Joe Satriani to release 'Complete Studio Recordings' Box Set !

Nothing wrong with wanting to keep a valuable contributor here....I certainly wish more people like John would come here and have the same kind of discussion we are having here. I think many of us have learned a little something in this thread in regards to what John and Joe have brought to the market. In this day and age of the Loudness Wars (hopefully we are at the end) one cannot be blamed for asking about the handling of the music. John has satisfied me and I feel more comfortable dropping close to $200 on the USB Chrome Dome to replace all (or some) of my full collection of Satriani.

I think MOST of agree that the type of music we are talking about in this thread , Guitar heavy, Rock, benefits from some decreased DR (I think I mentioned this in MY first post). My curiosity was about if the Loudness Wars were in full force on this and John has stated that he is not a proponent of this. I don't expect (and I think most don't expect) a DR as wide as 14 or 15 for Rock. From looking over my music within JRiver Media Server, it appears that, in general, my favorites (in SQ) of this type of music falls in the DR range of 8 -12. As John has alluded to, if one has the experience and the ear, they should (and do) use their ear to produce the best for the music they are working on (and the DR should follow accordingly). There is more to this probably....what the record company, radio stations, artist, etc. wants, will have an effect overall. Hopefully we are at the point were we will get what the artist/engineers want without interference.

The only point I didn't really agree with John was about the self titles Joe Satriani. It is one of my faves both musically and in SQ. Maybe I like the SQ just for the fact of the style of music. Alas, this point only comes down to opinion with neither a right ot wrong answer.

Thanks to John for being here and his patience!

 

John,

Appreciate the input and I am very glad you are taking the time to stop by and post here. I also appreciate the honestly and by no means are we implying that every rock release should have a DR of 15. I love Joes music and I think we all trust that you guys are going to do the music justice. I am also glad that you "get" the "loudness wars" BS of today's modern releases and how loud does not always equal good.

Looking forward to the release and again - thanks for stopping by!

VP

 

So would you say you like the sound of track 06 and not track 05?

 

For the record - I didn't say I disliked the self titled album.

 

Here's a PDF that explains their calculations. There is an error (typo) in the PDF. It says the block size is 3 seconds. I believe it should be .3 seconds.
http://www.dynamicrange.de/sites/default/files/Measuring DR ENv3.pdf

The DR numbers are consumer friendly numbers without the confusion of the calibration and standards that you use for real mastering meters and measures and standards. I dislike the way the DR numbers have become a measure of mastering quality or whether something is too compressed. The DR numbers also create misunderstandings because the numbers get rounded down to whole integers. You can end up with situations where some of the 24/96 tracks may have a lower DR than the 16/44.1 due to rounding or due to resampling. Then people start wondering if the 24/96 and the 16/44.1 are the same just because the DR numbers are 1 different.

I like that you haven't calculated DR numbers for the release. It's not a number for professionals. Rely on your professional tools and calibrations and your ears. Let the DR be what it ends up being.

 

Thanks Ham - the PDF shows the calculation (math) on how to arrive at a number, that I understand. What I don't understand is what is the input method, source and calibration. I know a bass guitar has less DR than say a piano but that doesn't tell me what it sounds like. A jazz record without drums will likely have less DR but does that make it a better record?

 

Just for the fun of it...here are a few photos I took of Joe WAY back when. Probably '87.

 

Classical music also has a similar problem with DR numbers in comparison to other styles of music. It is silly and meaningless to compare the recording and mastering quality of different styles of music by DR number. It also loses some of its meaning and comparison value when compression is a necessary part of the sound, like electric guitar effects.

Some of the consumer audio tools are also calculating EBU R128 along with the DR numbers. At least the R128 numbers are calibrated to something and give you a measure of apparent loudness.

 

Neither, all the songs were way too compressed, that particular cd would sound much better if the overall DR of all the songs averaged 10 or above.

 

John -- I would have liked the remaster of Flying In a Blue Dream more if you used a different shade of blue in the background.

p.s. How can we be 9 pages in and you haven't even mentioned the Beatles yet? How dare you!

p.p.s. I've been unemployed for almost 2 years and just spent 90 bucks on the box. God help me if my wife finds out...

 

wow- a true fan. If she threatens with divorce I will buy it from you.

