Vic Anesini: Any Love?

I have the Sony Legacy releases in 2000 of s/t and Natch'l Blues.

They sound great. Pretty sure they're still the current releases.

 

You are right on the money here, POB, Mr. Anesini's remastering of the Elvis Presley catalogue has been a revelation about how important a remastering engineer can be to the legacy of an artist and their greatest work. His mix and mastering on The Wonder Of You for the FTD label is indeed my favorite live recording I have ever heard in my life. Elvis's voice, the rhythm section, the brass and orchestra are all heard as if you are actually in the room when it was recorded. Nothing is lost in the mix and it is as warm and natural sounding as a live concert recording could possibly be.

 

Ditto!

 

Well, let me just back up what almost everybody else has said about the stellar remastering of Vic Anesini. I guess he is the first engineer that I really got to know by name recognition as the major figure in getting the Elvis Presley catalogue to sound better than it had ever sounded in my entire life, even on vinyl back in the old days. I will say this without hesitation, Vic and our esteemed host, Mr. Steve Hoffman, are my two favorite remastering engineers in the world. I believe they both have the ears of a bat and the skills of someone who has perfected their craft to a fine art. I found myself seeking out music with their names on it, something I would never have done before I was exposed to their collective work.

Vic's versatility in remastering different genres is pretty cool too, everything from Cash to Presley and Tammy Wynette to Simon & Garfunkel among so many others. One of my favorite surprises was last years Music Of Christmas Expanded Edition by legendary conductor Percy Faith on the Real Gone Music label that they secured from Sony Music. Columbia Records had botched the original master for CD badly in the early 1980's with a terrible remaster that had dropouts, muted sound and terrible overall sonics. After Sony took over the Columbia label, they were reluctant to spend any money with a remaster as it had been a constant seller since 1959 and no one seemed to want to spend any more money than needed, thanks to the bean counters at the label.

Well, with a non-stop press by the Christmas Guru over at the YuleLog.com, Chip Arcuri, RGM was finally able to get Sony to turn over the copyright and also secure a remaster at Sony Battery Studios in New York under their skilled hands. RGM knew they were in great hands no matter who did the remaster as that entire group works together often with Vic and Mark Wilder being the senior engineers that usually get the assignments for the most important legacy artists. Well, Christmas instrumental albums are usually given to one of the other very capable engineers at Sony Battery, but much to the surprise and delight of everybody at RGM, Vic was shockingly given the assignment to remaster this iconic Christmas album. Vic himself called it "A labor Of Love," which shows you that this man truly loves his job and understands that all music is important to some group of people somewhere, be it Percy Faith or Elvis Presley's catalogue. Well, the remaster is "stupendous" as Chip himself would later say to everybody and he was not kidding. It sounded like a virgin vinyl record to my ears, which is funny because one of the first things you see in Vic's studio is a vinyl record player so he can go back and forth with the master tape and compare the sound with the original vinyl Lp. We are so lucky to have people like Vic and Steve who are so dedicated to their craft and blessed with true skills and passion for the hard work that they have spent so much of their lives doing.

 

Not sure if this is mastered by Vic but it's an excellent version full of dynamics and plenty of room to crank it up.

 

In that bunch, I would also include (not exclusively) Joseph M. Palmaccio, Mark Wilder, and Kevin Reeves.

 

This new Mountain Live : The Road Goes Ever On is stupendous !!!

 

I agree, it is a tremendous sonic presentation. There is nothing else like it in the Elvis catalogue. I was so disappointed that he did not get the nod to remix the two 1972 Madison Square Garden Shows, the 1/12/73 "alternate" "Aloha" concert, and the six remixed August 1970 concerts for the "That's The Way It Is" box set.

 

Love him, one of the best. Check the search engine there was already a thread on this.

 

Every CD I have with his name in the credits is mastered well and never disappoints.

