Vinyl mastering credits and deadwax question

A couple of recent threads (Bryan Ferry / Roxy Music) had me checking the deadwax of 'Street Life 20 Great Hits' which is scribed 'BilBo Tape One' on both Lp’s?

A quick google search led here, great info.

 

WB, it is Darrell Johnson from the Discography site. That would be my scribe DWJ. I was the chief mastering engineer at MCA Recording Studios during the DECCA/MCA transition period. We had no one using a scribe of DWI the only other scribe from the studio during that period would be B.D.I. for Brian David Ingoldsby. I used several different scribes when I first began there, D. J., D.W.J., DJ, DWJ. I only did a few in the early period (1970 & 71 using only block script. After that I began mostly using DWJ with a closed loop on each of the letters. You can see examples in the images section of my bio listing on Discography.com - Darrell Johnson

Poco "Legend" engineer and producer Richard Sanford Orshoff and I had been friends and worked on several projects for years when we got the opportunity to remaster Legend. When MCA acquired the ABC label catalogue Richard saw a chance to remaster one of his favorite projects that he felt had room for improvement in sound quality. By then I had been at JVC Cutting Center for 5 years and we had made the move from Quadraphonic mastering to the newly emerging Audiophile world. All the versions with my DWJ scribe are actually done at Half-Speed using JVC's proprietary Stereo Half-Speed Audiophile Mastering System. Richard and I spent nearly a week cutting reference disc and listening to them in a variety of settings. We did A/B comparisons with the original ABC release as well as test pressings from local and MCA pressing plants. We listened on each others home stereo system as well as studio and office environments for several days. Overall the Gloversville disc won out for best sound quality. Though they are not pressed on JVC's high quality special virgin vinyl that was used for MOFI releases they were made with an improved higher quality compound than conventional commercial releases at MCA. Though the differences are subtle they are more open sounding as well as having extended bottom and top end. Happy to share this with you. Regards, Darrell

 

Many thanks for the excellent sounding cut

 

One of these days I'll see within Discogs if I could pick Mr. Johnson's brain as to a former Columbia Records mastering engineer out of Hollywood who had migrated to MCA Recording Studios by mid-to-late 1973. (With add-ons of pertinent etched deadwax to jog the ol' grey cells.)

Oh, and welcome aboard. Any insight is very well appreciated, especially round here and as far as I'm concerned.

 

Hi
Excellent thread!

I have a question about these initials found on a Portuguese pressing of U2s War.
I know the record was mastered by Gordon Vicary at the Townhouse, but it doesn't look like his signature.

 

@Darrell Johnson, I am curious as to whether you would know the etching style of this fellow MCA mastering/cutting engineer, given that he started sometime in mid-1973 when presumably you would have still been there:

I am convinced that this same engineer, before 1972, was in the employ of Columbia's Hollywood studios, an example of his writing there being:

Checking lacquer log card files at Sony Music's archives today (parallel to @DMortenson's ongoing research into the life and times of Columbia's 30th Street studios on which I ably assisted him), I found that that lacquer above was cut by an individual with the initials 'DT'. I doubt that was Dave Travis, despite his once working at DCT as you had; this particular 'DT's' (unsigned) handiwork was on Columbia Hollywood lacquers as early as 1964 with Terry Stafford's "Suspicion" (he often put another hyphen after the dash number, as on that MCA deadwax).

 

I was starting to think noone was going to link to this. I use it all the time and it's almost complete. I'm sure there are things that haven't made it in there yet, but pretty close to everything most of us will encounter is in there somewhere. Sometimes it just takes time and patience.

 

Does anyone besides me think that Ron McMaster is the greatest name for a mastering engineer?

 

As long as he has nothing to do with Ron McDonald I guess we'll still be O.K.. I couldn't resist!

 

Could somebody tell about
kkmastering
It's etched on my all 'n all copy by EWF

Thanks

 

KK Mastering Labs, Inc.

Ken Khouri Mastering Labs, Inc.

 

Was just listening to a 1975 dutch copy of The basement tapes. The record jackett credits George Horn as mastering engineer. On the deadwax of this dutch pressing, there are only handwritten numbers and a sign on each sides : an H in a circle. Could it be George Horn's way of marking the records he cuts and thus the dutch copy would be made from the Us stampers ?

 

I was looking at the dead wax of some excellent sounding Japan vinyl and I noticed this imprint on lots of my vinyl. From Blue Notes to this one, which happens to be a Joe Walsh album. I am curious. Can anyone identify it and tell me the significance, please?

 

stay away from the ted jensen eagles lp.....now the ones you want are hotel california and on the border they were both done by lee hulko and among the best pressings of those albums.

 

It's JIS for Japanese Industrial Standards, have a look here

 

Thanks for that info!
I'm listening to The Beatles Anthology 3 On vinyl, first pressing IS Capitol edition and it is mastered very quiet!
Like on a scale using 0 th as a reference, it peak at about -12 db, which is Very quiet, compared to most normal lp's that are at least -8 db. I believe though the reason for this is that the sides are word 25 minutes long, and KEV did NOT cut the bass freq's to squeeze those grooves into the slab. Which I have to applaud, as the sound is full and sounds very nice. The pressing isn't crap either, there are pops here and there, but it's definitely not a lousy pressing. The EU pressing s are louder because their DMM cut, which as you know you can fit many more grooves per inch than a normal Lacquer mastering.
So, coming late to the party, Universal re issued the Vinyl sets??
Beave

 

Does anyone know "SL" or "LS"? I'm not sure which it is because the letters are written on top of each other. It's in the deadwax of my "Don Henley - End of the Innocence". TIA.

 

Yesterday I found a NM copy of Coltrane‘s „My Favorite Things“ from the mid to late 70s, pressed by Specialty. It is this one:

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things

Matrix Nos are ST-A-60303/4-D. Behind the Matrix No there is a hand written Signature probably indicating the mastering engineer. I absolutely can‘t decipher it. It looks a bit like „A4P“ or maybe „AeiP“ with the „A“ having a big scroll. Can anybody help me? The Pressing is quiet and sounds much better than my 80s CD.



Thanks!
Plattenmeister74

 

Are you sure it’s not “at/gp”? That would be George Piros who is a likely suspect in this case. His signature is sometimes easier to make out, sometimes more difficult (he could be very sloppy indeed).

 

No, not sure, but that would be very sloppy indeed. I‘ve tried to post a picture made with my mobile (pasted it in) but it doesn‘t show.

 

Thanks, curbach, I think you‘re right. I found other threads describing Piros‘ signature as a sloppily edged @tgp or similar. I have added the mastering Credit to the respective discogs entry.

 

Someone should write a book about this.....Precious information imo