Respected Mastering Engineers

[Khorn]

Besides our Steve (one of, if not the best), who are other top mastering engineers and why?
There are guys who consistantly do great work and it's to our advantage for all of us to know who these are.

IMHO it would be best NOT to start talking about the ones we don't respect as they have no chance to defend themselves although, the case might be given that as consumers, providing that information is fair game to prevent us from buying an inferior product.

[wes]

Doug Sax does a good job.............Ummmmmm.....I like Gavin Lurrsen's version of "What's goin On".........Bob Ludwig has done a fine job.....although he has a tendency to brighten things......

-WES

[John Carsell]

How about Dennis Drake. Loved his work on the 80 compilation 45's on CD.

Anyone know if he is still in the remastering business?

[lukpac]

The stuff I've heard from Tim Young (specifically "Who Came First") has been very good. Too bad he wasn't able to do all of The Who's mastering in recent years.

Jon Astley is clearly on the opposite end of the spectrum.

[lsupro]

Ted Jensen, Bob Woodward, Mark Wilder, Stephen Saper.. IMHO :)

[lerun]

Doug Sax - for Weavers' Reunion at Carnegie, Janis Ian's Breaking Silence, Roger Waters' Amused to Death

Bernie Grundman - Willie Nelson's Stardust

[Joseph]

Originally posted by lerun
Doug Sax - for Weavers' Reunion at Carnegie, Janis Ian's Breaking Silence, Roger Waters' Amused to Death

Bernie Grundman - Willie Nelson's Stardust

Plus Bernie for his remaster of Famous Blue Raincoat on Classic Gold CD.

[Drew]

I agree on Doug Sax. I believe this question was asked a few months ago and Steve gave his endorsement. I never really paid attention but I've since noticed that every single CD I have that he's touched has a good sound. When I decided to broaden my horizons by purchasing something like Diana Krall or Allison Krauss (something I wouldn't have purchased just a few years ago), which usually has Doug Sax' name on it I notice the product has lots of detail and the tone sounds really accurate (at least to me).


As I've said before... Bob Ludwig is better at mastering the first time around than remastering a reissue, IMHO.

[Ronflugelguy]

Yeah, dring the 70's and the 80's, TML was in the dead wax of a lot of good sounding lps.(The Mastering Lab-Doug Sax)

[feinstein]

lsupro wrote:
Mark Wilder

I reply:

I have to disagree with you on you nominmation of Wilder. His work on the SACD versions of "Lady In Satin" was horrid. Compare the SACD version of "Lady In Satin" to Classic Record's LP release. At least the Classic Records release seems to have some bottom end.

It sounds as though Wilder didn't use the correct EQ setting on his playback deck when doing the SACD mastering! That kind of carelessness disqualifies him from the "Respected Mastering Engineers" category.

[Grant]

Joe Palmaccio
Bill Inglot/Dan Hersh
Bob Ludwig
Steve Hoffman;)
Mark Wilder
Vic Anscini
Gavin Lurrsen
Bernie Grundman

Hank Waring...NOT!:p

[Ron Stone]

Larry Walsh, for the excellent remastering of the Hi Records catalog on Right Stuff/Capitol, including classic albums by Al Green, Ann Peebles, etc.

Walsh got a very warm, full analog sound; so good, in fact, I never did get around to buying the DCC version of Al Green's GREATEST HITS. I just didn't feel the need to upgrade!

[John Buchanan]

..... of course Doug Sax did the last round of Pink Floyd remastering.

[Grant]

Originally posted by Ron Stone
Larry Walsh, for the excellent remastering of the Hi Records catalog on Right Stuff/Capitol, including classic albums by Al Green, Ann Peebles, etc.



Bill Inglot did the Al Green Right Stuff CDs. Buy the DCC version.

[petzi]

Originally posted by lsupro
..., Bob Woodward, ...Are you sure that´s a mastering engineer and not a journalist ? :rolleyes:

[Ron Stone]

Originally posted by Grant


Bill Inglot did the Al Green Right Stuff CDs.

The Right Stuff reissue in front of me, GREEN IS BLUES, says "Remastered by Larry Walsh, Capitol Records Studios/Sonic Arts Corporation, San Francisco."

In the liner notes, much is made of the "Colossus" A/D converters in the remastering chain. The bulk of my CDs are in storage at the moment, but I believe this notation continued at least through CALL ME.

Did Inglot do the later, uncredited titles (LIVE IN JAPAN, etc.)? I don't have the box or greatest hits albums, just the individual albums. (And as I said, you may be right, as I only have one in front of me).

BTW, I bought the UK imports of HAVE A GOOD TIME (1976) and TRUTH N' TIME (1978), which complete his "secular" prime. They don't feature original cover art, but it's good to have the two Hi albums The Right Stuff didn't get around to issuing.

