Questions for Ron Furmanek

Thankyou Steve!

lotsa fun so far!,..folks,...I'm sorry I cannot be here as often as I would like to be,.......( I got two little ones running around here), ya know,.school, homework & all of the other usual kids madness fun type o' stuff!

I'll be back folks,..keep them cards & letters coming!

Ron F

 

Ron Furmanek

 

Hiya Doug!

Thankyou also for the kind words!,..I do try!

Good question!,....it has happened a couple of times,..our old friends The Hollies first comes to mind,..they wanted some of the "studio stuff" trimmed a bit,..no problem there,..but,..the one thing that still bugs me are the two songs "Carrie Anne" & "King Midas in Reverse",...on the very last day,..they pulled my two new mix's,..& stuck on those awful old left & right stereo mix's in there!,..if they would have at least listened to my reasoning, I would have strongly preferred the mono's go in there,.rather than those two old crummy mix's,......I still feel that there was no reason to dislike them,..Graham Nash was 100% on my side about what he called his "baby"(Midas),..the stereo version we have been hearing since 1967 is bad & wrong!,..for example,..the mono single has the whole intro sung by Graham in a beautiful single tracked vocal,...as where the stereo is mistakingly double tracked!!

I recreated the mono mix to a tee,...(not to mention syncing up 3 four track tapes!!),..my new mix is a revelation,with voices & sounds coming from all over the place!,..like I said,..Graham loved it!,..but,..the others I think actually got scared of it!!,..in the end,...while discussing the kind of hogwash I went though on this set with Mr Nash,..he pretty much said,."well Ron,..thats part of why I left the band"!!

Lastly regarding this set,..it was actually all finished in the can as a double cd folks!!,..,..yup!,..every one of those songs fit on two 30 plus track cd's!!,..well,..not good we hear,.....so,..they had to add three new 90's songs,..and bingo!,..a three cd set!,..I ask you!,..yikes!,..the record biz!,..go figure!

Another few that I had to change that come to mind is the Frank Sinatra 3 cd set,..I has around 5 or 6 rare unreleased alternate takes of some tunes there,&,Frank personally asked us to take them off & insert the released versions!,..although I did manage to get several rare & unreleased gems on there anyway!,.....James Taylor requested that we take some bonus cuts off of his debut lp on Apple,.as did Mary Hopkin for the Earth Song cd release,..I had at least 5 bonus cuts at the end of Ass,.the 4th Badfinger lp on Apple,..but,..4 were chopped off because somebody did not like them!

Well,..I hope that I didn't go too overboard with my storys here folks,..its just that the Hollies project was & is very important to me,....I know that there are other storys I could tell along these lines,..but,.thats all I can think of right now,..its late!

thanks again folks

Ron F.

 

Hi

Thanks for the note,..my latest involved project was actually just released last week!,.."The Beatles First US Visit" DVD,..(get it now!!),.....,...& there other new things brewing!,.I will be glad to post news as I am allowed!

thanks

Ron F

 

That Cee Dee has the absolute best sounding version of Hurricane Smith's "Oh Babe, What Would You Say"! Putting back the wonderful bottom end that was/is removed in all the other versions out there...
Check it out

 

Heh! I'm so used to hearing the mastering on the Rhino "Have A Nice Day" CD that I forgot what it sounds like on the Capitol CD. I'll have to dig it out. I have four two-foot stacks of various artist CDs here that I have to go through...

 

Hey Ron,
Again, thanks for joining us and giving the inside scoop. I have one more question before letting the others have another chance. This is more of a basic question to put a perspective on your work.

As we've learned, Steve has certain methods and goals when he does a project. He has also said while his basic philosophy hasn't changed, if given the chance to re-do some of his projects (from 10 to 20 years ago), he would do less than he originally did to them before making the master for copying. (the latest CCR SACDs are an example of getting that chance)

I would like for you to give your basic philosphy in mastering and remastering and the sound you are looking for and wonder if your ideas have changed any over time.

