Essential Allen Zentz LP masterings

We have a thread dedicated to Wally Traugott and one to Bob Ludwig. It seemed time to start an Allen Zentz thread.

I have only recently gotten into his mastering... my copy of The Game by Queen sounds pretty damn nice. What other Allen Zentz LPs do you recommend?

 

early US pressings of Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman were masted by Allen Zentz and are easily identified by the stamp: 'Mastered at Allen Zentz Mastering, L.A., Calif.'

good idea for a thread. i'm sure forum member XMIAudioTech will have lots to contribute. i know Allen and his team, including Brian Gardner, did a lot of stuff for Casablanca in the '70s, including KISS, Angel, and Donna Summer.

 

Both my UK and US copies of The Game are by Allen Zentz.

 

IMO, those are the only way to hear those on vinyl

 

Before going into the lists, let's get everyone on the same page on who did what and how to tell:​

Allen Zentz Recording (AZR) began operation in 1974 and continued until Allen's retirement in 1984, whereupon he retired and sold his studio.

Allen moved to Albuquerque, NM in 1992 and sadly, passed away in 2003 at age 62. Here is the obituary.

​

Between 1974 and early 1980, AZR lacquers were signed in the deadwax in two different ways: Allen's initials (if he cut the lacquer himself), and the AZ 'logo' followed by one of the associate cutter's signatures, initials, or both.

The 'AZ logo' as used in deadwax (almost exclusively by the associate engineers, and very rarely by Allen himself) appears in the deadwax as the letters AZ connected together thus:

​

Allen signed his cuts with his initials, but almost always with a upper case A and lower case Z thus: Az

He has also signed with the uppercase letters AZ, but with a gap in between them thus: A Z.

On a few rare occasions he has signed in the style of the AZ logo shown above, or in the mastering house code in MCA matrix information.

Between early 1980 until 1984, AZR lacquers had the text MASTERED AT ALLEN ZENTZ, L.A. CALIF. stamped in the deadwax which was followed either by nothing (if Allen himself cut the lacquer), or by the associate cutter's signatures, initials, or both.

THE ASSOCIATE ENGINEERS:

The two associate engineers that cut virtually all of the lacquers for AZR during this time are Brian Gardner and Chris Bellman. The following paragraphs provide information on how they signed their lacquers:

Brian Gardner: Brian signed after the AZ logo or the deadwax stamped text with one of two signatures- a flower and one or two birds (or seagulls). On some of Brian's lacquers he also signed with the initials BG or BKG in addition to the flower or seagulls.


Chris Bellman: Chris signed with the initials CB following the AZ logo or stamped text.



I will start listing titles in another post.

-Aaron

 

Allen Zentz:

Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat
Al Stewart - Time Passages
Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
Olivia Newton-John - Totally Hot

Brian Gardner:

Donna Summer - On The Radio (Greatest Hits vol I and II)
Donna Summer - Bad Girls
Night Ranger - Dawn Patrol
Night Ranger - Midnight Madness
Queen -The Game
ELO - Time
ELO - Secret Messages
Flashdance - Original Soundtrack
Scarface - Original Soundtrack
Midnight Express - Original Soundtrack
Elton John - Victim Of Love (horrific LP but I am sure it is well-mastered)
Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Best Of B.T.O.
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz
Most (if not all) Michael Jackson 45's and 12" singles
ELO singles from the Discovery and Time albums


Chris Bellman:

Lipps, Inc. - Mouth To Mouth
American Gigolo - Original Soundtrack

 

I checked my Az Steely Dan Royal Scam and it didn't have a flower. It had the seaguls. It is a Brian Gardner after all.

 

Brian Gardner:
Donna Summer-The two mentioned above, plus A Love Trilogy, The Wanderer, s/t, Once Upon A Time, I Remember Yesterday
Flashdance OST
American Gigolo OST

Allen Zentz:
Bayou Country (Mastered by Allen at RCA, according to Steve)

 

Please, not another set of initials that I need to look for! This is great!

 

I saw a copy of Ratt's Out of the Cellar with the "MASTERED AT ALLEN ZENTZ, L.A. CALIF." stamp in the deadwax. I didn't look to see if Chris or Brian initialed it though...

 

I believe Brian Gardner mastered the first Angel LP for Casablanca.

 

Eddie, do you like the sound on those Ozzy's?

 

Are those Ozzy vinyls better than the Uk vinyls?

 

Thank you for all this Aaron.

 

Most all of the Casablanca era vinyl was mastered by Brian, and basically always with nice sound. My earliest (and best sounding) Love To Love You LP seems to be mastered by Allen himself. I have a 12" "With Your Love" that was mastered by Chris Bellman, also with great sound. My S/T Quiex LP's are mastered by Bernie Grundman, but the 12" "Love Is In Control" is by Brian Gardner - not sure why the single was mastered in a different place from the album.

