Here is a wonderful LP released on Ocora of recordings of Buddhist Monks performing rituals in Tibet.
This transfer came with no information on who made it or what equipment was used. The levels were quite low (I had to boost them by 16dB -- approximately tripling the volume). After some removal of clicks and pops and reducing turntable rumble, it sounds quite nice -- much better and more dynamic than the later CD issue.
Here is another vinyl transfer from the internet which I have tidied up a bit and now present for your enjoyment.
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Quite a bit of audio restoration was required. Aside from a lot of effort in removing pops and clicks, I tried to reduce turntable rumble noise where the audio frequencies sometimes reached up into those of the musicians'. Therefore I needed to leave some in place.
I took the liberty of narrowing the stereo image slightly so that there is less of a hard right-and-left image. This idea of having one performer in one channel and another in the other channel might have sounded good at the time, but it can be unpleasant, especially when using headphones.
Imrat Khan here plays surbahar for the alap and then switches to sitar for the gats.
downloads:
16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file (261 MB)
Occasionally I will encounter vinyl transfers of world music on the internet which I believe could sound better.
This is one of those LPs. I downloaded it at some point in the past and could find no information about who transferred it or what equipment was used.
The rarity of the music caused me to want to remaster both the audio and the image of the front cover. After some time spent using ClickRepair and the audio editing program called "Audacity," this now sounds quite nice.
I certainly hope I'll find time to upload more such "rescued and remastered" albums on this blog during the next few months.
Parveen Sultana was born in 1950 and began recording for EMI in India in her early 20s. She continues to remain active to this day.
