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

Any markings?

 

Sweet Thunder had a go at Frampton Comes Alive and Mad Dogs And Englishmen.
Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive

 

Hey Steve, I was curious about your thoughts on those Razor & Tie compilations you worked on, such as Super '70s and Awesome '80s. Were those a pain in the butt to compile and master, since most of them were two discs? And would those kind of compilations be almost impossible to do now, since so many of those artists are now under the big three (Universal, Warner, Sony)?

 

It might be easier to get the clearances or licensing since there are fewer legal departments to deal with. However, after reading some of the hoop jumping through that is described in the Rubellan thread, they don't seem eager to do it.

 

Compilations can be relatively hard to license.

I didn't read the complete Rubellan thread but I think that was about licensing a single band's album of tracks.

Compilations (like Razor and Tie's and Time Life Music's) are a different animal (made up of single songs from various bands or artists).

I don't know what's going on these days with licensing compilations and whether the labels continue to normally do this--but the general issues would be that the labels (if they are to approve licensing a master) have historically required advance guarantee payments against future royalties, and these advance payments can be high.

That might be doable if you have a reasonable way of potentially selling enough units (such as Razor and Tie's TV commercials back in the 1990's; or Time-Life's TV commercials and other sales channels during the same period).

But for a new business, these guaranteed costs can be daunting. Plus, I would guess that the labels (all else equal) would be not so interested in doing the legwork to license products unless they had big sales volume potential (either directly via that single product, or through the possibility of sales in a portfolio of potentially successful products).

TV sales back in the 1990's were the way to potentially produce big volumes (but, like drilling for oil) these could be hit or miss (and the production and media costs for a failed effort can also be expensive). Today, I don't know if the TV market still exists to do the same.

 

Interesting stuff! If you were the one making the call, would you have used the album version for all the songs? By the way, I love your mastering on those compilations. "Love Will Keep Us Together" sounds so sublime!

 

Here is some info on Legend when MCA took over ABC.

This is the first release on MCA after their acquisition of the ABC catalog.
Producer Richard Orshof convinced MCA to remaster the disc using JVC Cutting Center because of the outstanding clarity of their half speed mastering system. Though the etching does not include the /2 addition to DWJ inscription it is indeed a half speed master.

JG

 

Can you compare the way you hear something when you're mastering it vs. the way you hear it at home (or in the car or wherever)? Do you bring a level of technical criticality to it when you're working that precludes you from fully enjoying it as music?

If there is a difference, is it difficult to shift from one gear to the other?

 

UHQR? On Step? Don't encourage these overpriced ripoffs.

How about they do a nicely remastered 33rpm release at $35-40? That would suffice.

 

I have no interest (money actually) to buy the super expensive UHQR's, but I will credit to Chad Kassem for giving employment to people!

JG

 

Steve, I understand that every job is different, but can you approximate how long you would spend on a mastering job for an album of standard length?

Obviously what makes a good mastering engineer stand out from others is knowledge, attention to detail along with the equipment they have at their disposal, but I'm also wondering how much time the best engineers put into a typical job. I may or may not be comparing your answer to that of an engineer who mastered a recording my old band did.... which was not at all to my liking.

 

Then dumbed down to good old 16/44 just like those old AF Gold Discs I still enjoy

 

Would you always gather and listen to original or early pressings to get a feel for various masterings before setting out to do your’s?

 

That's more than helpful enough, but how about Joe Walsh's But Seriously Folks for Audio Fidelity? For some reason I figure that one would come especially easy to you.

You might guess that the person I was referring to - who has been used a lot by acts much bigger than my unknown band - was proud to spit out his jobs within a couple of hours. I couldn't even figure out how he had long enough to listen back to the album in full.

 

I was jamming Steve's Rebel Yell today

 

How about your MCA Bing Crosby 'classics' CD?