SH Spotlight A few angry (but sort of funny) notes people sent me about my mastering work, imagined defects.....

Funny, hearing this release gave me the chance to listen to "Highway 61 Revisited" and NOT get a headache for about the first time.

It also brought me here. And, ultimately, helped wage a massive assault against my bank account.

 

It wasn't exactly a return, but I had a lady throw Nirvana's Nevermind at me (which was on her kid's Christmas list) and accuse me of selling child pornography.

 

1. If an album was released using a certain version of a song, that version should be used, unless you want to retitle the album and let people know it's not what it was before. Obviously there are two schools of "original master recording". Using the master they created for the album, with the songs already on it in their proper versions with crossfades and such is one way to go. I believe you've done this method before as you mentioned somewhere not fading to silence between tracks and letting the bias noise play... I realize the alternate method of "original master recording" is creating a NEW master from the individual song masters which gets us closer to hearing the master in the end, but single versions have master tapes as well, even if they're 1 or 2 generations (I don't see where you'd get 3 or 4). If something has to be done in order to keep an album as it's always been, then we have to accept limitations.

2. It's not your album. Your job is to make the thing sound better, not to re-make the album using your own decisions as to lengths and such.

 

If the DCC Steve Miller Greatest Hits had contained the 45 versions, I probably would not have bought it. Since that's the only Miller I was interested in buying, I wanted the album versions.

 

Agreed... some of these reasons are no less silly than some things we read here.

 

I should know better than to not answer this, but I hope you don't buy any CDs, because CD producers/engineers usually screw with these things.

 

If any of the complainers don't like the discs, they can send them to me. I'll give them a good home!

 

While the DCC Steve Miller's Greatest Hits may not contain the single edits, it remains very possibly the best sounding digital ANYTHING that I've ever played. I absolutely LOVE this version.

 

The thing that sold me on this title was the first slap of the drum/kick followed by the organ kicking in. I was in immediately.

 

Thanks Steve I needed a good laugh! geez ppl are NUTS!

 

when I first hear Serenade on the GOLD CD I was absolutely floored..just unbelievable compared to the original CD...you are truly the remaster man Steve.

 

At the end of the day isn't the only difference the inclusion of the "Fly Like An Eagle" intro? I never drag the vinyl out anymore since I got the DCC.

"Wild Mountain Honey" on the DCC is to die for...pure heaven.

 

Don't forget "The Stake" and "Rocky Mountain Way."

 

I did it once when I was like 3-trying to imitate Austin Powers, actually (my parents were....not very strict in regards to what my brothers and I could and couldn't watch growing up). Don't remember the name of the CD, but I bet my dad was ticked

I always felt bad for that kid on the cover. I mean, how embarrassing would it be to be naked and little on one of the biggest albums of the '90s?

There was a worse one, IIRC, from the '70s that had some naked 8 year old girl I think it was the inspiration for "Smell the Glove" from Spinal Tap.

 

I have the RCA gold CD of this album (mastered by others). If a recording can't be significantly enhanced then why issue an audiophile edition?

 

I think a bunch of the tracks are shorter on the original release.

 

Seriously? Wow.

 

Awesome.

Glad you've got a sense of humor about it, Steve. Any of us who do work that ends up in the public eye (I'm a writer) can expect constant negative feedback. Many years ago it used to roil me (in the era of mailed letters, I'd take a red pen, correct their spelling and grammar, assign it a letter grade as if it were a homework assignment and send it back. Yeah, I was a jerk). For decades now it has just rolled off my back.

 

I can understand this one. Did the packaging come with a big sticker saying "MONO"? You know, in case a non-audiophile bought it?

 

My stepmother did not return it; but she was amazed by the music coming out of Nevermind. When she saw the baby and the water, she bought it thinking it was New Age ;-)

 

Years ago a friend who owned a store sold a cassette by a terrible band who's name is lost in the fog of time. Days later the customer brought the tape back, slapped it on the counter and said, "It don't play!"

My friend responded, "Perhaps your player gave up in disgust?"

 

That's it. People are nuts.