Thanks,
Doug

 

"Lastly regarding this set,..it was actually all finished in the can as a double cd folks!!,..,..yup!,..every one of those songs fit on two 30 plus track cd's!!,.."


I can still remember when a friend of mine showed me the EMI press release with the proposed 2 CD track listing for for The Hollies collection. Ron, welcome to the forum; your input is greatly appreciated.



Ed Hurdle
HeavyDistortion

 

Hi Charles

Thanks for the note & kind words,..yes,..as other kind folks here have posted,..it was left off the first run by mistake!,..its on all the newer ones,..The Bobby Vee disc was one of the first 5 we did on the EMI CD series,..they all kinda went out with odd errors here & there!,..in fact,.some errors STILL have not been fixed!,.15 years later!

The Ricky Nelson volume one still has "Poor liitle GIRL" on the back inlay card!,.&,they never added the words (alternate take) next to "Never be anyone else but you"!!

I still have a copy of a sheet of paper around here someplace that I gave the art department of changes to me made!,..well,.whatever will be will be!

If you like Bobby Vee you will surely want to hunt down the 3 other CD'S I did on the man!,.."Sings Buddy Holly"(10 rare bonus cuts!),.."Meets the Crickets"(10 rare bonus cuts),&,the "Christmas album" (one bonus cut),..Bobby still raves about my work,& has told me personally how pleased he is!,...He is still performing with his sons!,..still puts on one incredible show,.worth looking for him!

Ron F

 

Hi Ray

thanks for the kind words!

Ron F

 

Ron, If you would tell us about some of the stuff behind the Badfinger & Iveys CD's.

 

Hi Ed!

Okie Dokie!!,..its Nippers greatest hits time!!

The first 5 CD's that I actually ever produced!!!,.....background time anyone!?,....well,..I knew some folks at Nipperland while working on several Elvis LP's (yes,.vinyl!!) "This is Elvis" & "50th celebration box set",......I being in the same shoes that all of you folks are in,.a music lover who is/was tired of the lack of good titles coming out into the CD world (too put it kindly) , well,..I approached the proper folks over there in 1987 with my ideas & thoughts!,..I suggested the series & after a few meetings,..the kind folks agreed,.thus became my first series! "Nippers greatest hits", (yes,.my idea for the title)

I started with the two 1950's,..two 1960s & one 1970s discs,..well,..Got ol' buddy Steve Kolanjian on board,..& turned in the track selections!

By the way,.my idea was strongly influenced by the great series that Dennis Drake had just put together for Polygram,.."45's on CD",.......those were & are the best folks!,..hunt them down!

Before anything was done,.I had a few requests (demands) that I made,..first,..I wanted to be there for all of the tape transfers,..2nd,..no less than 20 songs per disc,..(they wanted 16, I believe,..but,,..I won!),....#3-we had to have Elvis cuts on them!

Ok,.all agreed,..I started invading the recording files,.a fine lady named Bernadette helped us so much!,..I had the tapes ordered up from Pittsburgh,...& then spent days in a small room going through everything,..my major concern was finding the FIRST generation masters!,..yeah!,..they all thought I was nuts!,..so,..the first batch comes in,..I had to refuse at least half of them!,..why?,..well,..they were the right songs,.but,.they were various "best of" or LP masters,....not good enough!,.almost always 2nd or 3rd generation tapes!

So,.I actually met with the head library guy,.Bruce, & we sat for hours going through old dusty log books!,.mind you,.nothing was well catalogued yet,.computer files were to happen much later!,..everthing is filed by yearly master numbers only!,..no artists or song titles!,..yikes!!,..now Bruce was fantastic,....I was able to determine when the 2 track"binaural" material was first recorded (1957),.& that's when I went wild!,....you see,.I did get in some spectacular 30 ips session reels from 1950,.51,.etc,...so,..I knew the stuff was there hiding somewhere!,....I had Harry Belafonte's Day-O on there,..they sent the fake stereo "Calypso" LP master,..WRONG!,..another week,..now comes the mono LP master,..better,.but,..still not the best!,..& then another week goes by& folks, it was amazing,.they get me the original 1955 session reel with 20 takes of "Day-O",...INCREDIBLE what more can one say?,.I knew the RIGHT stuff was starting to be found!

