Mastering question - Stevie Wonder's Journey Through The Sectret Life Of Plants

Firstly, what a gem this album is. I neglected it for many years based on luke-warm reviews - but about a year ago I bought it on vinyl since it was (and still is) dirt cheap for a mint copy. I've grown to really like the whole album and recently picked up the CD edition (also pretty cheap).

Two things about this double album puzzle me:

(i) Was this set included in the recent set of Wonder's 24-bit remasters? If not, why not?

(ii) It says in the original liner notes "Digitally recorded and edited on Sony PCM 1600"

I am pretty sure that the 1600 is a 2-track mastering machine so I assume that the multi-track recordings are in analogue.

My main question is this: on the CD edition I can hear print-through between "Send One Your Love" and "Outside My Window" (this is also heard on the vinyl edition). This seems to indicate that the CD was mastered from an analogue master! Did they use the LP master?

It seems ludicrous to issue this recording on CD from anything other than the digital master.

 

Why do you say that?

If the album was mixed to digital only, yes, I can see your point. However, if the album was mixed to analog and digital at the same time, I can certainly see why an analog master would be used.

Of course, if the analog master is just a copy of the digital master, that's another story...

 

Luke,

I'm assuming that the statement "Digitally recorded and edited on Sony PCM 1600" means that, at the very least, the album was mastered to the 1600. Whether the tracks were mixed to analogue and then compiled on an anlogue master with all the between-track sound effects etc. crossfaded in the analogue domain I don't know - quite possibly.

What I do know is that even if the only stage that the 1600 was used for was in preparing the final master then this should not exhibit any audible print-through since, as I understand it, this only becomes an issue after some time. That is to say, by the time the 1600 master was prepared, there would not have been enough time for print-through to become audible on any analogue master used for it's production. Of course, once on a digital master tape, print-through no longer makes an impact on the stored data.

Obviously the vinyl LPs are mastered from an analogue master. If this wasn't derived from the digital master then why would "Digitally recorded and edited on Sony PCM 1600" appear on the sleeve notes for the vinyl release at all?

I imagine that the analogue master used for making the LP was derived from the digital master. Indeed, my LP copy exhibits print-through - but this is to be expected since it is not an original pressing and those analogue masters would have been lying around for some time before my LP was made.

Now, the print-through on the CD is louder still indicating to me that the analogue master used in it's production has been around for a long time.

What I suggest is that the album was originally mastered to digital and that any analogue production masters were derived from this. Therefore, the CD would be better coming straight from the digital master in this case.

Anyway, why wasn't this 2CD set part of the re-issue campaign. Was it because there was no point in mastering it to 24-bit seeing as it was (probably ) only a 16-bit master in the first place?

 

Yeah, but that's just the SOUND...

My vinyl copy, which I bought when it was first released, still has a trace of the perfume scent all the covers were infused with, at least in those early pressings. I can only imagine what an unsuspecting second-hand purchaser might make of that!

 

This album was recorded under the same circumstances as "Hotter Than July" was. It was recorded digitally, mixed on an analog board because digital mixers didn't exist back then, and it was mastered to a digital format. The SPARS code could have been DAD because the digital multitrack had to pass through analog circuits.

Why the CD wasn't part of the reissue campaign? I don't know. I do know that it was supposed to go up to "In Square Circle".

I personally would like to see "The Woman In Red" soundtrack remastered. Great stuff on that one, especially the duet with Dionne Warwick, and my favorite, "It's You".

 

Stevie Wonder´s "Journey..." is out of print, right ?

 

No

 

In the UK, copies "Journey..." dried up as the new remasters started to appear and I assumed it had been deleted in preparation for its re-issue. However, more recently the standard CD edition has returned to the shops with no sign of a new edition.

I seem to remember amazon.co.uk or .com having an April 2001 release date for this CD set so maybe a new remaster was planned but the idea then scrapped....

I was under the impression that SONY didn't introduce a multitrack digital tape machine (PCM-3324) until a couple of years after these albums were recorded. Was the music recorded digitally or just mastered digitally? Since the PCM-1600 is a 2-track machine I assume it is only the mastering which was done digitally.....


Here's a pic of the PCM-3324 (that's it in the middle) that I found on my net travels:

 

Nope, it was multitracked digitally. One listen to the album and you can tell, with all it's early digital coldness!

 

It certainly sounds different than his earlier recordings but this could be a combination of modern techniques (use of noise gates, Aural Exciters etc. ) with the digital mastering.

I've hunted high and low but can't find any definitive information on the dates when the multitrack Sony PCM-3324 machines were introduced but everthing I have found points to a date after 1980. When Stevie talks about using Sony's "Professional Digital Audio System" for Hotter Than July is he referring to the PCM-3324?

Anyway, on the sleeve notes for "Journey..." it specifically refers to the PCM-1600 which is a 2-track machine.......

 

Steve,

could Stevie have recorded to digital multi-track as early as 1979 or 1980 - ie was the PCM-3324 around as early as that?

 

Thanks Steve - I was beginning to doubt my own deductions for a minute there!

Is the PCM-1630 still used today - I imagine it must have been superceeded by now?

 

Does no-one care about quality any more ? (Present company excepted of course!)

(Whoah, I'm starting to sound like my dad )

 

Well, so long.

(Jeez, now I sound like the old man in "12 Angry Men" )

 

Ah, they don't make films like they used to!

(OK, so now I am my Dad )

 

I wonder if it's possible they had two or more machines, synched them together, and did a lot of bouncing? They could have done a basic track with a rhythm section and other parts, then added overdubs after bouncing.

On the original LP of "Hotter Than July" it say that it is a full digital recording, and Stevie plays multiple parts, as he always does.

I'd love to get to the bottom of this.

 

I wondered about the synching possibilities but it seems like too much trouble to go to for the complex process of overdubbing part upon part as Stevie tends to do.

Hopefully someone knows the details of Stevie's recording process for these two albums......

 

Why is that wrong ?

 

Because some people believe that the 16-bit CD sounds inferior over other digital tape formats, and many times people screw up a mastering A CD or CD-R and they have to be remastered properly, among other things like errors.