Stars Audio Remastering

I present to you an experiment I did to create the best possible video for an 1995 MSDOS demo. Note the choices I made:

  • Use Dosbox
  • Process the audio from the original modules.
  • Apply CRT emulation to the video.

This post will detail the audio processing.

Audio Source Choice

The original demo uses two Amiga modules (MOD) for the sound, so there is no real panning. Some channels go to the left output, the others to the right.

The demo is played in stereo on GUS soundcards, and in mono on SoundBlaster soundcards. For me the panning is questionnable, and after a few tests in mono, I go for a reduced stereo field + mono low-end.

For the source I will use a high-quality replayer with 8-tap fir interpolation to re-generate from the source modules.

I also go for a full remastering of the track, as we are taking about one of the finest  masterpiece of French heritage here. (yeah I know the musician is not french :) )

Audio Edit

The first step is to merge the two tracks into one, and check with a dump from the demo soundtrack:


Once the file is OK, I'll add effects.

Remastering


First, fix the stereo. I limit the stereo field with the mixer.



As I will narrow the stereo field, I begin with a multi-spread to add a bit more of stereo on the highs.


Next, mid-side compression to tight even more the stereo.


Now, let's convert all low-end to mono. 300Hz, because I want to get all lows from the slap bass in mono.


I'm quite happy with the stereo now. As we lost a good amount of aliasing with the hq resampler, we add back some grit with saturation.

And even a light 50% wet 12-bit bit crusher. 


Light EQ corrections.


Bass Enhancer, just because we all love it :)


Now use Tape modeling to tame a bit the audio. 

And finally master_me to finalize the mastering process.
Auto-level disabled as this is ardour-export's job.  

Export the track using the youtube preset.



After that, I used Pitivi to merge the video and the hq-audio in a video, to ensure the synchro was ok.

To be continued...

Credits

Original Soundtrack: Groo / CNCD

modplug123: github.com/alexmyczko/modplug-tools

Ardour: ardour.org

FFmpeg: ffmpeg.org

Chowdsp: chowdsp.com

Calf-Plugins: calf-studio-gear.org

LSP (Linux Studio Plugins): lsp-plug.in

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