Vibe-coded with Opus and GPT-5.5: a 1905 phonograph recording, restored

generativist · x · 2026-09-10

No recording of Charles Spurgeon exists — the closest is his son Thomas reading his father's final sermon words onto an Edison-Bell cylinder on August 2, 1905: 2 minutes 31 seconds.

generativist recently ran several rounds of AI audio restoration on a 64kbps MP3 transfer using Opus and GPT-5.5, with solid results. Fable wrote up the full process, and a web page lets you switch between the raw transfer and the restored master in lockstep (restored version sits 2dB lower for loudness matching); a before-and-after video is also on YouTube.

The author says he has audio forensics experience but knew nothing about restoration — the whole thing was vibe coded. Follow-up attempts with fable and astra to push further stalled, suggesting trained human ears are still required.

Related event: AI Restores 1905 Wax Cylinder Recording(2 posts)→

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