[LAU] "Remastered" an accordion recording, want an opinion

[David Kastrup]

Hi, I put up an accordion recording originally in April on Youtube at

It's been an (I think)
improved version over a previous recording but gained no upvote and/or
comments as opposed to the previous recording where I tampered with the
recording using compression, EQ, and reverb. Now it can be that it's
the same people who already commented/voted before who listened to it
but since I replaced the old video in a playlist, this is sort of
troubling: am I doing people a favor?

So I worked a bit on it with compression/reverb again and put up

Apart from the
remastering (with constant settings throughout the recording) and a tiny
shift in time to better sync to the video this is identical. The
original recording was reduced to 75%L/R (since it was strongly
separated left/right) which was the only kind of processing, I think the
remastering was 80% (to compensate a bit for the washing out by reverb).

Would you think that I am better off using the latter version? Does it
differ on playback device (headphone/speakers)? Seems a bit like
cheating...

Thanks for any feedback!

[Francesco Ariis]

Hello David,

Post by David Kastrup
Would you think that I am better off using the latter version? Does it
differ on playback device (headphone/speakers)? Seems a bit like
cheating...

First of all, congrats on exquisite playing and control of dynamics.
Both version are good: in my opinion the latter sounds slightly clearer
at the expense of feeling a slightly more artificial.
I would pick 1, because I prefer video creators spend their
time shooting and uploading rather than post-producing (given that time
is a constraint for all of us).

Post by David Kastrup
Now it can be that it's the same people who already commented/voted
before who listened to it but since I replaced the old video in a
playlist, this is sort of troubling: am I doing people a favor?

I wouldn't discount this: subscriber gets a notification of a new video,
sees similar title/music, is pleased but doesn't bother engaging
like last time. Nothing to do with perceived quality.

Have fun playing
-F

[David Kastrup]

Post by Francesco Ariis
Hello David,

Post by David Kastrup
Would you think that I am better off using the latter version? Does it
differ on playback device (headphone/speakers)? Seems a bit like
cheating...

First of all, congrats on exquisite playing and control of dynamics.
Both version are good: in my opinion the latter sounds slightly clearer
at the expense of feeling a slightly more artificial.

That's what was worrying me. "Slightly" clearer does not seem like a
particularly good deal, considering that it loses part of the sound
signature that actually allows telling the various parts of the
accordion apart. The original version is played by a combo and
obviously has no problems keeping the solo and accompaniment parts
simultaneously separated and blended.

I don't actually get much of an average loudness change with the kind of
compression settings I use (either version is ultimately normalized).
In contrast, the videocam's own audio track is much much louder. It's
also a whole lot trashier but it does demonstrate that I don't really
have a handle on using compression for boosting average volume.

The reverb gives it a "richer" sound quality particularly when listening
on headphones: the recording is pretty dry. Maybe I should do that and
just EQ up the bass (which is compromised in volume in a full accordion
due to size constraints) and forget about compression which I don't
manage to turn into more than a rather mixed blessing.

Post by Francesco Ariis
I would pick 1, because I prefer video creators spend their time
shooting and uploading rather than post-producing (given that time is
a constraint for all of us).

Shooting and uploading? You wish. The lion's share is spent on
practising a whole lot, and reshooting and cussing a lot. With my
current tool set (Ardour and Shotcut) I found editing/splicing out
mistakes to be so much trouble that reshooting tends to be the easier
recourse. Surviving post-production tends to take comparatively little
time (a lot of post-production tends to take the form of writing down
time codes and measure numbers and ratings of good and not so good
passages from various takes and putting things together and then
deciding I'd better spend another afternoon on new takes).

So basically the amount of time I spend on post-production is negligible
compared to the work leading up to recording, and uploading has become
sort-of a non-issue too since they put out fiber to probably half a mile
away last year or so.