What does the future hold for Elvis and AI?

[ep2]

With all the advancements in AI technology, do you think we’ll ever see fully immersive concerts featuring Elvis, created by feeding AI with existing photos and footage? For example, could we see something like the Super 8mm footage of his Pittsburgh show being enhanced to the point where we’re watching in full high-definition with crystal-clear video and audio? How far do you think this could go in recreating the King’s performances, and would you be excited to see such technology bring his concerts back to life?

[sweetangeline]

To sum it up...we have not heard the last from Elvis Presley, and we never will

[A. C. van Kuijk]

I guess that the technology will be able to turn good 8mm footage into something very watchable. Of course much of the stuff will be artificial since a lot of things have to be ironed out and/or added. However, as the technology progresses the results will be more and more realistic.

[LesterB]

Every moving image of Elvis will be captured whereby all his unique mannerisms will be captured such that we can then have video images of each recording session.

[T3ddy-be@r]

I for one can't wait I never got to see him when he was alive. This may give us a glimpse of the real thing well a proximity of the real thing

[Walter Hale 4]

I guess that the technology will be able to turn good 8mm footage into something very watchable. Of course much of the stuff will be artificial since a lot of things have to be ironed out and/or added. However, as the technology progresses the results will be more and more realistic.

i agree with you. There's some amateur 8mm footage of various concerts where the songs were incomplete here and there, so AI could "fill in the gaps" by producing some images that could indeed make most of these concerts look and sound more complete.

[Walter Hale 4]

With all the advancements in AI technology, do you think we’ll ever see fully immersive concerts featuring Elvis, created by feeding AI with existing photos and footage? For example, could we see something like the Super 8mm footage of his Pittsburgh show being enhanced to the point where we’re watching in full high-definition with crystal-clear video and audio? How far do you think this could go in recreating the King’s performances, and would you be excited to see such technology bring his concerts back to life?

Like pmp was saying on the other thread, AI could turn poor sounded acetates such as "Hearts of Stone" and 50's concerts into better audio. But there's no reason to use it on original mono 50's masters converted to stereo.

Rehearsals and Soundboard concerts should also be looked at.

[emjel]

With all the advancements in AI technology, do you think we’ll ever see fully immersive concerts featuring Elvis, created by feeding AI with existing photos and footage? For example, could we see something like the Super 8mm footage of his Pittsburgh show being enhanced to the point where we’re watching in full high-definition with crystal-clear video and audio? How far do you think this could go in recreating the King’s performances, and would you be excited to see such technology bring his concerts back to life?

Like pmp was saying on the other thread, AI could turn poor sounded acetates such as "Hearts of Stone" and 50's concerts into better audio. But there's no reason to use it on original mono 50's masters converted to stereo.

Rehearsals and Soundboard concerts should also be looked at.

You need to consider the market. Rehearsals, soundboards and acetates may appeal to the die hard collector but not necessarily the wider bigger public market which is what Sony would need to tap into if it wants to recover HIGH costs if using Jackson’s software. The Sun recordings may well swing it enough based on the historical context of the recordings but as much as we would like super cleaned up recordings from the 50s concerts etc, the cost is likely to be a lot higher in trying to sort out poorly recorded music as opposed to work on nice clean studio recordings and I’m not sure that there is a big enough market for those early live recordings to cover that kind of expense.

[Walter Hale 4]

With all the advancements in AI technology, do you think we’ll ever see fully immersive concerts featuring Elvis, created by feeding AI with existing photos and footage? For example, could we see something like the Super 8mm footage of his Pittsburgh show being enhanced to the point where we’re watching in full high-definition with crystal-clear video and audio? How far do you think this could go in recreating the King’s performances, and would you be excited to see such technology bring his concerts back to life?

Like pmp was saying on the other thread, AI could turn poor sounded acetates such as "Hearts of Stone" and 50's concerts into better audio. But there's no reason to use it on original mono 50's masters converted to stereo.

Rehearsals and Soundboard concerts should also be looked at.

You need to consider the market. Rehearsals, soundboards and acetates may appeal to the die hard collector but not necessarily the wider bigger public market which is what Sony would need to tap into if it wants to recover HIGH costs if using Jackson’s software. The Sun recordings may well swing it enough based on the historical context of the recordings but as much as we would like super cleaned up recordings from the 50s concerts etc, the cost is likely to be a lot higher in trying to sort out poorly recorded music as opposed to work on nice clean studio recordings and I’m not sure that there is a big enough market for those early live recordings to cover that kind of expense.

good one emjel,


well i did say "should be looked at".

Yes emjel, the market potential would be limited for the mainstream SONY.


emjel, I believe there'll come a time where either the likes of PeterJackson may decide to patent his AI and so his equipment will be a mass-produced software made available or another superior software comes along as good as Jackson's for every Tom, Dick or Harry out there to use who can make up there own personal mono-to-stereo jobs.

What do you reckon?

[Walter Hale 4]

just realized seeing that the stereo master on Follow That Dream is lost but only mono existed.

