Crosby, Stills and Nash Gold CD Mastering: A day with our gracious host. PICS @ #119

And that's what makes the difference between a good job and a great job

 

Wait a minute, there isn't room for all of us! Maybe Stephen can use the same type of process that Steve just did to choose the 'guests' to pick the lucky tenant.

 

So, as the original 45 was mono, does this mean that the mono 45 was a fold-down?

 

Here ya go Scott. And the iconic Capitol Records building to the right.

 

I know....I can hear it

 

Thanks for having the mindset to snap those pics. One thing with growing up out here, is I've seen this place my whole life, and just like living down the street from Disneyland, I find myself taking things for granted, and having to remind myself now and again, how lucky I am.

Stephen and I had a pretty cool little conversation on our way down from the roof, and I think one of the last things I said to him, was "Damn, you are living the dream!". Stephen is living in a dream spot, working with music all day, and to top it off (as if it needed it), he's getting to work side by side with Steve! I mean how much more unreal than that, does it get?! The only way I can figure it, is that Stephen was a Saint in his previous life.

All joking aside, Stephen Marsh is a very cool dude, and I think anyone who has met him, or will meet him, will agree with me whole heartedly.

 

Like the time when you suggested a move and Stephen had already done it, saying "Just gettin' ahead of the curve."

 

A nicely mastered burger - notice how the the full dynamic range has been preserved. No clipping or brickwalling at all. But it does look like some compression is necessary before ingestion.

 

manual analog compression

 

One thing I noticed about him is that he's quick. Most good engineers are, as studio time is expensive and slow engineers can run up the clock.

He's also a very nice guy and doesn't seem to have his ego getting in his way. I really enjoyed hanging with him, and Steve of course, and talking shop.

I don't get to hang out with other engineers too often these days and it's always fun for me. Even though we may not all know each other we're all pretty similar in a lot of ways.

I guess the same can be said about many of us forum members.

 

Wow, very interesting about the difference in tonality from the "group" vocals to the solo vocals. Cool that you were able to tweak that (or even thought about tweaking it!) Thanks for sharing, Steve.

 

I've worked in one of those buildings, but I'm not saying which one.

 

Hey Steve, I noticed you had a cd copy of the "couch" album sitting there on the desk.

Just off hand, how often do you reference a past mastering when working on a new re-mastering? Do you use it if you guys disagree on the way certain things sound?
Or do you listen to it before starting and note certain things that you need to work on?

Thanks for sharing the pictures and to the poster on giving us this insight, its interesting.

 

I wonder what tape was used by Joe Gastwirt for the Atlantic Gold CD edition. The story about the chatter before the song Marrakesh Express makes me doubt is was the original master tape.