Thanks to Bruce,.we were able to find those binaural session tapes!,.so,..you not only have Perry Como "Catch a falling star",..in stereo,.but,.other outstanding finds by artists such as The Ames Brothers,..Lou Monte,.Harry Belafonte (listen to the guys cracking up at the end of the fade!),.&,..probably the most interesting binaural stereo find!,."Patricia" by Perez Prado!, why so special?,.well,...it was never issued in stereo anywhere,..but,..in 1960 RCA had released "big hits by Prado" LP in Living Stereo,.with re-records of the older mono material!,...WHY was Patricia rerecorded??,....it proves that even 3 years later they did not know that they had a stereo version!

And to top it off,..its an instrumental,....no vocals left & band right,...it sounds great in binaural!,..just like a true two track stereo recording!,..so,..go figure!


As far as the 60's,..I wanted to, & did remix some tracks to match the mono mix's,.& there is some first time stereo there also,..nothing special to shout about on the 70's CD!,..the funny thing is,.&,.a real insult actually,..I had the idea,.concept,.etc,..so,.when I went back to do more volumes,..40's & backwards,..they would not let me do it,..the quote was something like .."oh,.you don't know that material,.somebody else is doing it"!,..I kid you not,..of course,..these titles do come out without my involvement,..jokes galore!!,..stereo 50's re-records of 30's & 40's cuts,etc,.etc,..yikes!,..the lesson is,.get a signed contract folks!

I know that all 5 of mine are still in print, but, I have been told they have been messed with!,..it doesn't surprise me,..it was great working there,.Joe Lopes was a great engineer to work with!,..it was pretty much just Joe & myself there,..the people they paid to work with me was usually down the hall using the telephone!,..they were my first CDS,..levels & eq are all over the place,..but,.I am proud of them,..basically being able to find & present all of the rare stereo & super clean monos!,..& also that since they were released,..other comps now utilize these stereo finds!,.,.although "Catch a falling star" is in mono on the Perry box set from a few years back!,..go figure!


And yes,..finding Perry was a real treat for me,..it was the first record I ever had as a child!,...that song was on a Perry EP I had at the ripe old age of 4!,..& my Parents had the "Como's Golden Records" album from 1957 new originally,..I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Como once & had him sign that very copy!

sorry for yet another mini book folks!

Ron F

 

Same here! Great 'random play' listening....


Thanks so very much, Ron, for the history!

I'll never forget the first time I played "Catch A Falling Star" and almost fell on my ass, the deep bass was that loud! Had to rush and turn it down before stuff started falling all around me, LOL!

I remain amazed at how much RCA stuff you managed to find...loads of Neil Sedaka singles-only things, just for starters, just sitting there for so many years, forgotten...

As for the NIPPER's...don't know if they've been sonically futzed with, but I do know a track here or there were replaced on a few volumes. Pity, whatever they did, the originals were fine as is!

ED

 

Hi Steve

thankyou!,..my first CD's ever!,.I wish I could go back & fix some of them up in places,.but,..you know the story,.its not always possible!

Ron F

 

Hi Ed

thanks,.yeah,..the BASS,..yikes,..don't have anything on top of the speakers for that tune!,...I know our good friend AK had the Sam Cooke tracks removed at one point,..at least I got them out on the market for a while,.at that point in time (1987) the stereo versions of those two tracks were very hard to find!,..fake stereo on the "best of" lp,..& only in stereo on the original rare lp's,...also,..the 70's had some changes almost right after it was released,..I can't remember what though!,..all the changes were legal related!

enjoy the music,& watch that bass!