 

Nice pictures, synthfreak. Joe's certainly a better looking guy now! I like his outfit, though. Very "Dia de los Muertos".

Anyone catch Joe on The Arsenio Hall show tonight? I don't much care for Arsenio's show and the guests didnt' interest me, but I flipped over a few times hoping to catch some of his playing. Apparently he was sitting in with the house band, so I only saw a few snatches of him playing stuff as they went to commercial breaks.

 

Hi John,

Would you say that there was much of a difference between the 1997 Epic remaster and the 20th Anniversary Edition?

 

The wife or the CDs?

 

I just know it looked pretty sturdy when he was showing it off on That Metal Show. I'm guessing when they said it would be signed they mean the certificate you posted and not the Dome itself, I was thinking he signed the Dome.

 

Sorry, the wife's not for sale. As long as she keeps working and paying the bills, that is.

 

There were things about the mix the 88 and 97 mastering couldn't address so when we mastered for the 25th Anniversary Edition Joe and I took it apron ourselves to fix them. Not a re-mix but some gain adjustments inside some of the songs and surgical EQ. The new mastering has all that and some additional tweaks. It never ends.

 

Thanks for the reply, chi. John, do you know what the bust is made out of? If so, what is it? (Sorry to put you on the spot, but Joe's web site, Facebook page and Twitter feed are all strangely silent on this subject, which makes me concerned that it could be some lightweight plastic thing. Really hoping that is not the case.) Thanks.

 

I have no idea - I would assume it's the same kind of plastic USB drive are made from. The real value is what's inside.

 

John, thanks for the reply, and I agree, it is a given that the music is what really matters. On that front, your patient participation on this forum has been very helpful and is much appreciated.

I guess another way to look at this is that $185 for 15 albums in HRA is a fair price and the container itself is simply a bonus, whatever it is made out of. Thanks.

 

from Music Radar
....
While nothing as extensive as re-recording took place, Satriani and his longtime engineer and producer John Cuniberti did a thorough remastering job on the guitarist's complete catalog, everything from 1986's Not Of To Earth to last year's Unstoppable Momentum. But before the project got too far down the road, Cuniberti sent Satch an e-mail that put things in perspective.
"It was an Andy Warhol quote, and it's something that really stayed with me," Satriani says. "It goes like this: 'Don't think about making art. Just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they're deciding, make even more art.' That was John's response to my agonizing over everything. You need a little reminder now and then about that kind of stuff, the big picture."
Legacy Recordings gave Satriani and Cuniberti carte blanche in terms of budget and schedule, allowing the two to go back and bake tapes, resample sounds and scrutinize each track to their hearts' content. “As we went through the material, I became thrilled at what a great opportunity it was," Satriani says. "We were able to right some of the wrongs of past production, to tell the stories correctly. Sometimes records can be mastered in the heat of the moment – everybody's nervous; there's a release date to meet – so hindsight can be a real blessing."
....

 

From interview with Joe Satriani at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/givin-em-hell--heaven-con_b_5199251.html :

When Surfing With The Alien came out, I think it's got something like a 24dB dynamic range. That's unheard of. No one would do that today. Today's pop records come out and they have maybe one decibel of dynamic range. This is like what it sounds like on a video game, where there is no dynamic range, because the music has to sit there with sound effects and people talking over it. But that does not create a good music listening environment, when you have less dynamic range. Over the years society's anxiety about wanting music to be louder and punchier and more aggressive and more competitive on radio or television would lead to some questionable mastering in retrospect, so we were able to look back and say, "This is not a collection of number one pop hits, this is a collection of audiophile-created music for people who want to listen to it over the long haul, hours of listening, and we want people to be able to go from record one to record seven, record three to record eleven." The only way to do that was to let them breathe and sound how they were originally intended, as you said, the way we heard it in the studio.

Full interview is interesting too.

 

Thanks for sharing... great interview.

 

John, if you haven't noticed by now, many members here care how a song "looks" rather than how it sounds. I eagerly await the arrival of my Chrome Dome USB. Good luck on your stay here, a thick skin and the ability to ignore will help!

 

I did a rip of Ice 9, and I will send it to your Dropbox. Thanks for taking the time to check it out. It sounds different to me, but I want to hear what you think.