DCC Highway 61 Revisited Defect

[Richard Feirstein]

It has been noted that on Like a Rolling Stone, the stereo releases, including the DCC remaster has a defect, in that Bob's voice shifts position at one point. I just pulled a discussion of this off Roger Ford's web page and produce it here for anyone interested. The question for Steve is why did you not attempt to correct for this as was done on later CD releases?

From Steve Ford:

Like A Rolling Stone

The stereo mix provides a longer version of the track than the original single or the mono LP, fading out around 8 seconds later. The rough mix continues for a further 20 seconds, until the players run out of steam with a final organ chord from Kooper.

An oddity in the stereo mix of this track occurs in the first verse: as Dylan sings ". . . bound to fall, you thought . . .", his voice shifts towards to the right hand side and back to the centre. This flaw must have been introduced at the 1965 stereo mix-down stage, as it can be heard on the DCC gold CD remaster which was taken directly from the original stereo mix tapes. It is also audible on some vinyl releases; the standard CD must have been made from the cutting master used for these. On many vinyl album releases, however, the fault cannot be heard, so at least one stereo cutting master tape must have been made which rectified the fault by momentarily lifting the level of the left-hand channel. This correction has also been attempted, with varying degrees of success, on digitally remastered versions of this track which appear on compilations such as Biograph and the US Greatest Hits.

A slightly different mono mix of the song has appeared on acetates; in this mix it is Bloomfield’s lead guitar, rather than the piano, which dominates the opening bars. Two of the three acetates concerned are double-sided 45 rpm discs, with the song split into two parts. This suggests that the radio station promo single, which was similarly split into Parts 1 and 2, may also have used this mix; but I have yet to hear a copy.

[Steve Hoffman]

Richard,

First of all, I never use digital workstations so there is no way to fix this "defect" in the analog mode.

It's just a dropout on the original tape.

Some Columbia tape copies don't have this drop out; they were made before the drop out occured due to tape wear. Some tape copies have this dropout; they were made after the drop out occured due to wear.

Now, there is only one way to use a worn out Columbia master tape; master it, with warts and all, which is what I did.

Bob Irwin remixed three Simon & Garfunkel albums because of similar dropouts, but (even though I had the Dylan 8-tracks handy) I didn't want to. Nothing like that original Columbia mix.

So, I left it.

The drop out does not appear on the Greatest Hits, because when that album came out (1967) the original masters were copied onto the Greatest Hits tape, and the actual LP masters were still in pretty good shape.

So, folks, get over it or put your Dylan "Highway 61 Revisited" DCC Gold CD's on ebay. I think someone will grab 'em!:)

[guy incognito]

Originally posted by Steve Hoffman
So, folks, get over it or put your Dylan "Highway 61 Revisited" DCC Gold CD's on ebay. Someone will grab 'em!:)

And how! ;)

[Michael]

Originally posted by Steve Hoffman
Richard,

First of all, I never use digital workstations so there is no way to fix this "defect" in the analog mode.

It's just a dropout on the original tape.

Some Columbia tape copies don't have this drop out; they were made before the drop out occured due to tape wear. Some tape copies have this dropout; they were made after the drop out occured due to wear.

Now, there is only one way to use a worn out Columbia master tape; master it, with warts and all, which is what I did.

Bob Irwin remixed three Simon & Garfunkel albums because of similar dropouts, but (even though I had the Dylan 8-tracks handy) I didn't want to. Nothing like that original Columbia mix.

So, I left it.

The drop out does not appear on the Greatest Hits, because when that album came out (1967) the original masters were copied onto the Greatest Hits tape, and the actual LP masters were still in pretty good shape.

So, folks, get over it or put your Dylan "Highway 61 Revisited" DCC Gold CD's on ebay. Someone will grab 'em!:)

Got mine on the day it was released. The absolute best out there. I can live with a minuscule drop-out!

