The Dennis Drake Thread!

Thanks Miike. I think I'm staying with the remaster. Warmer sound and 6 bonus tracks work for me.

 

I have the remaster, too, and an lp that isn't all that great sound-wise. Odd thing: yourmusic.com shows the Verve in a title search, but the cart shows the MoFi image.

I'm still learning about which Time/Life issues to get. It's harder to decide without Drake's name in the credits.

Stephen

 

Eric Clapton Crossroads?

I believe Greg Calbi mastered that one.

Bill

 

Last night, I picked up 2 more Dennis Drake mastered T-L comps ...

T-L Smooth Soul ... 2 CDs (30 tracks) (2000) ... manufactured for T-L by Universal Music

T-L More Smooth Soul ... 1 CDs (20 tracks) (2000) ... manufactured for T-L by Universal Music

The CD title "Smooth Soul" is somewhat of a misnomer ... the songs are '50s and '60s slow tempo chart hits by black artists ... I couldn't find a track list to link ... and I type too slowly ...

 

Thanks, Pat... makes it easy to track down stuff from one of my favorite remasterers!

Would also love to have a site for Kevin Gray's work if anyone knows one.

 

This is a good list. It's kind of old, but it has definite catalog numbers and years.

Allmusic has a nice list, but you have to weed through a lot because they don't really tell you which version Dennis mastered.

LINK

I'm a BIG fan of Mr. Drake. I really enjoy his Time-Life stuff, and you don't know the thrill I get when I run into a Polygram/Polydor/Mercury CD in a used record shop, knowing there's a good chance that DD mastered it.

I would like to add a vote for the Oscar Peterson/Sinatra album as a great-sounding disc, but it is really hard to choose a favorite.

For some reason a standout is Waylon Jennings' "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" on Time-Life's Classic Country 1965-69. There's something about the sound of that version. I never really noticed the song before.

 

Mastering Comments

The Rod Stewart Album has an interesting story. When I first put the tape up on the 1/4" ATR, it sounded dull to me. I tried EQ'ing but I felt I just wasn't getting the full energy of the music, especially the drums. Having been a recording engineer for many years in California (Western Studios), I knew what a live drum kit should sound like. I decided to add a slight amount of delay/ambience to the mix and I think it really helped it. The high frequency info on the tape was "tired" from age. On subsequent pressings, the Director of Catalog, Bill Levenson, had me do a re-mastering without the ambience enhancement.

The Hank Williams masters consisted of about 10 reels of 1/4" tape that were originally transferred from acetate disks. The disks could not be found, so the tape transfers were all we had to work with. The surface noise really bothered me, so I used a great low pass filter we had on a Troisi console that the studio had.
By setting it just above the highest harmonics of the voice/music, I was able to filter out a great deal of the pops & crackle from the original, worn out disks. EQ-wise, I tried to get a full, warm sound that was musical and listenable.

The 45's On CD was a fun series (3 Volumes) that I did with Tim Rodgers at the Polgram studios in Edison (now gone). It was a great collection of single masters, each tape with it's own story. I remember the Animals and Righteous Brothers masters not being in the greatest shape. Some of the tracks sounded incredible for their age. We tried to get a balanced sound across the board for such a wide variety of material.

I only did the first six or seven volumes of the Singer-Songwriter Series for Time-Life Music. As always, I searched for the best sounding source for each individual track. If it's not 100%, it doesn't go out the door.

Dennis Drake/The Music Lab
Morganville, NJ (9/7/05)

 

Thanks for the informative post Dennis.

 

You did a great job ... thanks for telling us how you accomplished it ...

 

Dennis,

I'm a big fan that owns many of your CD's and loves your work.
My question is related to just what your talking about concerning The Rod Stewart Album.
On the first 5 Stewart solo LP's you worked on (All sound great BTW) :

Are the ones with the added slight amount of delay/ambience the Red writing "Atomic" Mercury design on CD or are they the later ones (with black writing) which also have your name in liner note credits? - I have both and they both sound great!
Although discussed many times on Steves Music Forum, I don't think we've ever had a definitive answer - so I figured why not ask the master himself?

