Question for Rudy at A&M Corner

Rudy,

Lately I've been transferring many of my LP's to CDR. Quite a few have been '60's through '80's A&M releases.

The A&M releases, overall, seem to be mastered exceptionally well, and have very quiet surfaces. Superior to most other labels.

Why?


Paul

 

Hi! Maybe you've lucked into better albums than I have. It seems like A&M's mastering was good overall, but a little sloppy on a few selected albums, but depending on the pressing plant, the vinyl itself was usually pretty good. (Columbia pressed a lot of A&M's vinyl throughout the years.)

Strangely, I've found some of the earliest A&Ms to sound the best. Two albums in particular, the TJB's South Of The Border and the Baja Marimba Band's Rides Again seem quite detailed. Perhaps due to a change in studios, to me, the sound for the TJB's landmark Whipped Cream just sounds washed out, from the earliest vinyl copy to the late 80's CD. (I had an e-mailed conversation with Randy Badazz, who mentioned this could be due to bouncing a lot of tracks around, which was more common in those days.)

Some LPs had sloppy mastering. Listening to the domestic CDs, you pick up certain flaws, thinking the tape has deteriorated over the years or been damaged in storage. But listen to the first track of the TJB's album The Beat Of The Brass. The track "Monday, Monday", during the opening 25 seconds, had some very noticeable dropouts on the CD. Yes, they're also present on the LP--I'm still amazed I never heard these flaws all those years ago, but then again, I was listening through a Magnavox console back then. (I wasn't allowed to play the stereo LPs on the Admiral in the basement. )

Some recent CD versions of various A&M songs make me wonder if these tapes weren't handled well over the years, or if the tape stock itself was questionable. The song "Tijuana Taxi", on the recent Definitive Hits, is full of dropouts (I think mainly in the left channel)--I was shocked to hear how bad it sounded, and this was throught a set of computer speakers! The dropouts are also present on the original Greatest Hits album (including the CD reissue), but not as noticeable. Makes me wonder if the tape really is deteriorating over time. Verve reissued the Brasil '66 album Equinox, and most noticeably, the track "Night and Day" has a series of dropouts throughout. The rest of the CD sounds good enough...rumor has it this was one of the first albums made in one of A&M's new multitrack studios. (This was the second Brasil '66 album.)

There are plenty of other A&M albums that sound decent, though. I think with a proper remastering from the right set of tapes, they can sound very good, better than any of the LP or CD versions that exist today. The very recent Japanese reissues of the complete A&M Sergio Mendes/Brasil '66/'77 catalog reportedly sound very good (I certainly can't afford them!!). I have a MoFi LP pressing of the first Brasil '66 album that was stunning when I first heard it--this was the first time I'd ever heard what A&M's master tapes were capable of. I still hold this one LP as the standard against which I've judged any 60's-era A&M CD reissue against...it's that good.

My main problem with transfering A&M vinyl to CD: groove wear. For some titles, I've purchased multiple copies and haven't found one I consider acceptable for putting on CD. I did luck out for awhile--one local store kept coming up with sealed copies, priced anywhere from $3 to $5, which I bought whether I needed them or not. With the vinyl new and clean, there is only a slight "vinyl noise" to deal with. If you should ever happen to find one of the Deutches Gramophone pressing, though...that vinyl is even quieter. (A copy of the TJB's Warm, in a DG pressing, was one of my $5 finds. It made a very nice CD! At times, you'd swear you were listening to the tape itself!)

As for later A&M albums, they were fortunate to have Bernie Grundman mastering for them. Some of my best sounding LPs have his name on them.

 

Bernie is highly respected. What LP's did he work on?

We have the Verve by request CD of Brazil 66 with Sergio Medez.
The sound is not that great. According to the liner notes it was
recorded and I quote "Somewhere in Los Angeles"

 

Regarding Bernie: what didn't he work on? He was a fixture at A&M studios for many years.

You may be thinking about the Brasil '66 album Look Around, which was the only one issued on Verve By Request. That one has very weak bass, but seems otherwise clean. Universal, in their usual fashion, decided we were no longer deserving of all the cool, unique titles on Verve By Request, so they killed that series off. Equinox was a full-gouge release, $18.99 for almost a half hour of music. Gotta love Univer$al.

Worst Brasil '66 release on CD was Fool On The Hill. If you blinked in the mid 80's, you missed the original release. Rebound put it out in the 90's again for a year or two. They ran this through some serious noise reduction--I'd swear it was DNR, it's that bad. No hiss, but no life.