[Richard Feirstein]

Steve; everyone loves your remaster, yes they do. No criticism intended really, just wanted you to set the record straight why this "defect" appears in some places, incluing your remaster. I'm of course curious just how much better an SACD remix from the 8 tracks would sound. Perhaps we will see some day. But yes, I know, that does not conform to your prime directive to capture the sound of the initial release. And apparently the Blond on Blond remaster was derived from the 4 track mix and not from the 8 track raw tape from which all the non-NYC recordings were produced.

[Paul L.]

Richard,

Blonde On Blonde was recorded on four tracks originally. There never were eight channels.

John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline were recorded on eight tracks, as were the Nashville portions of Self Portrait. The portions of Self Portrait recorded in NYC were made on sixteen.

[Richard Feirstein]

Roger Ford's web site notes that Blond on Blond started in NYC on 4 track and then the sessions were moved to Nashville to take advantage of the 8 track hardware at that location. Apparently the SACD was mixed down to stereo from a 4 track master, meaning that most of that material may still exist in unmixed 8 track form. Let's hope no one thinks "Blond on Blond multi-channel."

[Steve Hoffman]

Now I'm totally confused. Columbia Nashville was the only CBS studio NOT to have an eight-track. They barely had a four-track machine. NYC and LA had eight-track machines.

The John Wesley Harding session tapes were four-track, as were Blonde On Blonde, unless I was dreaming in an alternate universe...:confused:

[lukpac]

Originally posted by Richard Feirstein
Roger Ford's web site notes that Blond on Blond started in NYC on 4 track and then the sessions were moved to Nashville to take advantage of the 8 track hardware at that location. Apparently the SACD was mixed down to stereo from a 4 track master, meaning that most of that material may still exist in unmixed 8 track form. Let's hope no one thinks "Blond on Blond multi-channel."

Actually, Roger's site says that everything was 4-track:

From http://www.rdf.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BobPart1/BobPart1.htm:

In brief, one track ("One Of Us Must Know") was recorded in New York on January 25, 1966; the remainder of the album was recorded in two series of sessions in Nashville from February 14-17 and from March 7-10, with a further overdub session on June 16. All sessions, according to Krogsgaard, were recorded on four-track tape; each track would generally have been used to record more than one instrument.

Krogsgaard's site says the same thing:

From http://www.punkhart.com/dylan/sessions-2.html:

In the last article I stated that most of Blonde On Blonde was recorded in 8-track in Nashville. It now appears that this is probably not true. The first album for which there are session tapes in 8-track is John Wesley Harding. All existing tapes from the Blonde On Blonde sessions are 4-track.

Of course, he neglects to mention that (according to Steve) Hwy 61 was done on 8-track in NYC.

[lukpac]

Originally posted by Steve Hoffman
The John Wesley Harding session tapes were four-track, as were Blonde On Blonde, unless I was dreaming in an alternate universe...:confused:

Well, Krogsgaard says that JWH was done on 8-track, so...

[Steve Hoffman]

Eight-track at CBS in Nashville in 1967? No way Jose!

Late 1968, wasn't it?

[Paul L.]

Highway 61 Revisited was recorded on four-track.

John Wesley Harding looks like it was too. Although there is a photocopy of a John Wesley Harding tape box that states "8 trk. masters" on it, maybe that was a 4-track tape put on 8-track for some reason, or maybe it's mislabeled. Because there are other photocopies of boxes of master tapes from John Wesley Harding that say 4-track on them.

[Richard Feirstein]

I assume I need to check up on my reading comprehension.

:rolleyes:

[Richard Feirstein]

Concerning that 8 Track statement I posted: It was not an article by Roger Ford but an article by Michael Krogsgaard that I had recently read that stated that all of Blond on Blond recorded in Nashville was on 8 Track. He had gone through the Sony/Columbia session records and was writting about all of Dylan's recording sessions.

I missed the fact that a subsequent article by Mr. Krogsgaard corrected this error. Glad I found this source; I though I was beginning that long road toward total memory loss. Sorry if I caused any confussion on this point.:D