 

I am probably one of the few on this board who has had the oppertunity to meet the man-TWICE!
Like W.B. said, he has had some dealings with him, but I got to see the man in action and spent about an hour visiting him, mainly about projects he had worked on, while behind his console when the Sony Studios were on (someone correct me on this if Im wrong), on 45th St. I recall passing by the Hit Factory studios while walking to Sony from the Theater District.
If anyone on here has his remastering of Nielsons' 1971 album Nielson Scmiellson (I know I misspelled it!), my hands actually held that tape box! (the original box with the era's RCA logo on it, with the old LP's number-I think it started with AFL1
I met him around Oct. of 'o3 the first time, and recall us talking about the recent Elvis releases at the time. I complimented him on him using minimal compression on that years' companion to his 30 greatest hits, as we both agreed that the first one that came out the year before had massive amounts of compression used.
I had bought Sly's Essential release just a month before, and I told him I almost passed out after hearing "Everyone is a Star" in stereo for the first time, and if "Hot Fun in the Summertime" is one of your favorite Sly songs, you'll be interested to know that the version on essential is slightly remixed when the song had it's first stereo appearence on "Rock Artifacts."
Compare the two; I can't say for certain 15 years later, but I recall him saying he tweaked the electric piano on the song.
Yes, discussion was spent talking about his work on the S&G boxset; how he went to great lengths to properly digitize the contents when transferring the tapes to the digital domain. I recall him asking me if I thought he had his weak moments, and I told him that I thought his remastering in the mid-90's of "Bob Dylan Greatest Hits" was'nt anything special, and he agreed, saying tha happened to be one of his early projects at Sony.
Recall seeing some old tape boxes in one room with the original boxes that said "Columbia Recording Studios" that came from Iron Mountain.
While there I got to meet one of my favorite (vinyl) mastering engineers,Vlado Meller,who, as most of us know, spent MANY years at CBS/Sony. I had wanted to meet the man for years. I believe him or Vic said that Micheal Jackson was at the Sony Studios himself supervising the remastering of Thriller a few years before (which, if I recall correctly, Steve considers the best version committed to compact disc).
I had his number for years, and called Vic some 4 years later; he said I could come by later, but when I got there, he had something come up, so he was unable to chat too long. I did say to him that he was held in high regard with the Steve Hoffman and BSN boards.
Havent talked him since, and shortly thereafter, the old studios on 45th St. were no more. JIM

 

I don't care for his remaster of Nantucket Sleighride at all. It sounds quite loud and fatiguing to me. I find the old BGO cd to sound much better.

 

His name on an Elvis project is an almost automatic sale.

 

I feel that his mastering work is in a tier just below Kevin Gray, Hoffman, Mofi, couple guys who did SHM SACDs (maybe London based), etc. I'm thinking Steve Wilson is a little better as well. Those early 90s Marley CDs from Diament put him a bit higher as well.

 

Lotsa love for Vic

 

To be honest, outside remixing Aloha From Hawaii, I don’t think the Presley catalog can sound any better. The 69/70 Vegas tracks are excellent. Wayyyyyyy better than the dismal sounding Live in Las Vegas box set from 2001.

 

I haven't heard everything he's done by any means, but what I have with his name on it is very good to great, and I don't think I've ever been disappointed by anything he's done. I suspect a lot of people have not heard his remastering work on several early Carole King albums, like Music, Rhymes and Reasons, and Fantasy. They were released on CD in Japan but not here -- I have to wonder if he did the remastering and then the domestic re-releases got cancelled. I tracked them down and they sound great, miles ahead of the original domestic discs. I like some of the work he's done for Iconoclassic too, particularly the Laura Nyro and Guess Who titles. I thought he did a great job with the Simon and Garfunkel stuff.

 

Those are really great. He also did their new one though, and it's a DR6.

 

Blame Louris, Perlman and/or the record company. He did not lose his skills.

 

He should get a Nobel Prize for his work on the (early) Byrds catalogue for CD reissue.

 

Vic even mastered the late 1980s disc of Donovan's Sunshine Superman album on Epic.

 

Then you better includ Bob Irwin. He was the producer of those.

 

Alright, I will! I presume Bob directed which bonus tracks to include. Which were great! Did he also direct the remix ...? (I need a closer read of the CD packaging, I suppose.)

 

As he was the producer, he probably was the man in charge

 

Anesini's mastering on Taj Mahal's first album on CD absolutely blows away the 2015 hi-res version, which sounds strident by comparison. Anesini's sounds like the original LP and the music just flows; the hi-res is a loud and painful listen.

Count me as a fan of Anesini's work. I dislike that the Byrds and Simon & Garfunkel CDs he mastered were remixes, but it's possible the decision to do so came from above and was not his.