Remixing RAM to fix phasing issues

I used Audacity. All I really did was line up the whole album so that it was perfectly in phase.
A few of the songs had further phase issues which I fixed manually.
For the single version of Uncle Albert I just faded out the album version since the real single is probably at least a generation down.
The complete Ram On is just both parts spliced together with a tiny bit of remixing.

 

If all that was done was alignment of the channels, there will generally be very little difference unless you're summing to mono.

 

There's a big difference in my opinion, before, anything in the center seemed to be about 10 degrees to the left and had that "out of phase" feel, while now it is clearly in the center. I'm using high quality headphones though so it may allow me to really notice the difference

 

It depends on 1) how sensitive you are to such differences and 2) how you're listening. If you're listening via speakers aren't aren't perfectly in the "sweet spot", chances are you'll never notice a difference.

That isn't to say it's not a good thing to align the channels properly, it is. I've done the same for other material. It's just that when listening in stereo, there usually won't be much audible difference.

 

Fair enough. I've always notice the out of phaseness on RAM ever since I first listened to it. I didn't know what it was at the time but I always felt something was off.

 

I'm listening to it now and I have to say, it actually sounds really good. Nice solid center. Balanced sound.
Try it, @lukpac

 

lukpac tbe Zappa guy.

 

Also the Who and Rolling Stones go-to-guy.

 

And Beatles, and (while we're at it) all-round knowledgeable go-to guy.

 

I did, which is why I commented.

To reiterate, I'm *always* in favor of making sure little things like this are correct. It's just that under most listening conditions, the difference will be minor at best.

Nope, that's David Goodwin. He just hosts the Zappa Patio on my server.

 

Yes. It's just that in this case the difference is striking to me, even in stereo.
Most l-r corrections and not worth it though, I agree.

 

The "Phase Corrected Ram" referenced above sounds great. Like amazing great. Thanks so much for doing the legwork and posting it up to YouTube!

Now many moons ago I created a thread asking about the phase issue and watched the thread get shut down almost immediately. A touchy topic apparently. So, here goes again, why the dickens wasn't this been corrected during any of the remasterings? It's a known problem with a known solution that a (presumed) non-professional was able to remedy. I won't go as far as saying I'm angry that the three copies of this album I purchased over the years (no four- I forgot the cassette) have this underlying problem, but I do have to ask myself why. (Define why in any way you want here.)

 

I was wondering this myself when I made the thread. I mean, it's such a simple fix. Did Steve Hoffman not have the authority to make this change during the DCC remaster? Or did he just decide not to? I would love his input because I'm sure he has the answers.

 

I believe there was some talk about how the phase issues couldn't be corrected without introducing other phase issues due to the way some of the tracks were premixed out of phase before the final stereo mixdown was made (which, as you know is out phase itself). Yes, I know this sounds weird but its what I remember being said last time this came up. Perhaps I am wrong.

 

It's not clear that's actually true.

 

Fair enough, just a recollection. One of those random things I've read here over the years.

 

I have not the technical knowledge nor ability to either support or dispute it myself, but for whatever it's worth, that is what our host has said about it here:
Steve Hoffman - Question regarding DCC Gold Disc of Paul McCartney's "RAM"

 

Ram was recorded on 16 track, so no reduction mixes were needed.
The album wasn't recorded with any phase issues other than the final stereo mix which was done on an out of phase tape machine.

 

So you guys can listen to an youtube track, which is encoded with lossy AAC at ~192 kbps with joint stereo, and really can tell it is better? It's amazing.

 

If that was the case then you wouldn't be able make an 'in phase' mono mix either - the same elements would still have to be combined in any mix.

 

No it's not.
In this case Improvement>Bitrate
Lossless will be even better.

 

Nice catch.

 

The quality deteriorates, yes, but you can still notice the phase improvement.

Not to mention he gave me a lossless copy of his fix and it sounds marvelous.

 

I see. Then it's something different to what I hear on youtube. I trust your word

 

It's the sort of improvement you can hear in spite of the lossy bitrate.
Try listening for the center (for example vocals in track 1) and compare it to a regular stereo Ram. You can hear the vocals hang slightly to the left in the regular version. They're more pinpoint centered when corrected, which is nice.
No lossless needed to be able to make that comparison.
Also, if you listen in mono (both channels) you can hear a strong resonance (comb filtering) on an original stereo version which disappears completely on the corrected one. This is a bit academic though because, as Lukpac says, it should be played in stereo anyway.