Then why not use AI to make up a stereo master on that one, with the same stereo layout that matches to the other FTD soundtrack? That makes sense, non of this '50's Sun and RCA mono-to-stereo nonsense, please.

[Walter Hale 4]

On the flip side, the original, authentic tapes that produced Elvis singes throughout the 1960's and early 70's, if they were, in fact, erased as some here has speculated, obviously that would be a tragedy.

But maybe AI could restore the stereo tapes to the same authentic mono?

Therefor a Mono box set on Elvis singles should be looked at, up until "Merry Christmas Baby" the final 45 issued in mono.

[emjel]

On the flip side, the original, authentic tapes that produced Elvis singes throughout the 1960's and early 70's, if they were, in fact, erased as some here has speculated, obviously that would be a tragedy.

But maybe AI could restore the stereo tapes to the same authentic mono?

Therefor a Mono box set on Elvis singles should be looked at, up until "Merry Christmas Baby" the final 45 issued in mono.

Far easier to just do bounce downs from the stereo tapes - I believe apart from a few of the early 60s singles that had dedicated mixes for radio play, the majority of singles were bounce downs anyhow. The other alternative is simply get some mint copies of the singles and record them and use some basic software to clean any defects like the removal of hiss that appeared on a couple of his singles around 66/67. But if they did that, no doubt some would moan they are not hearing exactly what was on the originals, but hey ho.

The question would be - how would you present such a release. Would you choose the singles from the start of the 60s up to the very final mono one Merry Christmas Baby or would you do a box of all the mono singles right from the start up to the last mono single, or go for all the lifetime singles regardless, so from That's All Right up to Way Down - mono for mono issues and stereo for stereo issues. From memory, there were around 100 singles/200 songs so then would you choose to put them on 6 or 7 CDs or would you go the "deluxe" route and recreate all the singles individually with original sleeves in a box like the Album Set from 2016.

Personally, I see such a release, regardless of presentation, as an option for the 50th Anniversary of Aug 77 - A 12" box of 6/7 CDs would be very nice, but they would have to do a decent presentation with all the artwork and other data included within a really decent book too, so expensive production costs, but a cheaper option would be one of their 8" boxes with a smaller scaled back booklet with artwork and release/chart info data. A cheapskate route would be both 50 Worldwide Hits boxes packaged into one set - something that FTD should have tackled under their Classic Album series but I reckon that ship sailed long ago as far as FTD are concerned.

So various options for the 50th, but everything always go back to production costs vs potential income from sales, and with a declining fanbase, and three years is a big thing in an ageing fanbase, would there be enough interest in such an venture, especially for a "deluxe" box.

[LesterB]

Given what AI technology appears to be available already (David Felton’s audio work comes to mind) it should be long before Peter Jacksons software is just one of many?

[emjel]

just realized seeing that the stereo master on Follow That Dream is lost but only mono existed.

Then why not use AI to make up a stereo master on that one, with the same stereo layout that matches to the other FTD soundtrack? That makes sense, non of this '50's Sun and RCA mono-to-stereo nonsense, please.

MRS have already done such a release. And I believe just last month, a bootleg company put out their version, but basically copied the MRS recordings plus the outtakes.

But there is no way that Sony would spend money on AI software for a mainstream release that is meaningless to the Joe Public market - a market that they are likely to have to tap into, albeit in just a very small way, but to help recoup some higher costs if they went with Jackson. But this would not be a mainstream release but something more suited for FTD.

All that aside, I don’t see why you are so up in arms about the mono to stereo thing for the 50s Sun stuff. Sam Phillips would have heard the sounds in a stereo kind of way and had he owned the equipment is likely to have recorded the music in stereo and then produced the final output in mono for record release. So I don’t see it as nonsense at all. As mentioned by others, it’s not like having produced the AI stereo versions that they would then erase the original mono tapes so that they would never be available again. It’s just an option which is being explored and if it comes to fruition will allow fans to listen to the music in maybe a slightly closer way to what was heard in the studios. But if you don’t like it, then simply ignore it. It really is that easy.

PS- Did you get my PM I sent you a few weeks back?

[Swedish]

Will Ernst Sony ever be able to refrain from doing something like that

[Walter Hale 4]

just realized seeing that the stereo master on Follow That Dream is lost but only mono existed.

Then why not use AI to make up a stereo master on that one, with the same stereo layout that matches to the other FTD soundtrack? That makes sense, non of this '50's Sun and RCA mono-to-stereo nonsense, please.

MRS have already done such a release. And I believe just last month, a bootleg company put out their version, but basically copied the MRS recordings plus the outtakes.

But there is no way that Sony would spend money on AI software for a mainstream release that is meaningless to the Joe Public market - a market that they are likely to have to tap into, albeit in just a very small way, but to help recoup some higher costs if they went with Jackson. But this would not be a mainstream release but something more suited for FTD.

