Early Pink Floyd has some recordings that are marred in significant ways. Some songs have vocals that can't be heard due to poor recording techniques. Others are marred by narration talking all over the music. Thanks to my recent discovery of the sound editing programs Spleeter and X-Minus, I'm working on fixing many of these problems.
The two songs here are a good example of what I mean. In 1967, some Pink Floyd instrumental music was used in the background of a BBC science documentary called "Tomorrow's World." One original instrumental doesn't have a known name, so I'm calling it "Tomorrow's World." The other is a cover of the classic soul instrumental "Green Onions." The problem with both of these is the BBC narrator talked all over the music. "Tomorrow's World" wasn't so bad, with the narrator just talking in a few places, but "Green Onions" was basically ruined, with talking over the vast majority of it.
Given all that, I think it's pretty remarkable what I was able to do, thanks to the X-Minus program in this case. It does a great job of separating the vocals from the music. (Better than Spleeter, in fact, at that task, though Spleeter does other things better too.) So once I had the vocals removed, then I had to carefully boost the volume of the quiet parts to match the loud parts. This took dozens of minor volume changes, for both songs, until I had the volume level more or less the same across the two songs.
The end result sounds much better on "Tomorrow's World," I think. For one thing, the amount of narration wasn't as bad on that song. But also, it's a really nice original instrumental. Whereas with "Green Onions," you can hear more of the sound degradation due the narration. But also, it's not that captivating of a cover version. For instance, you don't really get soloing. However, we don't have many recordings of Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett on lead guitar, so both songs are worth hearing for that alone.
If you want to hear these edits, I've updated the Pink Floyd "BBC Sessions, Volume 2" album and put these versions of that (since the documentary was for the BBC).
The link to that album is here:
https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/05/pink-floyd-bbc-sessions-1968.html
Fantastic work.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I can't download this because the zippshare link gives me '403 Forbidden'. Shame as it sounds really interesting. Have you thought about applying the same technique to remove the voiceover from the CBC version of Interstellar Overdrive?
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with the version you speak of. Can you point me to it?
DeleteIf you can't download, try getting the files through the free music sharing program SoulseekQT.
I found a FLAC file of the CBC version you speak of. I'm working on it. Some parts are salvagable, but there are two long stretches with no music at all, just lots of hiss if you turn the volume up. I also found a early 1967 version of Matilda Mother from the UFO club that has some interview over it. That has issues too, but maybe could end up sounding better.
DeleteThanks Paul. I very much appreciate what you're doing. I'm a member of a PF forum, commonly referred to as Y!, which shares music freely and doesn't condone selling other people's work and certainly doesn't share officially released stuff. Would you be OK us putting these things there to share, duly credited to you and maybe with a link back here?
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking. I just found the "Tomorrow's World" thread started over there, and the Google Drive link. I appreciate that, but I'd prefer if you could point people back here, and put that link in this thread. I would like Pink Floyd fans to learn about this blog and the many PF albums I have here, including the newly posted "Live in Europe 1968" album, which has a lot of previously untried editing on it too. And tomorrow I plan on posting the Stockholm 67 show with vocals.
DeleteOh, also, I believe you're SimonD over at that forum. I see you posted this on a different thread a few months back:
Deletean I also add to this question? I recall, when it was first released, someone working on a list of the content and indicating where better quality versions exist than were used on the official release. I don't mean where additional content could have been added to make it more complete, just where inferior quality was used on the official release. Does such a list exist please? Many thanks.
---
I can't find that list; the link doesn't work. Do you have that list, or can you get it? I'm thinking about redoing some of PF's BBC performances, now that I can use Spleeter and X-Minus to better get rid of the BBC announcer banter over the music. But if I do that, I'd want to work from the very best versions.
Also, I took a look at Seabirds, and that song is reaaally rough. I might not be able to do any better than what this person did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNxZc4EaHw0
If I attempt it, I'd want to work from the best possible version. But which version is yet? The one I was looking at from A Tree Full of Secrets doesn't even have the song's ending.
Oh, sorry, if it's not clear, that quote of yours refers to The Early Years box set.
DeleteHi Paul, yep that's me. Thanks for getting back to me. I'm not an expert on Seabirds so I'll put the question there and see what they come back with. I never did find that list unfortunately but I know one of the members who may have one so, again, I'll get back to you asap.
ReplyDeleteThanks. By the way, feel free to post the Google Drive link you made here. I could add it to the main post, or you could just put it in the comments. Feel free to do that for other albums if you want too, like the Stockholm 67 I'll be posting soon. I saw a couple of people at your forum were having trouble with the Zippyshare links, so it's good to have another option.
DeleteHey Paul, I made that Google Drive link. Here ya go: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1n1fl1LbBYL-utxzGvugGR6qrIuG_maJs?usp=sharing
DeleteThanks for that. However, later today I'll be posting an updated version because my friend MZ has made some more improvements to the file (he's good at equalizing the mix). Hopefully, you can post a new link once that's up.
DeleteLooking forward to it! The feedback on Y! Had been especially positive, btw.
DeleteCool. I just updated the "Tomorrow's World" and "Live in Europe 1968" links with new versions. It's pretty much the same, but my musical friend MZ improved the sound by filling out some missing frequencies and such.
DeleteI also added in versions of "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Matilda Mother" recorded at the UFO Club in January 1967 that had interviews over them too. I changed the write-up to explain what I did there. Unfortunately, those two still sound really rough, but at least they have the talking removed.