|
|
Post by Stephen W. Desper on Sept 10, 2023 16:00:49 GMT -5
COMMENT: From time to time I am asked about the storage of Beach Boy master tapes. Apart from projects that Mark L. may be working on, I believe Warner and Capital now store everything at one of Iron Mountain's locations. This post deals with the Pennsylvania facility.
Background from Wikipedia: The best-known Iron Mountain storage facility is a 1.7 million sq. ft. high-security storage facility in a former limestone mine at Boyers, Pennsylvania, near the city of Butler in the United States. The facility features climate-controlled storage areas protected by armed guards. It began storing records in 1954 and was purchased by Iron Mountain in 1998. It is here that Bill Gates stores his Corbis photographic collection in a refrigerated cave 220 feet (67m) underground, as well as where Universal Music Group stores its United States masters. Nearby, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management leases another cavern to store, and process government employee retirement papers. The company stores the wills of Princess Diana, Charles Dickens, and Charles Darwin. It also houses the original recordings of Frank Sinatra, as well as master recordings from Sony Music Entertainment (over a million recordings; reportedly in Rosendale, New York), Universal Music Group (in Butler), and Warner Music Group (in southern California).In order to protect the masters, Iron Mountain equips some of its music-holding facilities with professional studios so the masters never have to leave the premises. That is to say, once a tape is stored at Iron Mountain it cannot be removed without first being digitized, so if lost the data or music is preserved -- as you will see in the following video.My friend Michael Fremer, equipment and music reviewer for both Stereophile and The Absolute Sound audiophile magazines recently released the following video. I believe you will find it most interesting and many of you will not be able to stop watching until the end !  View in 1080p and stereo sound-- 1 hour and 42 minutes.
TOUR >>>
|
|
petsite
Author/Historian/ Researcher 
Posts: 2,114
Likes: 3,554
|
Post by petsite on Sept 10, 2023 22:24:14 GMT -5
Iron Mountain saved our asses on the Beach Boys and US Beatles catalog. That is where Capitol decided to store their master tapes when UME wanted them to be put in the same storage area on the UNIVERSAL themepark where everything else went up in flames in 2008. All of Buddy Holly, Eagles, Chuck Berry and so many others.
The Boston Globe did a great article on Iron Mountain back in 2013. I love this photo. Blow it up and you will see the gentleman with a reel in his hand is holding the submaster for ABBEY ROAD. Incidentally, this was the master used for the MFSL release of ABBEY ROAD back in the early 80s. Then, MFSL thought they would be smart and go to EMI for the next master, you know the source. And what did they get? Magical Mystery Tour. And they got the LP master. But, the LP master used by EMI was a copy of the LP master from Capitol with duophonic mixes of Penny Lane, All You Need Is Love and Baby You're A Rich Man. The really stupid thing? When EMI decided to release MMT on cassette, their engineers compiled a new master with all of the tracks in stereo. They told MFSL YOU ARE GONNA WANT TO USE THE CASSETTE MASTER. MFSL turned them down, and so a copy of a copy of a copy was used.
Anyway, take a look at this photo from inside IRON MOUNTAIN. Boy would I love to spend a day in there.
|
|
petsite
Author/Historian/ Researcher
Posts: 2,114
Likes: 3,554
|
Post by petsite on Sept 10, 2023 22:28:39 GMT -5
By the way, on the re-issue of TEN YEARS OF HARMONY from Japan in 2017, it has the following note on the liners.
|
|
|
|
Post by jk on Sept 14, 2023 16:00:37 GMT -5
COMMENT: From time to time I am asked about the storage of Beach Boy master tapes. Apart from projects that Mark L. may be working on, I believe Warner and Capital now store everything at one of Iron Mountain's locations. This post deals with the Pennsylvania facility.
My friend Michael Fremer, equipment and music reviewer for both Stereophile and The Absolute Sound audiophile magazines recently released the following video. I believe you will find it most interesting and many of you will not be able to stop watching until the end ! View in 1080p and stereo sound-- 1 hour and 42 minutes.
