Email from Owen Morris about the latest Oasis Remasters

this morning i emailed Owen Morris and was surprised when he returned my email with such a lengthy and humble response. Truthfully, at the end of reading his email I have a new appreciation for the latest remastered Oasis albums. I'm glad to see that the compression was done on purpose for artistic reasoning rather than lazy engineering. For that matter alone I'm sure i can learn to take the recording as it is and enjoy the music for the way the artists and engineers want it to be heard. I'm sure i'm poking the hornets nest with this topic but I felt like sharing it.

my email to Owen:

"Owen,
i've recently listened to the first two remaster releases of Oasis. What myself and other audiophiles cannot understand is why is there so much compression on these reissues? no offense, but i figured in 2014 that would be a non issue with the technology at hand. What other factors are involved that cause this to happen?"


Owens response:

Hello Ben,

Thanks for the email.

Truth is.....the mixes I was doing back then.....and sadly, probably even now.......would never make an "audiophile" happy.

I wasn't the most technically adept of either recording or mix engineers.....but I tried hard, so kind of got the recordings recorded.

The Oasis re-issues are pretty much exactly like the 1/2" master tapes are.....I was compressing very heavily as a definite artistic decision: it was more about trying to imply noise and power rather than worrying about competing with better recorded music. And a lot of the mixing on Def maybe and Morning Glory was about hiding the not so great playing (by certain members), so the "compressed mush" was actually essential in my opinion. It was about delivery the songs, Liam's vocals etc as best as possible, given the general overall ineptness of the backing tracks and sonic production.

We were working fast then. I remember some comment from Alan White about when his brother Steve went in recording with Weller and Brendan Lynch recording that is wasn't until day 3 or 4 at the earliest that they actually started recording (cos they were "positioning microphones" etc until then). By day 3 or 4 with Oasis, we'd already recorded 3 or 4 whole. complete, finished songs.

And I was very anti production at the time having come out of what I though was a very soul-less couple of years with Johnny Marr where he was more interested in "posh production values" (which have their place).......at the expense of actually just playing some bloody songs and recording music (in my humble opinion).

There's bit's that I regret about not being so sonically able in the studio at the time........but honestly.......it's ok. It's just music. And we all did the best we could.

Personally, I wish Noel/Ignition would've let me personally re-master my albums: they would've all benefited from cleverer processing (I've used a multi band compressor to create more "shape" happening between low end, mids and highs).....but I was over ruled.

Ian Cooper did a good job, in that he did virtually nothing. The main thing that happened was on Morning Glory I asked to have a de-esser (to get rid of Liam's vocal sibilances......my fault....an oversight in mixing....whoops) on the mixes. I thingk they sound better cos of that.

Sorry if you are not happy with these new versions. They are as the 1\2"masters. And for that reason (i.e., the lack of my over eq'ing in mastering that I did at the time) I think they are ok. Not brilliant. But ok.

That's my rant.
Cheers,
Owen

 

That's a very interesting response; thank you for sharing it, but I really hope that you got his permission before publishing it!

 

Great answer.

 

Great email. Sometimes noise IS the artists choice.

 

Especially this part:

" And a lot of the mixing on Def maybe and Morning Glory was about hiding the not so great playing (by certain members), so the "compressed mush" was actually essential in my opinion. It was about delivery the songs, Liam's vocals etc as best as possible, given the general overall ineptness of the backing tracks and sonic production"

 

Fantastic post! thanks for sharing.

 

Wow!

&

Ditto...

 

That's always been a known "unspoken" fact/opinion, but now its been "spoken"!

 

The short version; "We made it sound like puke from the second we pressed "record".
I can't even imagine how much worse they would sound if they had been further pounded with "cleverer processsing".

 

Nice to get such an honest, nonpolitical response from such a key figure in '90s UK pop music.

So, am I correct in concluding that the Oasis remasters don't really sound too different to the original CDs?

 

Yes, this a correct assumption...

 

Ta, just saved me thirty bucks!

 

Thanks WBHENDRIX for posting. Owen's E-Mail was so informative and truthful. Looking forward to Tuesday's release.

Rick A.

 

I can't wait for the vinyl to come out on tuesday either - whether we are talking about a sound upgrade or not, I'm thrilled to have these releases pressed on quality vinyl at affordable pricing.

 

yes, i received permission from Owen to post this email. Cool guy

 

If you have a possibility to record one song of the new vinyl remaster (lossless files: FLAC, WAV, OGG), please put it here. I can make a comparison of these 3 official pressings. I have original 1995 Creation issue and 2009 lossless files.

 

I knew it!

I agree although i need to take breaks from time to time, the distortion hurts my ears.

what are a 1\2"masters.? the original master tapes? or second generation copy?

 

Recording method for Oasis' first two albums:

1. Tracks recorded to 24-track analogue tape.
2. Mixed down to DAT, with added mixing compression (rather than mastering compression), reverb, processing etc.
3. Then that DAT was copied to both 1/2″ tape and DAT, giving a choice of which version to use in mastering.

 

Thanks for sharing this! Great to hear Owen's comments on the remastering process.

 

Thank you very much for your answer.

So now i wonder, with the 24-track analogue tape would it be possible to create a new mix without the compression and loudness? i guess it may be possible but Noel wouldn't permit that.

 

Ah my bad:

I was compressing very heavily as a definite artistic decision: it was more about trying to imply noise and power rather than worrying about competing with better recorded music. And a lot of the mixing on Def maybe and Morning Glory was about hiding the not so great playing (by certain members), so the "compressed mush" was actually essential in my opinion.

Leave it distorted definitely....

 

Welp, I think that puts the issue to bed. Oasis will sound terrible forever.

 

I love this! It's rock and roll. Bless Noel for his stance. Thank you so much for posting this, now I can enjoy the loudness and know it was intended!

 

I like the idea, for some artists, that they are trying to batter me to death with sound. Oasis is one of those artists.

 

so basically if we want more dynamic versions there would have to be a total remix?