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How a Passionate Engineer Restored Early Recordings of One of Denmark’s Biggest Pop Bands and preserved his brother’s legacy.

It takes a diverse collection of skills to innovate and create the tools for which TC Electronic is famed. So, it’s only a matter of time before you come across a team member whose talents go far beyond the workplace. And nowhere is that more apparent than in TC Electronic’s Christian G. Frandsen.

Christian has been our Product Development Engineer and Specialist for 25 years and helps develop our professional studio equipment. But being an engineer, for Christian, doesn’t stop at TC Electronic. You could even say that it runs in the family

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During the remastering process, Christian used several different effects, compressors and metering solutions from TC Electronic

  • The 12-band Midas powered EQ PEQ 3000 was used for all EQ tasks in mix and mastering and fixing the identified issues with the original cassette tape like rather severe stereo, left/right and mid/side spectral imbalances
  • The very flexible MD4 HD multiband compressor was used for mastering, overall dynamics control while the five bands give high spectral resolution and transparency to the delicate compression
  • The high-end true stereo reverb VSS4 HD adds club-like early reflections and stereo width help that are lacking in the original PA console output mix, which was recorded with close mic-ing and reverb tail effects only
  • The Midas powered DYN 3000 channel compressor was used in the mastering process adding just a tiny punch and was also used on the new vocal recordings where the dynamics and texture were profiled and reproduced
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  • The classic delay TC2290 was used for effects on the dubbed sources like parts of the lead vocal. In the original mix there are multiple delay elements and these were profiled and reproduced.
  • The vintage reverb DVR250 was used for important 80s reverb sound on the dubbed sources like parts of the lead vocal in order for them to mix perfectly with the original concert.
  • Throughout the project the Clarity M meter was a great companion for stand-alone (off screen) metering. It adds continuous views on spectral content, center-location, loudness and phase and by using USB/plugin connection to the unit either master out, busses or channels can easily be monitored.

 

 

 

Further, TC Electronic System 6000, Clarity X, Studio Konnekt 48 was used as well
Some of the other amazing tools that were used in this project were from: Steinberg, Audionamix, iZotope, Voxengo, Waves, Klevgrand, SSL, RTW, Dynaudio and DPA Microphones

The remastered 1981 Holbaek recordings were released in January 2022, 40 years after they were initially committed to tape, and have been made available in many different streaming platforms, cassette tape and vinyl, which received great reviews and even reached no. 1 on the Danish vinyl chart; with TV-2’s early formative performances, and Anders and Christian’s hard work available for everyone to hear.

A circle is drawn,” says Christian “and it’s both a huge pleasure and a great challenge to help this concert on its way. I am very grateful that TV-2 has been so obliging and patient in the long process.”

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Sven Gaul, the drummer of TV-2, states:

“It has been a privilege to work with Christian on this project which we never thought would be realized. It took nearly five years, so the band didn’t believe it would work. But technology, Christian’s patience and the excellent work of Audionamix made this possible. We are more than happy with the result, and it looks like we all are starting a new trend”.