Ron F.

 

Hi Ron....

I just found your Gary Lewis cd in a used store!!! I think I got way more than my moneys worth for the $7.99 I paid. "This Diamond Ring" has never sounded better. Also "Count Me In" is just great!!! Excellent job sir!

Bob

 

Ah-ha! That's exactly what I thought had happened. I realized very quickly that if those, er, insignificant '90s songs were removed, you could fit everything on two nicely filled CDs. I remember thinking "feels like a money grab to me"...

As I recall, the Hollies set came out with some others, the Don McLean 2 CD set and...hmmm...was it the Gordon Lightfoot complete UA recordings set?? I think you produced the McLean set (a godsend to hardcore fans with tons of unreleased stuff), but not the Lightfoot? Both of those sets are now out of print. Did you work with McLean at all on the set?

Re: The Nippers Greatest Hits collections. Am I remembering correctly that the '70s set got quickly recalled after the first run because RCA didn't have the rights to Bonnie Tyler's "It's a Heartache?"

Kwad

 

Hey Kwad!

You are correct my good man!,..in fact,..the original title for the 2 disc set was "Treasued hits, & hidden treasures",..Steve Kolanjian's clever title I must say!

I'll try to hunt down the copy's I have of the artwork for the front cover & 2 disc labels & post them here some day.

You are also correct about the 3rd title!,..it was the Yardbirds 2 disc set-"Little Games & more",..another classic must have, if I might say so myself! thanks for the good words about the Don Mclean set,..Don LOVED what we did!,..lots of fgreat finds on that set for sure,..ya know,..Hollies & Don are indeed out of print,..BUT,.I know for a fact that the BMG club still has both available!,..&,..they always pop up on ebay!,..(also usually quite inexpensive there I'm told!),..I did not do the Godon Lightfoot set.

Nippers 70's,..yes,..I think you are correct,..they took off Bonnie Tyler & added something else,..(can't remember though!)

Ron F.

 

Ron,

another favorite of mine that you produced is the Jackie DeShannon collection. I thought it did a really good job of summarizing her Liberty/Imperial era recordings (which I FAR prefer to the '70s laid back stuff). I thought it was a significant improvement over the Rhino DeShannon collection of a few years earlier, which gave short shift to the Liberty/Imperial era...

And, predictably, your DeShannon collection is now out of print :-(

Kwad

 

All this talk of great music got me all nostalgic. My folks, especially my mom, had a lot of this stuff playing all the time when I was a kid. I love this music, but have always been scarred of what I'd get whenever buying any (there seem to be lots of crap CDs out of some of this stuff). I checked AllDirect to see what I could get a deal on & picked up the following...

Nipper's 50's Vol.1 ($6.65)
Nipper's 50's Vol.2 ($6.65)
Nipper's 60's Vol.1 ($6.65)
Nipper's 60's Vol.2 ($6.65)
Nipper's 70's Vol.1 ($6.65)
Gary Lewis Legendary Masters ($7.99)
Rick Nelson Legendary Master ($7.99)
Rick Nelson Vol.2 ($7.99)
Ventures Walk Don't Run ($7.99)

...I can't wait till it all gets here!

 

Hmmm, I have a copy from the first run!

I had no idea that Ron was in on those CDs!

 

Hi Ron,

With all this talk about your cd projects I would like to switch gears slightly.

Are you the same Ron Furmanek involved with the Hullabaloo videos?

They are just incredible. If it is you, how much work was involved in putting those together. It is sad (just like the stories about recording masters being tossed) that the video masters are gone. But what is left is tons o' fun.

Oh, by the way, if it isn't you, sorry for the interuption.

Bob

 

Hello Ron!

I love the Capitol Collectors Series and Legendary Masters work you've done. But I especially want to thank you for your work on the Les Paul Box. That baby is a thing of beauty! Is it true we may get Les's Columbia sides in stereo?