Alan Yoshida and Bernie Grundman mastered Blue Note 75th Anniversary Vinyl Reissues

Very very very occasionally........it's good to live in the EU when it comes to vinyl!

 

Just ordered four titles from Amazon de with a 10 Euro off coupon which brought them under $15 each. I hope these are the EU pressings.

 

Has anyone purchased the EU pressing of Blackbyrd by Donald Byrd? If so, how is the quality of the pressing?

 

I have it, I remember it was a good pressing.

 

I have indeed got the EU pressing and it's very good.

 

I just got three of my four EU pressings and they are flawless and 180g, which I somehow missed. The five U.S. Pressings I have are all scuffed and have ticks and a bit of distortion here and there. Like I said above, I had a discount for the EU pressings, but even so, I would pay the extra money to get these versions instead of the domestic. Plus you get the MP3 with th EU.

 

Is there a list of which titles were mastered by Grundmann and/or Bellman for vinyl? If not, shouldn't we compile one?
Both Monk 10"s are.

Wayne Shorter Speak No Evil is Ian Sefchick at Capitol (deadwax has an I S that looks like an HS depending on angle).

 

The Jay Jay Johnson Sextet 10": BG/CB

Jackie Mclean: Let Freedom Ring: Mastered by Capitol

 

Agreed that the United pressings are appalling. However, if you want the Grundmann/Bellman cuts, they are the only choice, right?

 

My EU copy of Donald Byrd's Blackbyrd arrived yesterday. The back of the jacket mentions it was mastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering, however, after inspecting the deadwax areas, I couldn't spot the BG/CB initials. I'll check again. The pressing is flawless, although the SQ isn't as open sounding as my original AAA copy. It's not a good recording anyway.

 

So how does this really work in the age of hi rez. digital files? The video posted early in the thread with Bernie talking about the transfer from analog to digital suggests to me that he mastered those transfers, at which point they were sent to the EU for lacquering, cutting, and then pressing. So even if his initials aren't on the EU records, isn't it safe to assume they are from Bernie?

 

It's difficult to tell exactly. US copies have BG/CB if they cut them. The backs on this series credit Yoshida or Grundmann, seemingly according to who did the hi-Rez transfer. But US copies credited to Yoshida have Mastered By Capitol stamps in the runout (and some of the Grundmans too?). And EU pressings at least sometimes credit an engineer at Optimal such as KR.

So are they just cutting from essentially the HDTracks files and doing the usual de-essing and centering the bass and RIAA and so forth, or did Bernie do all that digitally and the lacquers are cut literally straight without any processing whatsoever? It's possible that Grundmann ran a second feed out of the mastering console that has all his moves.

 

I bought Grachan Moncur's Evolution a couple of weeks ago. I tried to redeem the MP3 voucher, which appeared to get accepted but the album did not appear in my list of available downloads (their website was very slow at the time).
If I try to resubmit the code, it says it's already been used. I have tried contacting them twice through their online help and my requests for help have been completely ignored. Seriously unimpressed with these guys. Anyone else had any problems with this service?

 

No. Cutting the lacquer IS mastering. If there are no initials in the dead wax, it wasn't him who mastered it, regardless of whether he did the digital transfer or not. There is no "flat mastering" with vinyl. Simple as that.

 

I had exactly the same experience with this album. I wrote them three times, and I did not hear back from them.

I also had problems with Sonny Clark's "Leapin' & Loopin'". I was able to use the code, and it shows up in my list of albums, but the download button has no function for this album.

 

Just checked back again, and my Sonny Clark download does now work.

Graham Moncur is still absent...

 

Thanks for clarifying. So it comes down to well mastered but crappy pressed US copies vs. unknown mastering but well pressed EU versions.

 

I have the US pressing and the EU pressing for a couple of these releases. When I get a chance, I might do a comparison some day.

 

The Music Matters 33 of Speak No Evil was a must buy for me. I highly recommend it. But I'm a huge Wayne Shorter fan. He is probably my favorite BN artist.

 

We are talking about files here, so of course Bernie Grundman or Alan Yoshida will get the credit, not MK or HL cutting engineer from Optimal who probably havent even touched any master tape ever.

 

I understand your position, and I do understand the reasons why the situation is not as black and white as I first made it sound in my brief response. Still, for me, in the world of vinyl the person who cuts the lacquer is the person who mastered the vinyl.

I fail to see why the fact the fact that we are dealing with files makes it any different. Why does someone who cuts from digital files deserve less a mastering credit than someone who cuts from tape? Replace the word "files" with "tapes" and you have the same situation happen countless times in the analogue days. Let's say in the '70s, when Bernie Grundman started out, he got a tape from the label that was already optimised for vinyl cutting by another engineer — a standard practice back then. Surely, you would never think to credit that engineer instead of Grundman?

However, I understand that the situation is confusing, and even labels are confused about it — in most cases of releases of contemporary music the cutting engineer doesn't even get a credit on the packaging, but the one who mastered the CD and digital files does. It doesn't make any sense to me, but that's how it is. Another example involving Mr. Grundman: the album Morning Phase by Beck had its digital files mastered by Robert Ludwig, yet the vinyl is cut by Bernie Grundman. His initials "BG" are in the deadwax. Would you not credit Mr. Grundman just because Bob Ludwig did the digital master? The vinyl in this case also sounded different from the digital release, owing to the fact of how Mr. Grundman mastered it. Why is this any different when the roles are reversed, and Grundman delivers the digital files and someone else does the cut??

To wrap this up, in my view, the person who cuts the lacquer is the one who mastered the vinyl. Period. He or she is the one who has final control over how the product sounds, regardless of his or her "celebrity" status in the audio world.

 

I've been in some huge arguments in the discogs forums on precisely this point. Mastering means making a recording into physical mold that can be reproduced, and always has. Cutting a lacquer is mastering.

However, a majority of voices on the forums there think that the signature in the dead wax should only be credited as "lacquer cut by." In part this is because in the digital era, many "mastering" engineers merely prep digital files to be cut. In my mind this is technically "pre-mastering" or "post-production." But because of this new distinction, people think "lacquer cut by" is the proper credit. What really burns me is they think this even for records mastered for LP only before the digital era, when certainly any deadwax identifier indicates mastering in the full sense.

As an example, people are going through right now and changing all of George Peckham's credits because of the verbiage "Porky Prime Cut" even though his studio was "Porky's Mastering." And again, they are doing this for releases that were vinyl only.

 

Well, I took a chance on U.S. pressings of "Maiden Voyage" and "Speak No Evil," two titles I've never owned in any format. Flat, quiet, nice sound.

I'm fully aware that they're not AAA, Music Matters or original pressings are better, etc., etc, but for someone like me who appreciates jazz, but is not a die-hard enthusiast (and is on a budget), these Blue Note reissues are an excellent entry point. I plan on buying many more.

 

Over there nothing ever gets decided...