Also, Al Green completists, I remember an anthology of (pre-Hi?) material that was issued a while back, with a somewhat misleading "Best of" title. Does anyone remember this reissue? Nothing at Towerrecords.com or half.com jogs my memory.

[lsupro]

Originally posted by petzi
Are you sure that´s a mastering engineer and not a journalist ? :rolleyes:

LOL...My bad... I just rented All the President's Men. We're Lucky I didn't type Deep Throat.

Forgive me.. I meant Bob Ludwig.

[Grant]

Originally posted by Ron Stone


The Right Stuff reissue in front of me, GREEN IS BLUES, says "Remastered by Larry Walsh, Capitol Records Studios/Sonic Arts Corporation, San Francisco."


My bad. I thought he did all of them. Inglot did the regular release of the Greatest Hits CD on The Right Stuff label. (The old Motown CD is plain awful!) Dan Hersh did the "More Greatest Hits", and I believe Inglot did the box set. Larry Walsh did "I'm Still In Love With You" but there are no mastering credits for "Let's Stay Together".

[Claus]

I like Doug Sax and also Ted Jensen... they did a lot of good remasterings.

[Togo]

Apart from Steve, my current favorites would be...

Chris Bellman (kd lang "ingenue", Beck "Midnight Vultures", Tom Waits "Mule Variations")

Bernie Grundman

Bob Ludwig

Gavin Lursson (Marvin Gaye "What's Goin' On")


:cool:

[Ken_McAlinden]

(The old Motown [Al Green hits] CD is plain awful!) ...in terms of track selection, I always liked the Motown "Compact Command Performances" disc better than any other single disc set. It had some of the better album tracks (How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, For the Good Times, Take Me to the River) and omitted some of the later singles that I think were good but not as great as others (Sha-La-La, Full of Fire, Belle) On the plus side, they didn't use noise reduction. On the minus side, they boosted the hiss to infinity and beyond with eq and probably not using the best tapes. I don't think Motown got their vaults in order until Bill Inglot started working with them and it applied to their "acquired" catalog stuff as well, apparently.

Oh, and the cover art is ugly as sin. :)

As for Gavin Lurrsen, he also did the Marvin Gaye Box Set, "The Master". For some reason, I thought the older (mostly mono) stuff did not sound quite as good as some previous masterings of the same stuff (e.g. the Hitsville USA box). Everything from "What's Going On" forward sounds about as good as I've heard it, though.

The guy doing most of the Motown reissue mastering now is Kevin Reeves. I never quite know what to expect from him in terms of dynamics and tonality from title to title. Some of his work sounds pretty good, but he seems to either be playing around with excessive compression and eq a lot or is being directed by someone yelling "louder and brighter" on certain titles.

Regards,

[lukpac]

Originally posted by Ken_McAlinden
The guy doing most of the Motown reissue mastering now is Kevin Reeves. I never quite know what to expect from him in terms of dynamics and tonality from title to title. Some of his work sounds pretty good, but he seems to either be playing around with excessive compression and eq a lot or is being directed by someone yelling "louder and brighter" on certain titles.

Yeah...I like to compare the Temps' remastered GH vol. 1 disc (done by Reeves) to one of the individual album remasters, done by Suha Gur. Reeves' disc is overly bright, while Gur's is much more mellow.

[Grant]

Originally posted by Ken_McAlinden
...in terms of track selection, I always liked the Motown "Compact Command Performances" disc better than any other single disc set. It had some of the better album tracks (How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, For the Good Times, Take Me to the River) and omitted some of the later singles that I think were good but not as great as others (Sha-La-La, Full of Fire, Belle) On the plus side, they didn't use noise reduction. On the minus side, they boosted the hiss to infinity and beyond with eq and probably not using the best tapes. I don't think Motown got their vaults in order until Bill Inglot started working with them and it applied to their "acquired" catalog stuff as well, apparently.

The collections on The Right Stuff label have these songs included.

You have to remember that Hi records, Green's label where all of his 70s hits were released, was a London Records label. Somehow, Motown got the catalog in the late 70s. I don't think Motown had all of the absolute masters when they made their greatest hits CD, and the CD was done quickly.

[audiodrome]

Originally posted by John Carsell
How about Dennis Drake. Loved his work on the 80 compilation 45's on CD.

Anyone know if he is still in the remastering business?

I think Dennis Drake is currently working on Time-Life reissues. I agree that his work on the 45's On CD sets was great. Hardly any hiss or compression and great sound.

[Ken_McAlinden]

The collections on The Right Stuff label have these songs included. Yeah, I know. My point was simply that from a track-list standpoint, it was my favorite "single disc" collection. If I was compiling a single Al Green CD and was told I only had an hour to work with, I probably would have come up with exactly the track list on the Motown compilation. Of course, I would want it to sound more like the Right Stuff reissues, the 24 bit PCM of the DVD-audio, or the DCC.

I suppose that if I have an aversion to buying multiple discs and formats, I am hanging out in the wrong forum, though. ;)

Regards,