In the summer of 1997, Drew Langsner held a Chairmakers’ Symposium at Country Workshops with John Brown and Dave Sawyer in between classes from the two chairmaking legends. (JB had just wrapped up a Welsh stick chair class and Dave was about to teach an advanced Windsor chair class).
The gathering was captured on video by Grant Libramento, and Drew generously loaned the VHS tapes to us to see if we could do anything with them so the video could be shared with the chairmaking world. We had them digitized (at one of those “preserve your past” commercial places), but I don’t know if some of the quality was lost in translation, or if the originally tech wasn’t great, or if I chose poorly when I sent the videos off for digitizing. I just don’t know. There’s a clip below to give you an idea of the challenge.
So, we’re hoping one of you has mad video/audio enhancement skills, and might like to tackle this wee project. Maybe the video can be enhanced but the best audio solution is to create a transcript/running text crawl? Maybe it can also be condensed into a highlight reel (there are about 12-1/2 hours of footage)? This would be volunteer work (though I suspect some LAP swag might come your way) and we’d then share it for free, too.
If you have the skills/time/inclination, please shoot me an email.
– Fitz
So are the source VHS tapes gone? I’m no expert, but it looks like there was a tracking issue when it was digitized.
We still have the tapes. Send Megan an email if you know what we should do with them to correct the tracking. Thanks!!
I downloaded the Vimeo file and then started a quick test. There’s hope for the audio. I’ll try to spend a bit more time on the video today then email you with more info and a link to the results. Does the format/aspect ratio look right to you? (Maybe you haven’t seen the original VHS.) Same question as Jim: are the source tapes still available?
Oh this is wonderful to actually hear him instead of guessing what a conversation with him would have been like 👍
This is a fantastic project. I’m sure you’ll find someone knowledgeable and willing.
Sorry Fitz, I’ve got no video/audio enhancement skills but seeing that top photo of John Brown I can’t get out of my head the image of Chris Schwarz modeling a pair just like them to be made by LAP! John
Probably an issue with VHS, which when digitized, typically results in a low resolution, e.g. 720×480. Enhancing the video using traditional tools is challenging, although there is software that uses “deep learning super resolution” to make higher resolution images, e.g. topazlabs.
Digitize a couple different tapes and see if that same noise pattern pops up. If it does, then it’s probably the player and I would find a new way of digitizing the footage. However, my guess is that specific tape is just worn out. Couple that with the fact that this is filmed with an old camera / poor mic and you’ve got a very tricky audio situation.
Here is a quick stab at cleaning up the audio and syncing the audio / video using basic audio tools like EQ and compression.
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It’s a balancing act reducing the high frequencies (annoying noise pattern around 8000Hz) and preserving the audio clarity. You can’t add a lot of clarity, but you can certainly make it less annoying without losing clarity. However, making sure the audio is synced to the video once a minute or so gives the biggest benefit. The original video made it hard to lip-read because the audio was a few frames off. It could be that this is a particularly rough example and I’d be interested in hearing other samples.
Transcribing 12 hours of this seems like a pretty big endeavor but it could be a cool crowdsourced project.
The speaker is floating between 730 and 1k I found giving that bump improved the sound. Getting it all synced up will be some work. If we get a mostly clean audio, there are some CC systems that are pretty decent to give a good head start on the transcribing.
The quality issue you are seeing is caused by the old VHS tapes, as they are old, not stored in ideal conditions, and suffer from tape “drop out”, which is the main issue with the audio track. Als the difference between then head alignment on the camera is not quite matching then head alignment of the tape player used to make the digital copies, and is an issue with home VHS equipment going back to the 1970s.
There are digital video and audio programs that can help to restore and improved the audio and video. The softness can be brought up a little, but it is still going to have a “soft” look as true resolution of VHS Standard Definition cameras/players is a lot less than the High Def. Video we are now used to watching.
Another issue is a lot of the interviews are “backlit” and this adds to the soft look and dark looking faces.
Unfortunately, my video editing skills are still back in the 1980/90s, and I lack the time this project is going to require, I wish I could help.
Interesting project on many levels! The clip reminded me of the few days I hosted English woodturner Ray Key back when he was on “tour”. Sounded just like Mr. Brown and he certainly liked to ramble on. Very interesting if you were really into the topic, but maybe not so much if all you are looking for is “making” instruction. Still, seems that preserving this bit of history is worth some effort. (way beyond my skills though). Might you consider “passing the hat” to collect funds to have it done professionally? Maybe offer a download at some contribution level? Thanks for putting this out to the community!
I might know a guy who can help!
Long story short: A bunch of us gaming geeks love a series called BattleTech. In the mid-90s a cartoon for the series came out that never was released to DVD. Some very dedicated people used AI upscaling and enhancements to increase the fidelity of old VHS copies. The results are pretty damn impressive. And it sounds to be exactly what you are looking for.
The lead guy’s name is Travis and he runs a channel called Renegade HPG: https://www.youtube.com/c/renegadehpg
Maybe reach out and see if he is willing to help.
Travis and team did do a good job on that restoration.