HW: EMI Reissues

Jon Jarrett jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK
Sun Apr 20 19:11:40 EDT 2003


On Mon, 7 Apr 2003, Doug Pearson wrote:

> On Mon, 7 Apr 2003 18:44:39 +0100, Captain Bl at ck <starfield at SUPANET.COM>
> wrote:

        <snip>

> >Thoughtz?
>
> Assuming that 'Warrior' & the Charisma albums are going to be reissued on
> CD, and assuming that those CD's will be "remastered" (as opposed to the
> Virgin issues, which sound to my ears like straight transfers from some
> generation of master tape to digital through crappy 1980's-technology
> converters), I hope that the mastering is done by someone with good ears,
> who understands the strengths and weaknesses of Hawkwind's music
> (especially as it relates to those five albums, which display a
> *considerable* evolution of sound, and each have their own individual
> strengths and weaknesses - to use a bunch of cliches, my ideal mastering
> foci for each album would be: 'Warrior' - "powerful"; 'Astounding Sounds' -
>  "lush"; 'Quark' - "warm"; 'Hawklords' - "clean"; 'PXR5' - hmmmm ... that
> one's tough since there's no consistent overall sound to it because of the
> different sources [studio vs. live vs. demo], the way there is for the
> other four - making it sound consistent will be work enough for the
> mastering engineer), and who *doesn't* make them sound like every other
> rock release circa 2003 (the only thing worse than a "dated" recording is
> a "dated" mastering job that doesn't fit the original recording!).
>
> (I'd be very curious to hear if anyone particularly agreed or disagreed
> with my rough characterization of those four albums.)

        I think I'd agree overall, but I think a danger with _Warrior_ is
that in order to give it that power the bottom end might be boosted too
much. I have the Griffin CD and it seems to me that the bottom end is
very, not muddy, but indefinite in a liquid way, I want to say
swampy. Like it was recorded in less definition than the rest of the
tracks. That may be because of the bass-rolling you were talking about
lower down the thread perhaps. Either way I don't think Lemmy really
shines on this album but I think just bringing it up, if the CD accurately
reflects the state of the master, is not going to cure that. The whole
low-end would profit from more definition and I think I'd sacrifice some
power for that. Of course it might be possible to have both which would be
great, but I think of the four albums _Warrior_ is the only one which
needs something obvious done to it to restore its intended state. ASAM
could be made into a much better-sounding album with the multi-tracks as
someone said, putting back the missing centre, but this would be more a
remix, Zappa-style, than a remaster. Just my opinion, yours,
                                                             Jon

ObCD: The Deviants - _Ptooff!_
--
"I recognise that I have transgressed many of the precepts of the divine
law, and that I am subjected by various vices and iniquities, disobedient
to the words of the divine mystery brought unto me and a worshipper of the
delights of this military age." Marquis Borrell of Barcelona, 955 A.D.

             (Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College London)



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