Audio

Restoration and Remastering

Audio specialties include restoration of out of print recordings. Recorded platforms include LP, cassette tape, 7½ inch reel tape and records with non-standard speeds (16, 76.59, 78.26, etcetera). The restoration process starts with analog to digital transfer through a DBX 3BX dynamic range expander. Surface noise is eliminated or otherwise reduced. Most recordings benefit from the use of a virtual valve filter and is applied as appropriate to preserve the sound quality associated from vintage vacuum tubes.

Any tears, rips, stains or missing pieces from the original artwork are repaired and undetectable. Often, ring-wear from records detract from an otherwise excellent condition album. Of course, ring-wear is eliminated from the final graphical output. The original record label is also converted and used as a label for the CD. Booklets for the CD are also available when applicable and represent the booklet or text from the original album.

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Audio Sample

The Young Tuxedo Brass Band - Jazz Begins - Lead Me Saviour.mp3 1.93 mg. 128 kb/s mp3 sound file. Sounds of New Orleans Streets, Funeral and Parade Music. Full length sample audio restored from LP. Although this version is highly compressed, the full version sounds much better. Out of print for years, today the CD can be found on Amazon.

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Video

Editing and Blu-ray/DVD Authoring

Video specialties include the editing, restoration and authoring of analog and digital video. Media is de-multiplexed into elementary streams with the audio restoration as stated above and the video is edited, noise filtered and multiplexed (or re-encoded). The authoring process includes menu structure and command sequences needed to navigate through DVD or Blu-ray structure.

Ever wonder why DVD menus don't have round buttons with round highlights when the button is pressed? Probably not, but there are good reasons for this. One, you've never been annoyed by the difficult to navigate through menu structure often seen in Hollywood releases. And two, the sub picture for the buttons that create the hightlight when the button is pressed can only contain 4 colors and as a result would normally look jagged and unprofessional particularly since the resolution is 720x480 or less. For this reason, most if not all Hollywood DVD movies have simpilier subpicture highlights. Often they look sloppy and difficult to discern anyways. Not quite the issue with Blu-ray media since the resolution is much higher, yet Hollywood continues to crank out ugly hard to resolve buttons and highlights.

UserX has developed a 4 color anti-aliasing which allows for smoother round buttons with associated highlights. Most of UserX's custom DVD/Blu-ray authoring packages contain such buttons and look much nicer than the Hollywood counterparts.

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Pictured below is a collection of Blu-ray menu screen shots from both SNL music Blu-ray discs that can be zoomed and scrolled through. Each disc has a root and title menu along with menus that have links to each video. Each video is 1920x1080i with 5.1 audio (with a couple of exceptions).

Each audio stream (about 550 files total) has been passed through a virtual valve amplifier, noise reduction filters, and volume normalization. Resulting audio and high resolution video is superior. Each Blu-ray disc contains more than 22 gigabytes worth of music containing 47 performances.

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Audio Sample

Grey March - Way of the Cross.mp3 5.03 mg. 128 kb/s mp3 sound file. Self titled album still out of print. Full length sample audio restored from LP. Although this version is highly compressed, the full version sounds much better.

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Audio Sample

The Beasts Of Bourbon - Psycho 3.54 mg. 128 kb/s mp3 sound file. Full length sample audio restored from LP. Although this version is highly compressed, the full version sounds much better.

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Audio Sample

The Jazz Butcher - The Devil Is My Friend 2.00 mg. 128 kb/s mp3. Full length sample audio restored from LP. Although this version is highly compressed, the full version sounds much better.

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Seinfeld.Doc

Well formatted description for all shows. As a project, 90 of those episodes were restored from DVD and include deleted scences not included in the original show. Most episodes are several minutes longer. Final output is 24 DVD's.

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