tools/ Stereo Processor. Set Phase Offset to Zero (0). (”StereoBroadening” default is 51% - get in the habit of checking it.)

2. In the “Left Out” box: Set Left In slider to 100% and Right In slider to 0% .

In the “Right Out” box do the exact opposite: Left In slider to zero, Right In to slider 100%. (See illustration above)

3. Test your settings by clicking on “Preview” and alternating “Bypass” On / Off - There should be no difference between On and Off settings.

4. Gradually bring up both inner sliders that are at 0%. When they’re also at 100% you have Mono.

Check your main VU meter (bottom left) for overload, and adjust ALL SLIDERS EQUALLY downwards as needed.

5. Now perform adjustments (Stereo Broadening etc) and compensations for things like sonic boom and vocal volume etc. but keep your Mono mentality. (You can of course go Mono Lite with +51% Stereo Broadening if you prefer...)

Here’s what “I Surrender” looks like in Mono. The best mixdown had all sliders set at 75% - it would have been less if compression was being added. The bass line is solid but smooth with no crossover problems, and the vocal blends nicely (a little forward, 60’s-style) with the backing track.

#8. If your source is in-phase fake stereo created by extreme EQing of 2 mono channels

you may need to use Enhancement / Band Extrapolation on either or both channels separately prior to performing # 7. Check first if one channel has an acceptable dynamic range – it may be better to perform Tip # 4 instead of, or before, proceeding to # 7.

#9. If your source is out-of-phase or time-delay fake stereo

you can try using Phase Offset or you can load each channel separately on Nero Sound Trax and attempt to rematch before performing #7. This is tedious and may not work because no two tape machines ever consistently recorded or played back at consistently the same speed – before you attempt this check if one of the channels is acceptable Mono and perform Tip # 4 instead of # 7.

#10. To create a punchy Mono mixdown master:

Use Tools / Dynamic Processor in NERO after creating your Monomix. Right-click on any point in the range line in the ‘Characteristics” box to drag an increase / decrease in compression – left-click to delete that point. Use Attack- and Release-Times judiciously.