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

What's happening Steve...

Quick 2 questions , what was the sources used on the 1982 Jazz Heritage Series; Buddy Johnson - Fine Brown Frame LP that you compiled ?

Did you have any other duties on that LP ?

Some of the tracks sound very good ie Shake Em Up & Shufflin And Rollin while others SQ is truly lacking...

I am a huge BJ fan so any info you can remember would be quite welcome...

All right then , thanks man

 

Hi Steve,
In a thread about Bill Inglot, you were quoted as saying:

Bill and Rhino singlehandedly started the "reissue business". Rhino is the company that made big record companies aware that they had something of value in their back catalog older than like 2 years.

Bill is the best in what he does; find the CORRECT master tapes and fight to use them. None of us other dudes in the same biz can hold a candle to him. He is the uncrowned King of Kompilations.

I don't care for his mastering style; a trick of shaving off the bass and adding a bunch of treble to make everything "pop" on crappy speakers is just not my taste. Other people love it, and Rhino means QUALITY out there, so maybe I'm wrong.

The other thing Bill discovered over the years is the "rock 'em sock 'em" sound of original MONO mixes. Sometimes they just cream the anemic stereo mixes. A lot of collector types love stereo and stereo alone and this upsets them. So be it. I like them both, as long as one doesn't replace the other on disc forever.

So, the main issue on this Forum is SOUND QUALITY. A lot of folks here like the sound of the original master tapes, or close to it. The BETTER your stereo gets, the WORSE some Rhino discs sound. That is disappointing to a lot of people here who have made it a mission to upgrade their systems. It's like buying a giant screen HDTV color TV and finding out that Jay Leno has a big wart on the end of his nose that was never noticed before...

But, as I've said many times, Bill is the greatest recompilier in the history of the business. Period. But as people get educated here as to what constitutes "good" sound, their opinions and expectations change.

The bottom line is that some people (many people who hang out here) just don't like harsh sounding discs. Bill thinks they sound wonderful like that I'm sure or he wouldn't do them that way. Such is life! I can't play the stuff on my systems though; too bright. So the irony is that the real master tape has been uncovered and used, but altered to sound like an EQ dub tape. What is the point of that?
End of Quote.

I would agree with all of this but when I try to EQ to adjust Inglot's work more to my taste (when good alternatives aren't readily available), I feel like I'm trying to hit a moving target so to speak.
Does he and his engineers use a lot of multi-band compression or something?
Thanks.

 

That was quick !

I was A/B my BJ vinyl to the 2015 Buddy Johnson Rock On 2 CD set...

It is a good overview of BJ library but as usual some clown had to monkey with mid-range , didn't ruin it completely...that's a good thing

I must say the horns sound excellent on the record you compiled

Good looking out man , thanks !

 

Hi Steve,

One of my favorite DCC CDs is City to City by Gerry Rafferty. I am curious how much you recall about that one? Did it require a lot of work? Anything special you needed to do to get it to sound that good?

Thanks

 

I have a Focusrite 315...

 

Do you use that in your home rig and have it plugged in all the time?

 

Blimey! Thanks, looks like I've been too coy, that's a lot.

 

Fascinating Steve.
I thought JF would have traditionally liked Mono & have done Mono mixes at least through 1969.
Did he ask Russ Gary to do Green River or was it independent, and why was it done?

 

And do you leave that plugged in all the time and bypass when you don’t need it? My preamp has no tone controls.

 

Unfortunately, many engineers do that. I always have to go in and reverse it the best I can if I detect it.

 

City To City is one of my all time favorite albums. Neither my UK or US sound very good. I can see why they sped it up here but wish they backed off a bit. But they got hits.

 

I think it does more than make it "pop" on crappy speakers - I think it enhances the "clarity" of the recording. It definitely pumps up any ambience. But it can also make stuff sound crazy shrill on good speakers, borderline unlistenable if that upper midrange was already strong in the original program material. The Ryko Bowies took an almost identical approach, and they're antiseptic and borderline shrill, but also a bit emasculated as a result. Which is too bad, because they might be the best digital transfers of the original tapes...

I think if you're looking to boost "clarity" and reduce "muddiness" - not necessarily desirable goals to begin with - there are far more pleasing ways to accomplish it (to my ear, anyhow). The new Kate Bush remasters for example, which have thinned out the upper bass just a touch, enhanced the deep bass a smidge to compensate and keep the recordings warm and rooted, and performed minor tweaks to the upper treble, tweaks beyond that shrill upper midrange band that should pretty much never be boosted. They might have trimmed that upper midrange as well on one of her shriller records (The Dreaming).

 

KMET was one of the best Rock stations I had the pleasure of listening to in LA. Seemed back then the jocks had more freedom to play what they wanted. Each had their own musical personality. You would listen to different jocks for different music styles being played. They would play whole albums when they first came out so you knew what you were buying. I remembering listening to Jimmy Rabbits show, the guy was hilarious. Don't know for sure but I think he was talking about The Burner Mary Turner at the time when he said "With taillights like that you'd never want to get out of the trunk". For whatever reason that has always stuck with me. Miss those days. Glad you got to have that experience. Can only imagine...

 

kmet tweedle dee

 

Not to beat a dead horse but I would be remiss in not mentioning Le Continental, fried fruitbat on a stick and the fish report...