I'm losing tonight - the original and I'm losing tonight restored/ remastered

A Passing Fancy - the original and A Passing Fancy restored/ remastered

Eugene Smith-Amy - the original and  Eugene Smith- Amy restored

Sugar foot stomp - the original and Sugar foot stomp restored

The real question is: to what extent can this process restore the freshness of a song? Are there any other advantages to this? There is no short answer. First of all, let's consider the example of an old tape: it's only going to get worse in time, and it's exhibiting a lot of noise and lack of details. Or take an old LP, a lot of crackles, scratches, clicks, thumps and noise. Having them restored and burnt on a CD is definitely an advantage; the CD won't degrade in time like an analog tape. 

There is a difference between transfer and audio restoration; transferring from analog to digital does just that, maintaining the sound problems from the original source. When it comes to sound restoration, we are listening to the source and decide what is the best way to convert it, having in mind the processes required for restoration.

Basically the sound restoration process deals with noise, crackles, scratches, clipping, hiss, hum and clicks removal, spectral repair and advanced spectrograms, and brings back some of the shine of the recording. The project is loaded in the workstation through high-end quality mastering-grade A/D converters (Lynx Aurora). If needed, high-end preamps will be used for adding warmth or some harmonic enhancement. The removal of the unwanted problems is performed using Restoration Suite for Powercore, Waves Restoration Bundle and RX Complete Audio Restoration from Izotope, programs based on advanced algorithms; they are made to preserve the original sound in the best possible way.

The next step is the harmonic enhancement of the material to get the best perception of the original sound. This is done through sophisticated programs, and the result is quite spectacular. The harmonic enhancement is needed as the removal of noises, crackles, scratches, clicks, thumps does affect to a certain extent the audio part. EQ just doesn't do it in this case, it will be applied at a later stage, in mastering.

Once the project is cleaned, it's going to be prepared for burning on CD; in plain English, it will be re-mastered through the steps outlined on Mastering page. There are a couple of studios in Toronto who are doing sound restoration; the most important thing to consider when choosing the place is the experience of the engineer, the tools he uses and the extent to which he was exposed to different styles of music, so he can re-master and help recreate the right musical atmosphere.