Questions for Ron Furmanek

Ron Furmanek

Had a nice, two hour chat tonight with none other than Ron Furmanek .

He's a super guy, for those who dont know him. Very down to earth.

We've been meaning to catch up for like a year now, and tonight was the night. It was good to talk with him.

Ron has done SO MUCH stuff, its hard to know where to start asking him stuff, but Ron ,as always was kind enough to take the time and answer my sometimes silly questions.

I'm very familiar with a lot of Rons work,

Ron has some GREAT stories about doing the EMI 'Legendary Masters" series, Abbey Road, Capitol Tower, you name it. I didnt know that Ron was nominated for a Grammy for his "Les Paul" box set. Ron told me that there are several Very interesting things in the pipeline, among them the Les Paul Columbia material may come out in all stereo, which is great news.
And did you know the first rock artists to use the multitrack at Abbey Road were....................Freddie and The Dreamers!!


Ron explained to me why some of the projects he's done have some tracks that sound different from whats remembered, and rest assured, its not what people think. Ron has had to pull some real tricks out of the hat to get some stuff released, and most people dont know the trouble and painstaking work he's had to do to get some of the stuff out there. There are so many multitracks missing it isnt funny, and some have Vocals on them in other languages!!!! We talked a lot about the Hollies box set, which I happen to love. I'm a big Hollies fan, and I think that box set sounds much better than the two track stereo mixes, which to me, dont do the Hollies material justice. The box set sounds like the Hollies are playing in your living room, especially the drums.

I'm trying to get Ron to come and post here. What do you guys say, think people will play nice if Ron decides to come aboard?

Mikey

 

I hereby pledge to be nice! I happen to like a lot of his work.

 

I would expect no less from the membership assembled...with Gort supervision of course...

 

Well, yea, but Rons has READ some of the stuff people said and he;s not happy, and I dont blame him.

 

Let's face it, forums are always going to have that element to them...and I think this one does far and away the best job of minimizing it. That should be filed with Ron in the 'full disclosure' area...

 

I would hope so, Power!! I'd love to have Ron here...he couls really set a lot of folks straight about what exists and what doesnt.

Like there are NO Peter and Gordon Multis in exsistance....Ron didnt remix anything for the Cd because there are no multis to remix!!!

 

I think this information is no one's business, is it?

 

Certain things might not be, but many things are Ok.

 

I would love to see Ron here. Anyone with the knowledge he has would certainly be most welcome here!

 

It is always great to have an "insider" on the Forum who is willing to share information.

I certainly don't think we have members "lying in wait" as if they were duck hunting, but I'm also sure that everyone won't always be positive.

I'd love to see Ron come on board; he can always "walk away" if he has a bad experience.

 

Mikey,

Ron would be most welcome here and we Gorts are here to make sure that members behave appropriately. Ron should know that we have many folks here who are simply great people and who love and cherish vintage music. We also appreciate the 'sweat equity' that release of such vintage material requires...

Ron, please join us!

Bob

 

Mikey,

I think it would be amazingly swell if Ron would be willing to share his insights and opinions with folks here at the forum!

BTW, the next time you speak to Ron, ask him if he has any recollection of a Syracuse, NY, two-day Beatle film festival sponsored by a local radio station way back when in 1978...

Gary

 

With no disrespect ... Angel ... what difference does it make? ... IMO, it is better to tell the consumer something like this rather than leave them in the dark thinking the people at the record company are a bunch of "idiots for not issuing Peter & Gordon in stereo ...

 

Hi Mikey ... Thanks for sharing your conversation with Ron Furmanek ... I would find it very interesting to hear background on some of the many projects with which he has been involved ...

 

Gary:

I know exactly what you are talking about. It was an opportunity to see Magical Mystery Tour (Gifford Auditorium at HBC?) long before anyone else. After the show, we went to Cosmo's for pizza, to the Varsity for more pizza, and then to the Orange for--well, I can't remember.

John

 

Puh-lease

 

John, I was wrong on the year, it was 1979 (not 1978 as I posted earlier), but yes, we are talking about the same event. Here's the story as originally published in the May 1979, 95X-TRA:

 

It would be great if Ron would be joining us here to share some information on his projects. I would love to hear more about his work with the Hollies tapes...I'm also a big Hollies fan.... Mike , when you say box set on the Hollies are you talking about the new box set or the 3 Disc set EMI put out here in the states...?


Thanks,

JF

 

Can someone tell me what the word is for having a sense of hearing something early in the day and then hearing it again in the same day? It could be a word or song and it is always an unusual one that you haven't heard in awhile or at all.

My reason for this question is I just received James Taylor's debut CD from Tom Port 2 hours ago and the mastering engineer is Ron Furmanek. I am not familiar with his name. I log on here and the first thread I see is this one with his name...strange. This happens to me all the time. I'm sure there is a Rich Hall sniglet for this occurence...anyone know?

btw..the cd sounds excellent. it's mastered from the 2 track stereo mix at Abbey Road.

Tom

 

I'd welcome Ron here in a heart beat. I have many CD's in my collection that he was responsible for. Ron may get criticized a lot for his remixing of some artists material. At lease Ron doesn't drench soak songs in NoNoise and compress the hell out of them. That's a lot more I can say for other re-mastering engineers.

 

Come on and join us Ron.

It might be more fun than you think.

 

I am a BIG fan.

I have discs he's done for Manfred Mann, The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Hollies, Badfinger/Apple and others. He is a great tape researcher. His aesthetic is different than Daddy Steve's, but he gets us the goods more often than not.! I would be thrilled to chat him up.

 

Wow!! great response.

I will tell Ron all this and see what he says. And I will tell you this...he has a TON of groovy stories about finding and working with some of the greatest rock and roll music ever made.

And the Hollies set was the EMI one from a few years ago. Ron produced it. Great job, too.