Who mastered the Classic Records version of Miles' "Kind of Blue"

can't find the info anywhere

BTW: is this title the original stereo mix or the remix

 

Bernie Grundman using Mark Wilder's stereo remix.

 

when the remix was done?

 

It was done for the 1997 Legacy CD edition.

Transferred from the safety (first generation) 3-track session tapes to a modern Dolby S stereo tape. Done in Mark Wilder's Sony mastering studio in NYC. Every post-1997 digital edition, plus the Classic, and the 50th anniversary LP, are from this same re-mix stereo tape.

The 1992 Mastersound is a Mark Wilder re-mix also, but direct from the 3-track to digital.

Everything previous to 1992 would have been from Irving Townsend's 1959 original mix stereo tape made using the primary (also first generation) 3-track session tapes.

Except for mono LPs, which would have been cut from the mixed live-to-mono session tapes.

I really need a life, eh?

 

Not to mention the speed corrections.. (I remember that, but couldn't tell anyone the history of the mixes..)

 

Where in the remix history from Foobar did the speed corrections take place then?

 

Not speed corrected, but rather correct speed.

At the session they ran two separate 3-track tape machines, and two mono tape machines. So, there were four (!) original first-generation session tapes. For the first session (side one) the primary 3-track was running at the wrong speed, the other three were fine. Nobody noticed for a good 30 years. They used that wrong-speed 3-track for the original 1959 mix, and all stereo releases prior to 1992. The mono LPs were always correct-speed.

The Wilder re-mixes (1992 and 1997) use the correct speed safety (but, first-generation) 3-track. So, he didn't "correct" anything, just pulled the correct tape.

 

Thanks for the clarification

 

Are we talking about the Classic 4LP 45RPM set?

 

Oh, you really know the subject, foobar! Amazing! Thanks for the info

 

All of them, 45 or 33.

Sad isn't it?

 

So this means the last release to feature the original mix was that crappy 1980s CD with wrong artwork?

 

Bummer. I paid a pile of $$$ for the Classic 45 edition. Now you tell me there's no difference between it and every post-1997 digital edition.

Moreover, it sounds as if the 1992 Mastersound is superior to every post-1997 digital edition, because it was mixed from the 3-track direct to digital. The 1997 remix was mixed to tape and then transferred to digital, so it's a generation down, right?

It seems that the best source might be the mono LP, because it was mixed live to mono.

EDIT. There's a mono LP on eBay right now for $400. Great.

 

I suppose so, but the "original mix" you refer to ran at the wrong speed, remember?

 

What do you mean? The vinyl was analog sourced and produced all the way through, mastered from Wilder's remix stereo tape.

For the CD/SACD, it was mastered differently, to digital.

 

You'd want to buy a mastersound and listen to it. Most of us like the Wilder remaster just fine, CD or SACD. I now see why it sounds clearer than those made from the stereo master.

The mono LP is fine too.

 

Foobar,

Is this also what the SACD multichannel mix comes from?

 

Some of those from 1986 had the correct artwork, but the same crappy mastering. There is a different Sony mastering from 1983, which sounds quite nice. Those are the only two unique digital masterings before the re-mixes.

Again, nobody noticed that for 30 years. Not the producers, not the engineers, not Miles.

 

Same source tape, yes. Different in that Bernie G. used that for his analogue mastering, and Mark W. used in for his digital mastering.

On paper, yes. In practice it is my least favorite version. But, to each his own.

 

Same correct speed three-track session tape, yes.

I'm not certain about this, as I don't have an SACD player or surround system, but I think the "multi-channel" is 3.0, not 5.1. Just the three-track session tape transferred to the left-center-right channels.

 

Original pressings of this title have been both collector and audiophile favorites for a long time now. They have always commanded a premium.

There is a mono WLP 24/96 needledrop "out there" which is stunning. Well worth checking out!

Keep in mind this is public domain now in Europe. I was in Ameoba and noticed an alternate cover pressing on Jazz Wax records:
http://www.amazon.com/Kind-Blue-Vinyl-Miles-Davis/dp/B0034JV670
Might not be any more Columbia/Sony masterings of this in the future?

 

Actually, let me amend that.
(Are we bored yet?)
Of the official releases there are only two digital masterings of the original mix.

There is a whole slew of (legal) non-official releases coming out in Europe, and I don't know what all was used for these. This one:



On the bottom of this page:
http://www.kind-of-blue.de/seiten/boxen/miles_kob_box.htm
Is listed as:

"Off speed" would indicate original mix. Plus, it sez "Original Recording" whatever that means. But, who knows what the source could ultimately be?

 

3.0 it is

 

There was a 2xLP Classic Records reissue of KOB advertised as featuring the original stereo recording on one LP (33rpm), and the correct speed side A on the second LP. (also, on the other side of the second LP there was a 45rpm cut with "Flamenco Sketches" outtake)

So, what source was used for this reissue?

It's my understanding that the original Irving Townsend stereo mix tape was no longer available at that time, so... did Classic Records remix from the original primary session tapes? Or indeed they were able to get the original Irving Townsend stereo mix tape right before it became completely useless?

 

To get the off speed sound, they changed the playback speed of the corrected/remixed tape they were using for everything else. Not a different source tape, just a different playback speed.