Hello. I'm not someone who purely judges recordings based on their DR numbers, but they do matter to me. I recently came across a Mamas and Papas compilation from Holland on CD that has the best DR numbers I've ever seen for these recordings. I bought the CD and have been listening to it, and I can tell the DR numbers are indeed very good, but the overall quality of the mastering is not great on most of the tracks. Can someone try to explain how using what are probably low-generation source tapes can yield not-great results? Mr. Hoffman, your thoughts on this matter would be particularly helpful! Thank you
My take on that (and again it should be a case by case scenario for every release) is if you got something with WCI pre-mastering, there's a high chance the transfer was done flat, so it might be not as decent as a properly done mastering of the tape. And I actually recall that Steve said that. Sometimes a good engineer has to work on a tape in order to get the best out of it and "flat transfer" not always is the best way to get the ideal sounding album.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. It seems the tracks with more going on sound more harsh, and the songs with more acoustic arrangements flourish on this particular CD. I've never encountered a CD before that had both good dynamic range numbers and sounded harsh at times...
I thought Barry was once part of that team, maybe. Who was in this group, no idea. Credited for a ton of releases WCI Record Group
Probably has pre-emphasis @HDListener Can you provide more details on what exactly you have? A discogs link would help. Maybe another member has it.
Interesting, and thank you to everyone who's trying to provide some guidance here. I'm not familiar with 'pre-emphasis', that one's new to me... Here's a link to the product on Discogs: The Mamas & The Papas - The Very Best Of The Mamas & The Papas
Being a Benelux TV mailorder collection it's probably going to be near impossible to determine the origin of what they used for it.
It's because that master you're listening to likely has a harsh EQ character (the offensive parties being in the high-mids.) Things sounding all harsh while not being dynamically "squashed" just means that the mix, or that specific master, has strident high-mid information, brought on by EQ manipulation or saturation/distortion in that region. The more instruments join in (the "busy" parts) the more exacerbated that effect becomes.
This is very helpful and much appreciated. Maybe I can re-EQ it myself and have the benefits of better mids and preserved DR.
Thanks Steve. I just thought it was odd to have such a harsh-sounding product with such good DR numbers, especially with a Mamas and Papas reissue.
Poor source is my guess. I'm not sure where you are located planet wise, but our host mastered this old comp, it may be more to you liking. I linked the German manufacture- The Mamas & The Papas - 16 Of Their Greatest Hits
Buy USA and Canadian mono 45 RPM singles of this material for best sound. In Stereo, Steve's MCA CD is best or on LP, get the UK EMI-Stateside "Hits Of Gold"
Always a fun thing to try! On those harsh tracks, search around between 3,000 kHz up thru 4500 kHz for general harshness, dipping out say 2dB... See which area serves ya better.
I have that CD and enjoy it, as well as probably 5 or 6 additional compilations of theirs, as I like to compare them to each other. To my ears the best-sounding versions of these songs in a compilation is on the "A Gathering Of Flowers" by Real Gone, followed by a European MCA release, "The Best Of", from 1995. I wish the Gathering release didn't feature the spoken intros to most of the songs (as the original record did), as the source tapes they probably used and the mastering choices are surprisingly good throughout on that compilation.
Variances in EQ affect DR. I followed a recommendation here to buy the ELO completion Rockaria Epic RCD021 issued in Spain. It has unusually high DR numbers for an ELO production. The person who suggested it said it featured ELO selections that somehow evaded excessive compression. Curious, I bought a copy and was disappointed to discover it was very bright and shrill. It reminded me of CDs with pre-emphasis played on machines that don't deemphasize. So, I ripped the disc and applied pre-emphasis, and it resulted in a sound typical of most ELO releases and of course the DR dropped accordingly. I use DR levels as an element among others in determining whether I should make purchases. In general, most vintage pop usually ranges between DR 9 and 11. So, if something ranges from DR 6 to 8, I'm likely to pass. The bottom line is observing DR can tell you things, but it can't tell the full story.
