# Digital remastering

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-remastering/927136>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 3, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-remastering/927136 "2020-12-03T18:50:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-remastering/927136/21 "2020-12-07T16:36:22Z")

</div>

> [@md-2000](#):
>
> As I understood it, though, from some documentaries - they didn’t do the techie stuff, but they understood they could write far more than the basic 4 tracks by combining the first 4 to one, and recording 3 more, and so on… which allowed them to add in extra effects after the fact (like a French Horn?)

George Martin figured out how to do this. The Beatles basically said, hey, do that again.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-remastering/927136/22 "2020-12-07T17:18:44Z")

</div>

To be honest this was not an unusual practice by the time of Sgt Peppers, plenty of manufacturers were making reel to reel machines designed to do exactly this - there was alkways the problem of the physical position of the record and replay heads and this was solved by using one replay head as a record head - it means that the three other tracks could be bounced down and yet maintain syncronisation with any new material being recorded.

I still have a couple of Bang & Olufsen reel to reel machines made in 1966 that have this facility, I am pretty sure that Revox, Studer and Ferrograph had such machines - they record/replay in one direction only whereas later machines would be wider tapes and minimum of 8 tracks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-remastering/927136/23 "2020-12-07T18:42:10Z")

</div>

> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#):
>
> Well movies were shot at 24 frames per second, and in countries with 50 frames per second TV, they ran the film at 25 fps. So there was a slight but perceivable pitch change.

I hadn’t thought of that; it’s true if Burpo lives some place where they broadcast via the PAL system (I think they call it the MATE system in the UK, ha-ha) this might be happening. I wonder if they still do this though - it would seem by now they would have devised a better way to convert 24 to 25 without speeding the film up.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-remastering/927136.md?page=1)