All that aside, I don’t see why you are so up in arms about the mono to stereo thing for the 50s Sun stuff. Sam Phillips would have heard the sounds in a stereo kind of way and had he owned the equipment is likely to have recorded the music in stereo and then produced the final output in mono for record release. So I don’t see it as nonsense at all. As mentioned by others, it’s not like having produced the AI stereo versions that they would then erase the original mono tapes so that they would never be available again. It’s just an option which is being explored and if it comes to fruition will allow fans to listen to the music in maybe a slightly closer way to what was heard in the studios. But if you don’t like it, then simply ignore it. It really is that easy.

PS- Did you get my PM I sent you a few weeks back?

Yes i agree but obviously the 50th anniversary in 2027 is their best opportunity.


Yes, was hoping to converse with you over on the Hoffman forum in that time. Been getting good responses on my Beatles White Album what the original costs in 1968 was, on my thread there. I used a similar formula on my Elvis Aron Presley box set over here.

[Domino]

I guess that the technology will be able to turn good 8mm footage into something very watchable. Of course much of the stuff will be artificial since a lot of things have to be ironed out and/or added. However, as the technology progresses the results will be more and more realistic.

i agree with you. There's some amateur 8mm footage of various concerts where the songs were incomplete here and there, so AI could "fill in the gaps" by producing some images that could indeed make most of these concerts look and sound more complete.

That's what I'm afraid will happen with AI.Filling in the gaps.If that happens then I will be done buying Elvis .Making Stereo out of Mono is one thing but filling in the gaps with computer generated audio or video is over the line as far as I'm concerned.

[Walter Hale 4]

I guess that the technology will be able to turn good 8mm footage into something very watchable. Of course much of the stuff will be artificial since a lot of things have to be ironed out and/or added. However, as the technology progresses the results will be more and more realistic.

i agree with you. There's some amateur 8mm footage of various concerts where the songs were incomplete here and there, so AI could "fill in the gaps" by producing some images that could indeed make most of these concerts look and sound more complete.

That's what I'm afraid will happen with AI.Filling in the gaps.If that happens then I will be done buying Elvis .Making Stereo out of Mono is one thing but filling in the gaps with computer generated audio or video is over the line as far as I'm concerned.

sure, why not ? It makes sense. How else can they restore and make complete concerts and/or complete songs from amateur film/sound? Baring in mind, AI is going to get better in the not too distant future. Bring it on

[Rock Legend]

It would never be Elvis, but somebody's (subjective) interpretation of him.

[drjohncarpenter]

With all the advancements in AI technology, do you think we’ll ever see fully immersive concerts featuring Elvis, created by feeding AI with existing photos and footage? For example, could we see something like the Super 8mm footage of his Pittsburgh show being enhanced to the point where we’re watching in full high-definition with crystal-clear video and audio? How far do you think this could go in recreating the King’s performances, and would you be excited to see such technology bring his concerts back to life?

What does the future hold for Elvis and AI?
- who knows


do you think we’ll ever see fully immersive concerts featuring Elvis, created by feeding AI with existing photos and footage?
- maybe


could we see something like the Super 8mm footage of his Pittsburgh show being enhanced to the point where we’re watching in full high-definition with crystal-clear video and audio?
- probably not, the entire concert was not captured on film


How far do you think this could go in recreating the King’s performances
- who knows


would you be excited to see such technology bring his concerts back to life?
- probably not, as I'll be dead before it ever happens

[bajo]

But, would the world today, rave over some A1 or whatever, remixes of old Elvis Presley recordings? Me thinks not! It all has to come to an end! If you don't like the real thing: Don't try to revamp it in a nicer package. (Like some do). Either you like it, or you simply don't!

[emjel]

just realized seeing that the stereo master on Follow That Dream is lost but only mono existed.

Then why not use AI to make up a stereo master on that one, with the same stereo layout that matches to the other FTD soundtrack? That makes sense, non of this '50's Sun and RCA mono-to-stereo nonsense, please.

MRS have already done such a release. And I believe just last month, a bootleg company put out their version, but basically copied the MRS recordings plus the outtakes.

But there is no way that Sony would spend money on AI software for a mainstream release that is meaningless to the Joe Public market - a market that they are likely to have to tap into, albeit in just a very small way, but to help recoup some higher costs if they went with Jackson. But this would not be a mainstream release but something more suited for FTD.

All that aside, I don’t see why you are so up in arms about the mono to stereo thing for the 50s Sun stuff. Sam Phillips would have heard the sounds in a stereo kind of way and had he owned the equipment is likely to have recorded the music in stereo and then produced the final output in mono for record release. So I don’t see it as nonsense at all. As mentioned by others, it’s not like having produced the AI stereo versions that they would then erase the original mono tapes so that they would never be available again. It’s just an option which is being explored and if it comes to fruition will allow fans to listen to the music in maybe a slightly closer way to what was heard in the studios. But if you don’t like it, then simply ignore it. It really is that easy.

PS- Did you get my PM I sent you a few weeks back?

Yes i agree but obviously the 50th anniversary in 2027 is their best opportunity.


Yes, was hoping to converse with you over on the Hoffman forum in that time. Been getting good responses on my Beatles White Album what the original costs in 1968 was, on my thread there. I used a similar formula on my Elvis Aron Presley box set over here.

I rarely go on the Hoffman site but better to have responded via PMessage on here.