What Did Oscar Wilde's Voice Sound Like?

[+ Avalon]

 

With modern technology why can't they clean up the recordings and eliminate the background noise?

[Guy Fawkes]

It was your assignment?

 

With modern technology why can't they clean up the recordings and eliminate the background noise?

[+ honcho]

 

With modern technology why can't they clean up the recordings and eliminate the background noise?

 

I have a hobby of recording other folks concerts for them, to sometimes prepare commercial releases. I have access to this technology, and my experience is that it is always compromise. You will never be able to completely eliminate the clunks, but you may be able to reduce their prominence; the cost will be loosing clarity on some of the consonants in the spoken words. And it will take many, many hours of work to do this; it is as much art as it is science and each step requires judgement calls.

 

The question at hand is to determine the authenticity of the recordings; if they are not authentic, then cleaning them up would be wasted effort.

[Guy Fawkes]

and you need access to the best possible source material which in this case is a digital copy of an acetate copy of a wax cylinder. A lot of work.

 

I have a hobby of recording other folks concerts for them, to sometimes prepare commercial releases. I have access to this technology, and my experience is that it is always compromise. You will never be able to completely eliminate the clunks, but you may be able to reduce their prominence; the cost will be loosing clarity on some of the consonants in the spoken words. And it will take many, many hours of work to do this; it is as much art as it is science and each step requires judgement calls.

 

The question at hand is to determine the authenticity of the recordings; if they are not authentic, then cleaning them up would be wasted effort.

[+ poolboy48220]

I always imagined him sounding like Stephen Fry. From what you can hear in the recordings it sounds like his voice was higher.

 

I listened to one of Miss Manner's audiobooks, read by herself, and her voice did NOT sound anything like what I'd imagined.

[+ Avalon]

I always imagined him sounding like Stephen Fry. From what you can hear in the recordings it sounds like his voice was higher.

 

A "gay" voice. Some gay men have a voice that is a bit high. I find that especially attractive!