Les Baxter - spectral stereo upmixed tracks?

Is it OK to post a share link to a few spectral stereo upmixes of some previously MONO only tracks? If not mods can delete. I've been doing spectral demix/remixing for many years. The demix algorithms have improved immensely in the last couple years. There are now algorithms targeting specific orchestral instruments so I figure it's finally time to see what can be done with Les Baxter tracks.

I'm working on the 1951 album "Ritual of the Savage" and also the clean mono version of the 1959 album "African Jazz". I'd like to post the project when finished but for now here a couple tracks..

I'd like to hear people's suggestions on how they can be better. Is the bass and treble OK??

"Ritual of the Savage" https://pixeldrain.com/u/6gqDSc9p 02 - Sophisticated Savage (2026 stereo)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/4irPv1ai 05 - Barquita (2026 stereo)

"African Jazz" https://pixeldrain.com/u/j8ohNaur 01 - Congo Train (2025 TexMix)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tqSQjW4B 10 - Cairo Bazaar (2025 TexMix)

[ Edited by TexBaxter on 2026-05-27 20:03:22 ]

"African Jazz" separates out much better because it's a much better recording.

On the other hand much of "Ritual of the Savage" was just not recorded very well and it's almost impossible to get a good balanced mix because it's less layered than the later albums. Some tracks I may have to use a stereo delay to get a more balanced mix. The drums/percussion track is pretty obnoxious on most tracks I may tame that a bit and push the melodic instruments forward.

When "Ritual" was re-released in 1958 for stereo they just took the mono master and used stereo delays and narrow EQs to create a fake stereo version.

It's a shame we can't get the original CLEAN mono version on CD/download from Capitol because it would sound great. There's a third party release of the mono that is pretty clean (denoised a bit much) but it has a very slight stereo reverb over it. I may use that on some tracks if I can't get clean extracts from the official "stereo" version.

[ Edited by TexBaxter on 2026-05-27 19:53:07 ]

[ Edited by TexBaxter on 2026-05-27 19:56:11 ]

[ Edited by TexBaxter on 2026-05-27 19:56:56 ]

[ Edited by TexBaxter on 2026-05-27 19:57:31 ]

[ Edited by TexBaxter on 2026-05-27 19:59:51 ]

Great idea! I agree that the percussion is way too forward on these tracks.

Put headphones on this morning and dialed up "Sophisticated Savage."

WOWZA! This sounds fantastic! Want to hear more for sure, but had to rush over and tell you my gleeful initial reaction right away. I've been daydreaming about certain genres of music that are unlikely to ever get an Atmos iteration: exotica, shoegaze - can you imagine it'd take Kevin Shields to deliver MbV's Loveless?

Please keep us posted on your progress and keep up the cool work. Wow!

OK Rupe