petsite
Author/Historian/ Researcher 
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Post by petsite on Jun 23, 2021 16:35:14 GMT -5
I have a question that I hope Mark, Alan or someone else can answer. Talking about the newly released Ten Years Of Harmony and the tape glitch in Good Timin' just got me to wondering about something. Maybe you can clear it up. Here goes.
There are numerous BB tracks that this could be said about, but I will start with Good Timin' for my example. There was a glitch in the master as evidenced on the 1981 release of Ten Years that wasn't on LA or the accompanying single. When the track was released on CD, the glitch was still there. It was there on the LA CD, the US Ten Years comp and the Euro Ten Years (which unlike the recomp'd US version used their 1981 copy master for their release).
When the track turned up on the GV Box in 1993, the glitch was gone. Either an safety copy was found or the track was digitally fixed. Most re-releases on various world wide GH packages seem to use the box set masters for their releases throughout the 90s and beyond.
Then when the GH Volume 3 was compiled in 1999, there was the glitch again. But when the actual Brother LPs got released in 2000, the glitch was gone.
As I said, there are a number of tunes I could say this about, but how does that happen. When there is an inferior quality copy and a superior one is found, isn't that the only one that should get used? I mean, after Mark found the safety for WOULDN'T IT BE NICE, that should have been the only version used. But that rough mix used on MADE IN USA kept showing up on other comps throughout the 90s, including a promotional CD meant to push the remasters, with notes about WIBN with that old version on the actual CD.
If you can give me insight on how mastering works, I would appreciate it.
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Post by Al S on Jun 23, 2021 22:34:37 GMT -5
Is it less about mastering, but rather source selection/designation - or creation?
I guess if you digitally fix a problematic source, you are essentially creating a new source.
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petsite
Author/Historian/ Researcher
Posts: 1,980
Likes: 3,255
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Post by petsite on Jun 24, 2021 0:49:18 GMT -5
My question about mastering is more along the lines of "Ok, we now have this new master assembled (whether it is an LP or just a single that was "fixed"). We also still have the original that is unfixed."
Do they not know to retrieve the fixed master when someone other than the engineer who found/fixed the tape is doing a mastering job. Now, I know that sometimes, when a flawed master comes to an engineer and he/she fixes it, the flawed tape is returned to the vault and the corrected version is used by the engineer for whatever project they are doing. Then (especially when its all digital) they keep the fixed version and whomever comes along after them has to do their own fix. Steve Hoffman fixed DO YOU WANNA DANCE (major dropout before the guitar break) and returned the mono master for TODAY back to CAPITOL and kept the version HE fixed.
So it is along those lines that I ask the question. I will say, the first go around of 20 GOOD VIBRATIONS that came out in 1995 is a train wreck CD compared to the version that Andrew Sandoval did in 1999. That 1995 version was done like ENDLESS SUMMER. Wrong versions of tracks etc. And Barbara Ann has major static in the left channel but not in the right. Why not just take the right channel? It is MONO after all. Again, it must be an easy job to do in-house mastering at these labels for their catalog departments. They don't really care about quality. I talked to someone at CAPITOL after the 1995 20 GV came out and asked why the LP versions of BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL, RONDA etc had been used. He said "We just give them a list of songs. They don't know these groups. They are doing the best they can." Seriously? No one checks behind them OR maybe points them in the right direction? But I digress...
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