Also which versions of The RSA, GA, EPTAS, NADM and Smiler are your favorites?

 

Bump

 

Dennis-
Great job with the Thin Lizzy CD's you did. No need for remasters here. I'm sad some are going OOP (Night Life & Fighting).

 

I did not know Dennis Drake did Night Life. Thanks Shawn - another one to look for . It is tough enough to find Fighting nowadays.

 

...thanks Dennis for your appearance in this thread! I was hoping you'd show up...great info!

 

Dennis, can you talk about the Ella Fitzgerald songbooks? What master tapes did Schaap find that you didn't have?

 

Just thought I'd check another early Oscar peterson CD in my collection - "OP Plays the Cole Porter Songbook" - and it's remastered by Dennis Drake. Mine is a West German copy, and the sound is very nice.

Another one in the collection... "Gerry Mulligan Meets the Saxophonists" (Verve Silver Collection) - remastered by Dennis Drake, 1985, made in West Germany. Another great sounding disc.

In contrast, I was playing "Oscar Peterson Plays Harold Arlen" which was released as a Verve Master Edition in 2001 - 24-bit mastered by Kevin Reeves. I have never heard such prominent tape hiss on an album of this era (on the 1959 tracks). It's strange because all of the 1959 songbook session tracks were recorded in the same sessions, so the sound should not vary that much. I think the VME Arlen disc has been top-end-boosted or something... I also have the Best of the OP songbooks, mastered by Ben Young. The tape hiss on the same tracks is nowhere near as prominent as on the Arlen disc.

I wish Verve stuck with Mr Drake for their remasters...

 

No question .

Kevin Reeves = top-end-boost

 

This one may have already been mentioned upthread, but I picked up a used copy of Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson today for $5.99 and it sounds really nice. Oddly enough, I had a copy of the remaster in my hands at Borders yesterday, but bought Ellington's Money Jungle instead. So, today I spot the Ben Webster CD while browsing through the meager jazz section at the local used CD store and notice Dennis Drake's name on the back. Glad I didn't buy it yesterday!

 

I know for sure that Dennis Drake didn't do the complete series of the Singers And Songwriters on Time-Life.

I do own one of them (1972-1973), and this one was done by Dennis Drake. I was just at a used CD store, and they had two more volumes, and one of them listed a different mastering engineer (don't recall his name at the moment, but it wasn't anybody I know).

The other one in the store which was done by Dennis Drake had "Betty Davis Eyes" on there by Kim Carnes. I don't recall the other one which was definitely not done by Dennis Drake.

Does anybody know which ones were done by Dennis Drake. Maybe owners of these CD's could check in the booklet and state their findings. That would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Roland

 

Roland, I can't confirm because I don't have the artwork, but my 1980-82 Singers & Songwriters sure sounds like Dennis' work and it does start with Betty Davis Eyes.

 

Dennis, a hearty "welcome aboard." Certainly, you have your share of fans here. I recently bought your Duane Allman Anthology and was blown away at how powerful it sounded.

We are a fanatical bunch, but mainly because we love great-sounding music!

Hope you'll stick around, Dennis!

 

In the past few weeks I've scored several Dennis Drake mastered Allman Brothers CDs found in the used bins. Got Live at the Fillmore East, Brothers & Sisters and Win, Lose or Draw, adding to the Dreams box set which I already had. A while back I lucked up and found a used copy of his version of Layla. It certainly pays to keep checking those used bins!

 

I'm pretty sure I have this, I'll check...IIRC, it is Dennis Drakes work!

 

Dave, thanks for the info.

I just went back to the CD store and decided to get the one which was also done by Dennis, and it is the 1980-1982 one. I also found the 1978-1979 there, both were $10.

The one which was not done by Dennis was titled 1979-1989. If I remember the name correctly, it was done by someone named Rick Price (or similar). This one is from 2001, while the other ones I have which are done by Dennis are all from 2000.

Can anybody comment on the sound quality/mastering of the later ones not done by Dennis (i.e. 1979-1989, but maybe there are more of them). Thanks.

Is there a good compilation which has the song
Harden My Heart by Quarterflash

I like that song a lot and would like to own it on CD.

Roland