Liscensing Q for Steve

[Steve w]

Steve, on the soundtracks Sony already has out on SACD (Footloose, Top Gun etc), on the songs liscenced from other labels, do the other labels let Sony use the original master tapes or do they just give them copies?

[Steve Hoffman]

Copies, I would imagine.

[Grant]

If I can elaborate on this a bit, the majors are very iffy about letting other labels use their master tapes. What a reissue label like Verese Vintage or Rhino will get is usually an analog copy, or the reissue engineer will go to a company's studio, check out the master tapes for a day so they can copy them themselves at the location.

If you're dealing with older material, usually from the 50s and 60s, they may get lucky and get their hands on a first generation master to work with.

For, say, a major putting out a soundtrack consisting of oldies, they may actually use another CD. Even Varese Vintage has songs that were mastered from another CD. They just load them a DAW and master them. Marty Wekser told me that's what he has done in the past. You would be surprised at how many of your favorite reissues are mastered from commercial CDs! Warner Brothers is notorious for having done this in the early 90s.

This makes you realize just how lucky Steve Hoffman is for being able to get master tapes.

[Gary]

Lucky? Or respected through out the industry? :D

I'd bet that a problem Steve runs into is that the record company worrries when Steve remasters something. Because the record co. would have a hard time to do it better!

[Grant]

That's probably one of the reasons he can no longer release the Elvis' "24karat Hits Vol 2".

[njwiv]

Originally posted by Gary
Lucky? Or respected through out the industry? :D

I'd bet that a problem Steve runs into is that the record company worrries when Steve remasters something. Because the record co. would have a hard time to do it better!

Unfortunately, it often seems that they don't care. The new remastering philosophy seems to be Spinal Tap-esque: "one louder!". And the louder you go, the more prominent the tape hiss becomes, so they then feel the need to apply noise reduction.

[Steve Hoffman]

Grant, and njwiv,

True and true.
:(

[Dave B]

Originally posted by Gary
I'd bet that a problem Steve runs into is that the record company worrries when Steve remasters something. Because the record co. would have a hard time to do it better!

There's a simple solution to this problem. Steve must remaster every major LP released since 1955 so they have the "Breath Of Life" sound. Whadya say Steve? You've already got a good start.

[Matt]

I get the feeling that most remastering jobs nowadays are done with a misguided idea of what good sound is. The way some people add a lot of air to some discs, the smiley-face EQ, making it much louder, etc...anything that adds "something." Everytime I read a review on a remastered disc from a non-audiophile source, they often assume that the sound must be improved, and this is often for discs that have something boosted. I think there's an impression with some of these people that if you hear something there you didn't hear before, it's because the previous job done with older technology didn't manage capture every detail on the master tape.

[Grant]

The ignorance of some reviewers is astounding! Soon after the first Motown box was released Michael Musto reviewed it in People magazine by saying that it sounded better because it was remixed to stereo. Of course, I fired off a letter informing them that the box uses all of the original mono mixes. Needless to say, they did not print it.

[Jeff H.]

Speaking of the "Top Gun" soundtrack, the expanded remastered version has one track with a problem. The master that Sony used for Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls Of Fire" has a major dropout on one part of the song. Extremely annoying!!!