Steely Dan - Dallas (Restoration)

Dallas/Sail The Waterway was Steely Dan's first single, released in 1972. The A-side "Dallas" was sung by drummer Jim Hodder. The single sold poorly upon its release, and both Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have expressed dislike towards the two songs. To date, neither song has been released digitally.

Personally, I've always enjoyed both songs, which prompted me to try and restore the songs. I sourced a high quality vinyl rip of them and got to work. On both songs, I first applied a heavy dose of noise reduction to eliminate clicks and crackle. Then, I split the tracks using AI so I could touch them up individually. I used a lot of EQ to better balance the tracks and also bring out the bass a bit. I tried to make the vocals sound less harsh, though I was limited due to how the songs were produced. I also attempted to widen the stereo image, since these songs were only ever released in mono. The results are, in my opinion, sound great. Whether these songs will ever be released digitally remains to be seen, but I hope you enjoy my attempt to fix them!