SH Spotlight I'm asked stuff: Favorite mastering engineer, best BOSTON CD, best TRAVELING WILBURYS CD, etc..

Yes, I've not gotten that brave. Have my dad's old 3" Ruger Service Six for that and it's still a bear with 125 g. Got a Freedom Arms coming in a few months and a 10mm Wilson then-a bit more weight for the screamers. I'll get off this topic now-music forum and all-just got interested on that point.

 

Steve: Any disco albums you would like to remaster? What are your favorites from this genre?

 

Hoffman-mastered Bee Gees and Donna Summer. . .

 

I know, right?

 

Yes

 

Yes. I see your point. I guess I was just thinking along the lines of the recording process and the resulting sound. Can you imagine the Beatles recording the White Album direct to disc? Lol, they would have killed each other.

 

Can you recommend any good sounding Blondie CD’s? I was surprised DCC only did “Parallel Lines” but I guess it didn’t sell?

Also can you recommend any Parliament or Funkadelic CD’s? Sound quality can seem hit or miss on those.

 

Best sounding Blondie CD's (apart from the DCC) are the Japanese "Supermasters" reissues from the 90's.

 

I loved the Chrysalis Blondie remasters from around 2000. I thought they were the best-sounding CDs of their material, although they were clearly heavily processed, since none of them sounded much like the original records apart from Autoamerican. In fact, whoever did those remasters made them all sound like Autoamerican, which was an odd decision, but one I can't particularly fault, since Autoamerican was the only Blondie LP that sounded really good in my opinion, the others being decidedly lo-fi affairs in one form or another.

In fact, I can recall some gearheads in college back in '89 complaining about how awful the Parallel Lines LP sounded. I always figured it was retro-intentional.

The DCC of Parallel Lines sounds like the original LP only better. If you want something that's accurate but polished, that's the one to get. Those circa-2000 Chrysalis remasters have that somewhat clinical sound most '90s remasters possessed, although they're a bit warmer and with substantially richer bass than you'd get on most remasters from that era, and not as pinched in the midrange as, say, the Ryko Bowie remasters.

It was all about clarity that decade. Clarity is overrated, although it's a good starting point.

 

I love your mastering of “Don’t Leave Me This Way” on the Razor and Tie “Super ‘70s” cd. Easily trounces the original 12” and lp. I wish it was the full length version.

 

Apologies Steve if this has been asked before (or in another way) but I was curious as to whether you have any particular piece of music you reach for when you are evaluating a new piece of gear or a whole system? If you do, what is it about that recording that you listen for?

 

Steve, how long per day would you spend working on the mastering process. I'm afraid I know little of the process myself (although I like the results!) Do you tire of hearing the same thing over and over?

And have you ever reluctantly agreed to remaster something when you felt like the original was already perfect, or would you decline it?

I only own a few bits of your work, but my wife and I love your Buddy Holly From the Original Tapes CD, and my dad adores your mastering of Elvis is Back! So much I had to hunt a copy after he played it to me, it's one I use to impress friends.

 

Steve, just wanted to thank you for two previous tips:
Strange Brew-Very Best of Cream Polydor CD &
Waterloo Sunset Stereo and setting up your stereo soundfield.

 

Steve, my son is sound designer (tv and cinema) and tells me that he is concerned of being influenced by the technology. He says that he has the impulse of thinking on the tools at his disposal before deciding the sound for the project in which he is working. He has posed a question for you: do you think that protools, and technology in general, has shaped the music in the last decades? Would the music nowadays be different if instead of protools a different workflow for the recording and mixing processes had been developed? How would the music have been evolved?