When I asked Donna (at a book signing a few years ago) to sign the cover to my "Last Dance" acetate, I told her how it was mastered at Allen Zentz, etc., and she said (pretty quickly) "Oh, I know where that was".

 

http://www.mixonline.com/ar/audio_brian_gardner/

 

Well certainly not an essential record, but we mastered Seals & Crofts 'Takin' It Easy' at Allen Zentz with Brian Gardner. I still have eq copies made from that mastering session around here somewhere.

 

What did you think of working with him/them?

 

He did the 80's reissues of Kiss LP's. George Marino, Ludwig, did the
1st/early pressings

 

Nothing out of the ordinary. I actually wanted to master the record with Stan Ricker but Louie had worked with AZ before so made that choice. It was fairly quick. I don't think we were there for more than a couple of hours. IIRC all we did was a little mid range eq, nothing more than a db or so.

We also mastered Maureen McGovern's 'Yesterday Can't Hurt Me' there but nobody was too happy with how it sounded. As a result, I was able to talk them into letting me have a shot at it with Stan over at JVC. That was a lot of fun but turned into a nightmare, though that had nothing to do with the mastering process.

 

Chris Bellman also did Poison's Open Up And Say Ahh!

 

Boston- S/T.

I have a copy with AZ logo on both sides, handwritten, but with no other initials or designs.
I also have another copy that I bought in '78, with the AZ logo on side 1, with the initials SP about 3 inches away. WALLY on side 2.
I also have a copy with WALLY on both sides.

They're all orange label Epics.

The AZ copies sound just as good as the WALLYS. Can't tell much of a difference!


R. I. P. Brad

 

Here is the current list so far (with a few new ones I added today):

AZ=Allen himself BG=Brian Gardner* CB=Chris Bellman*​

*NOTE: for the purposes of keeping with the thread title, I am only listing Brian and Chris' work done while employed at Allen Zentz Recording. They both are still to this day doing excellent vinyl cutting and CD mastering at Bernie Grundman Mastering, where they have been since moving from AZR in 1984.

_________________________________​

Air Supply - Now And Forever (CB)
American Gigolo - Original Soundtrack (BG)
Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Best Of B.T.O. (BG)
Boston - Boston (some sides) (AZ)
Laura Branigan - Self Control (BG)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country (AZ/RCA)
Neil Diamond - Love At The Greek (some sides) (AZ)
ELO - Secret Messages (BG)
ELO - Time (BG)
Flashdance - Original Soundtrack (BG)
Paul Jabara - Keeping Time (CB)
Paul Jabara - Shut Out (BG)
Elton John - Victim Of Love (BG)
Lipps, Inc. - Mouth To Mouth (CB)
Midnight Express - Original Soundtrack (BG)
Night Ranger - Dawn Patrol (BG)
Night Ranger - Midnight Madness (BG)
Olivia Newton-John - Totally Hot (AZ)
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz (BG)
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary Of A Madman (??)
Queen -The Game (BG)
Ratt - Out Of The Cellar (??)
Santa Esmeralda - House Of The Rising Sun (BG)
Santa Esmeralda - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (one side (BG), the other side (CB) )
Leo Sayer - Endless Flight (AZ)
Scarface - Original Soundtrack (BG)
Seals & Crofts - Takin' It Easy (BG)
Sparks - In Outer Space (BG)
Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic (AZ)
Steely Dan - The Royal Scam (BG)
Al Stewart - Time Passages (AZ)
Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat (AZ)
Donna Summer - A Love Trilogy (BG)
Donna Summer - Bad Girls (BG)
Donna Summer - Donna Summer (BG)
Donna Summer - I Remember Yesterday (BG)
Donna Summer - Live & More (BG)
Donna Summer - Love To Love You Baby (AZ)
Donna Summer - On The Radio (Greatest Hits vol I and II) (BG)
Donna Summer - Once Upon A Time (BG)
Donna Summer - The Wanderer (BG)
Various Artists - K-Tel 'Disco Dynamite' (BG)


Singles:

Most (if not all) Michael Jackson 45's and 12" singles (BG)
ELO singles from the Discovery and Time albums (BG)

-Aaron

 

Re Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman

my orig. UK pressing of Blizzard of Ozz beats the Allen Zentz mastering - i A/Bd them last year. the Allen Zentz cut is not bad, just not superior. i haven't heard Diary on UK vinyl.


also, this weekend, i found a minty, pre-bar code copy of a Brian Gardner cut of Bachman Turner Overdrive's Best of B.T.O. (So Far) in the $0.50 bin. i was very excited and surprised to find this because a) i love Brian's mastering style, and b) it's the first Mercury album i've found with 'Az' in the dead wax. almost all copies of this title were mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk (not surprising as it was formerly a Mercury cutting house, if i'm not mistaken). i've also seen a 1980s pressing of the Best of B.T.O. mastered at TuTone.

 

I can vouch for the Queen 'The Game' vinyl sounding very good.

The 2 ELO albums ('Time', 'Secret Messages'), sound amazing!!!