Boiling up old German Kraut - remastering Grobschnitt live on the web...

I love these albums!

And I love "Sonnenflug." I always wondered why that wasn't on the first Jumbo remaster.

 

well I guess I'll have to get Jumbo again for the bonus track and better mix, the version I have is the Germanofon boot done before the 1st official release (other Germanofons I had were the first LP, same as above, which I replaced with the official Repetoire release with the 30 min. live track)...Eroc, was any sort of legal action taken against Germanofon ???? I bough these CDs like 15 years ago before they were officialy released plus your 1st LP, same as avatar) by mail-order not knowing they were boots, but at the time they were the only available versions on CD, some of their stuff like Gash and Harlis will probably never be officially released......also, how about the entire Hagen Volkspark, September 26th, 1971 show on CD (source of bonus track on the Grobschnitt Repetoire CD)?????

 

You don't dig 'Nickel Odean'? Not many bands I can think of who were able to flow from ELP to Santana to Yes with their own sound at the base of everything, all within one piece of music!

 

I do, but only the second half. The first 9 minutes of Ballerman include Sahara and the first half of Nickelodeon.

 

In the end I have to do what my experience tells me, but everyone's commentary will be very important for my decisions. And in the end I'll tell you all which remastering version should be "the one" and also will explain why. I also will show different forms of NR (Mal... ) and gather your opinions.

At least the chance to compare all existing versions and some possibilities of remastering at the same time is more than everybody ever has dreamt of, or...?

- Eroc

 

Question of rights at that time...

- Eroc

 

We (the German IFPI and me and some companies) tried to, but there was no success because Germanofon operated from the Grand Dutchie of Luxemburg...

This one will be released later in my new SMR series. Check out www.eroc.de (Grobschnitt) for that...

- Eroc

 

PHP:

Excellent Eroc! I was only joking you know...
It's an honor that you would go to all this trouble for the fans' benefit.
Me? I trust your judgement given all the REP discs I have that you remastered. However, you were the drummer in this band.. can you listen to this in a dispassionate, neutral kind of way and not take or add anything to the mix that might affect the outcome??

 

Yes, Dok, I was very deeply involved in GS. But this was long ago. As you know I left the band 24 years ago and meanwhile learned in endless studio productions and at least during 9 years of experience in the mastering field how to listen totally objective to soundscapes. I developed some kind of "switching over" by listening as a technician to each single detail and then some seconds later can let me blow away by the great music at all, without noticing even which instruments are presently playing.

I think many of my collegues have and must have developed this habit...


- Eroc

 

Eroc: sorry to go off topic (I tried to find the info on your website) but did you do the remaster for Achim Reichel - Echo + A.R. IV that was released last year? I didn't know it was out but was searching Disc Union Japan's website to see what to buy next week, I love that lp.....

 

I need a drooling emoticon here...

Seriously though, I'm pretty new to this forum and I thought your name was familiar but I never connected it with Grobschnitt. I'm a huge fan! I've got everything up through Jumbo except Solar (I've been meaning to pick that one up for years). I love 'em all. Thanks for doing this, and thanks for displaying that beautiful picture, a true piece of historical prog rock art! It gave me goosebumps just looking at it!

-Dave

 

BTW, I recently picked up the GG remaster of Octopus and I love it. Excellent, I didn't know you did that one. Also got Acquiring the Taste and the s/t. Still need Three Friends, which is one of my favorites.
I assume you had nothing to do with the post Octopus remasters? the drt's?

 

I thought that was a boot-originated from an address in Ireland.Nothing on Achim's website referred to it being available
It appeared a lot on ebay often from sellers that deal in "grey area" releases. I did not go for it.
Luckily I still have the vinyl

cheers
Phil

 

Repertoire has scheduled "Three Friends" for quite a while now. Many members here are asking for that one. As soon as I know more I'll announce it in the GG thread...

No, I'm only working for Repertoire and Universal in case of old back-catalogue stuff. If you wanna know what I have remastered so far, please refer to www.eroc.de, then click on Mastering Ranch the German (!) banner. Then hit on the radio-scale "Produktionen" (productions). There you have 'em all. The site is presently under construction and we will soon have everything ready in Englsih, too. But among "Grobschnitt" and "Eroc" you already can have some parts translated. Just check it out...