TOUR >>> Thank you for this! Fascinating -- all 102 minutes of it, even the parts that were way over my head. The tour through the massive archive of tapes could have gone on much longer, with many more stops along the way! Wonderful to see all that old equipment still in use. It brings back memories of working as an assistant in a film and TV music library in the early '70s. |
|
|
|
Post by jk on Sept 15, 2023 9:51:24 GMT -5
Could someone, maybe Mr Desper, please explain to me the difference between a loop master and a song master? If it's very technical, please say so and we'll leave it at that.  I noticed "loop master" mentioned on a Steely Dan tape box at about 1:07:25 in the video, followed by some confusing discussion... |
|
|
|
Post by Stephen W. Desper on Sept 15, 2023 21:43:40 GMT -5
Could someone, maybe Mr Desper, please explain to me the difference between a loop master and a song master? If it's very technical, please say so and we'll leave it at that. I noticed "loop master" mentioned on a Steely Dan tape box at about 1:07:25 in the video, followed by some confusing discussion...
This short video may clarify the mystery. >>> ~ SWD |
|
|
|
Post by jk on Sept 16, 2023 3:57:19 GMT -5
Could someone, maybe Mr Desper, please explain to me the difference between a loop master and a song master? If it's very technical, please say so and we'll leave it at that. I noticed "loop master" mentioned on a Steely Dan tape box at about 1:07:25 in the video, followed by some confusing discussion...
This short video may clarify the mystery. >>> ~ SWD Thank you so much, sir. Your guess makes sense to me. I had no idea Steely Dan used a drum machine! That video is a real eye-opener. Roger Nichols clearly had an incredible head on his shoulders. |
|
|
|
Post by Stephen W. Desper on Sept 16, 2023 9:27:44 GMT -5
COMMENT TO jk: You may also enjoy this interview with the engineer for Gaucho, Elliot Scheiner. Many people consider Gaucho to be the best sounding LP of all times. Lots of engineers use it as a reference when moving from one control room to another. Play this track and see how it is reproduced. This gives you a hint about how the monitor system responds.
I get a laugh out of watching the interviewer's reaction. The interviewer is a fellow who grew up in the digital age asking questions of an engineer who recorded in the analog age. He's relatively young compared to the engineer. The recording techniques expressed by Elliot Scheiner were similar to the ones I used when recording the Beach Boys. ~swd |
|
|
|
Post by jk on Sept 16, 2023 16:41:01 GMT -5
COMMENT TO jk: You may also enjoy this interview with the engineer for Gaucho, Elliot Scheiner. Many people consider Gaucho to be the best sounding LP of all times. Lots of engineers use it as a reference when moving from one control room to another. Play this track and see how it is reproduced. This gives you a hint about how the monitor system responds.
I get a laugh out of watching the interviewer's reaction. The interviewer is a fellow who grew up in the digital age asking questions of an engineer who recorded in the analog age. He's relatively young compared to the engineer. The recording techniques expressed by Elliot Scheiner were similar to the ones I used when recording the Beach Boys. ~swd is my favourite Steely Dan album -- I'm with the interviewer on that. It seems to temper the (excessively?) clean approach of Aja with the earthiness of The Royal Scam but that's a very personal view. Great interview there. The interplay between Tyler and Elliot is heart-warming and very funny at times. Fascinating to hear Elliot explain highly technical procedures in language even the technically challenged likes of me can mostly understand. He lists three tracks (1,5,7) as using live drumming and three (2,3,6) using samples fed into Wendell. Not sure about the title track, though -- maybe it was done before Wendell arrived on the scene. Thank you again for this. |
|
|
|
Post by Stephen W. Desper on Sept 20, 2023 23:12:58 GMT -5
COMMENT to JK: Nothing to do with the BB's.
JK: F.Y.I. The Lost Gaucho (1980)... Steely Dan's Alternate Album | Not Lost Media >>> |
|
