Classical piano anyone?

Despite the assumption that this may well turn many folk off and continuing from the weekend activity thread, another longer-term project is the uploading to YouTube of my father's BBC (and other) recordings from the 60's and 70's.

He died in 2000 whereupon I inherited the reel-to-reel copies of these broadcasts, often interspersed with transmission clicks and other sound-dirt. With the immense help of one of my coupé-mates up here most of these have now been digitalised and to a great extent cleaned-up - in one or two cases even brought up to pitch as the originals had been recorded on slower-running machines. I should say at this point that the Vortexion recorder (valve, not transistor) used was also inherited and is still, touch wood, operational and had just enough energy to complete the transfers.

For anyone bold enough to stick an ear in bear in mind they are not CD quality recording-wise and therefore are likely to have a modicum of background hiss, however the uploading was done to 24 bit, 44.1 khz, the best-quality available. Available at the moment are the complete Rachmaninov concertos (except no.2 which is in the pipeline), also Ravel, Bach, Prokofiev. Several solo piano works appear also.

The major part of this could not have been done without the unflagging patience and expertise of the aforementioned to whom I shall be eternally indebted for enabling my wish of over 40 years to be realised.

Miles Coverdale

Thanks for that.

I imagine the whole process must have taken a lot of time and effort?

YouTube really is the closest thing we have to a time machine.

Sounds like a legacy to be very proud of. How amazing to be able to put it out into the world!

Indeed. One in particular by Liszt, lasting 20 minutes, was full of wobbles where it seemed the tape had stopped/started momentarily causing the sound to quiver. While not all these many were able to be totally eradicated it was fascinating watching a craftsman at work attending to each one with a jeweller's precision.

I started uploading them nearly 4 years ago and have only kept going sporadically - recently I was surprised to see a few positive comments, particularly from two people who'd had lessons with him after retiring to South Cornwall when he was in his 70's and 80's. One recalled his "swansong" concert at the age of 82/3 in his local church to raise funds for the new roof.

Oddly, though my profession is largely similar, my YouTube watching is mainly of restoration videos


e.g. Hand Tool Rescue, ....oops possibly another thread

The capstan on tape machines is subject to wear and hardening, causing slip. If some idiot leaves it turned off but in play, the capstan gets a notch in it. All these cause tape speed errors of greater or lesser degree...