- Eroc

 

So far I have done two productions for Achim Reichel: his double CD "100% Leben" (100% Of Living) from 2006 and the legendary "Grüne Reise" (Green Journey) from 1970 from the original analog tapes, which will be released on CD for the very first time maybe by end of this year.

Two weeks ago I met with Achim and we fixed another deal for the upcoming months: I will be remastering his complete catalogue from the past 25 years, which are 18 or 20 productions. Should be a lot of fun...

- Eroc

 

Good news on the "Grune Reise" (actually Polydor released it on Cd in the late 1980s-but it was deleted very quickly)
As you are only going back 25 years(approx 1980) I assume the other AR and Machines lps will not be included-please try and convince him to put these out as well

Phil

 

Thanks, I'll definitely check it out.

I pretty much assumed you didn't do the DRT GG's, because they suck bad, but I didn't want to offend. Speaking of those, I took my Terrapin Trucking versions of The Power and the Glory, Free Hand and Interview (which are from the early-mid 90s), and mixed them with the DRT remasters (from 2005) using my Samplitude software. I was trying to nudge the quality of the Terrapin Trucking versions up a little without too much drt shining (or shall I say cutting) thru.

And about that, you might know the answer to this off-topic question (as you were very helpful with my Jade Warrior Autumn's Dream, which sounds much better now). Should I suspect that the DRT remasters were taken from the same digital source as the Terrapin Trucking (and not remastered directly from the original analog tape) , as I was able to line the tracks up rather easily? Can analog tape be THAT accurate in regards to speed of playback? There were a few discrepancies, but for the most part, they were dead on!

- Dave

 

Eroc, the original Brain vinyl I have of Rockpommel is a masterpiece. The sound and the music may be the best thing Grobschnitt did.

I'm not sure I'd be a candidate for the cd remastering. Do you think its possible to better the original?

 

I love the DRTs.

 

The vinyl NEVER was "the original". It always sounded rather crappy. We made the mistake to cut too long takes too loud, e.g. the finale of RPL (B 2) is distorting a lot because the grooves are nearly at the end and the modulation is several dB's above the limit. This is NOT what's to be heard on the o-tapes. Probably you only got familiar with the permanent slight distortion on the vinyl over the decades...

But - in a few days in Chapter 2 of this "contest" here I'll post comparing sound-examples on my website from all vinyl-issues, o-tapes and all CD issues available from RPL, so everybody can listen and decide.

- Eroc

 

Well, Dave -

I don't want to speculate and go too far off topic here. I would have to listen and analyze both versions. Then I could tell exactly if they are digital copies from each other. I even could tell then if they occur from a magnetic tape or not. There are some typical things for recognizing this but you need very expensive software.

- Eroc

 

I'll listen more critically to the distortion on S2.

 

I did and I think I hear what you are talking about. The crescendos on the cymbals and some of the guitar work becomes aggressive at their peaks. I normally run my volume switch at 11. I had to reduce it to 10 to listen comfortably.

The aggressiveness diminished after that and after adjusting the VTA. The arm needed to be moved down a little.

But it was still there.

I can see where the ending can be more powerful and emotionally engaging with a change here.

Now that I've heard it, I'm more curious about what this can sound like remastered.

 

thanx for the info, I guess I'll just stick with the LP transcription.....I did get one Achim CD on E-Bay that appears to be a Germanofon (Erholung, live '73)

 

Hmm, I understand. Well I would dare to speculate that the DRT is not a direct digital copy of the original CD from what I've seen. Maybe another digital source. That's amazing that there is a way to determine if it came from magnetic tape or not. Anyway, my apologies to everybody for going way off topic here.

I checked out your site for a bit, boy am I ignorant. I didn't know you had done solo albums...

Back to the topic, I can't wait to buy Rockpommel's Land after you're done with it! I have the first CD issue of it I believe and I was never quite happy with the sound, just the music.


-Dave