So, one of my favorite recordings is a restored 1890 recording of the famous English clock tower Big Ben. Now the thing I ABSOLUTELY HATE about this remaster is the nasty noise-remover they did to it, but what impressed me the most was the fact that this recording was perfectly fixed up as far as warping is concerned. Keep in mind wax cylinders are hand cranked, at least the one in this recording, so I’m absolutely impressed about how this guy de-warped this recording.
Now here’s the problem. Since the warping is so uneven and random, I can’t simply do a pattern-based warp like I do when i de-warp old bagpipe recordings which I’ve been passionate about since 2017. But the problem with the software called “Capstan” is the fact that it prefers equally tempered music, so if you’re trying to de-warp an old recording of something that’s not equal tempered, be it bells or bagpipes, Capstan won’t fix it.
So, does anyone know what kind of plugin this guy used to de-warp this old recording? I badly wish there was a means to do this with Audacity using possibly an AI-based plugin to detect and remove warping, only if the entire frequency contents changes by the exact same amount. For example, I was impressed with an Isotope demo where somebody de-warped an old recording of a flute, and the de-warping process still kept the original vibrato in the flute playing while still correcting the warps. I wonder how in the world that actually works.
Anyway, without further ado, here’s that Big Ben recording. I just wish this guy would upload JUST the de-warped version without the noise remover. I HATE noise remover.
