Have you ever noticed the LESS than exceptional sound on DVD releases of vintage film and TV shows? You know, no matter how you adjust the volume, bass or treble controls, the sound seems dim, lacks crispness and the dialog can be hard to hear or understand at times. I have run across this in many DVD releases such as the more obscure classic movies from the '30s and '40s, vintage serials, and classic animation, and even TV series from the '60s. A lot of this is due to the quality of the source material used such as later generation prints that were worn and battered by TV networks etc. Also, lots of material, not having continuing commercial value have not been taken care of or restored using modern technology.

Many films and such have not survived in decent condition and in fact, many have not survived at all and are lost. There are many survivors, but lackluster digital remastering of them without dedicated, full-scale restoration, only accentuates their many flaws.  This discouraging reality does not stop vintage film and video fanatics like myself from buying releases of these from small-time and major video producers. Many of these are very satisfying while many others are hard to enjoy because of noise, bad sound, and poor video!  Can anything be done to make these more enjoyable and to compensate for these sound deficiencies? Read on for my prescription for THE VINTAGE VIDEO SOUNDTRACK BLUES!

Many of the newer TV and DVD players have different sound adjustment gizmos built in that process the audio in different ways to alter the sound heard, as well as some noise reduction processing. These may offer some improvement to the audio of these vintage releases but a lot of time and experimentation has to be employed to understand them and apply them effectively!  My recommendation is to get yourself a good stereo equalizer with a remote that has the capacity to store various equalization curves and address directly the BIG 3 MEANIES OF VINTAGE SOUND: RUMBLE, HISS, & POPS, as well as the problem of low level, dim sound.  Yes, some trial and error is necessary to maximize the enjoyment of these gems from the past but is a necessity of life for all vintage video freaks who crave more than the major studio blockbusters and mainstream moneymakers! So, for a quik fix, get an equalizer and become your own sound engineer!

Using this type of equipment I have impoved the listenability problems listed above. In general, I use one equalization curve most of the time. This improves dim and hard to hear soundtracks alot!  Basically it is a bell-shaped curve that increases evenly from the high (treble) and low (bass) tails to peak at the middle (mid-range). This greatly increases the mid-range frequencies for more punch and loudness and also increases to a lesser degree the AUDIBLE high and low frequencies!  Noises such as rumble, hiss and repetitive pops can be minimized by reducing specific frequencies for individual videos.  A remote control is very handy for adjusting the sound for specific videos because you can sit back and raise or lower specific frequencies for the best sound.  Of course you have to bite the bullet and endure some noise. Over-equalizing certain frequencies can greatly affect the overall sound by reducing warmth, clarity, and can even increase perception of other noise! So, a compromise or trade-off is necessary! Please, try the BELL CURVE and adjust accordingly. I start both the low and high frequency settings at 0 decibels  and increase each consecutive setting equally to obtain a peak at the 2 middle frequency settings. As a side note, this works particulary well on CD releases of vintage music recordings from the '20s and '30s!!!  

ONWARD, THRU THE FOG!