The Saturday Night Fiasco
Buyer beware. Recently, a gentle nudge appeared in my Amazon account to consider buying “Saturday Night in San Francisco” by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco De Lucia. I have had CD and vinyl copies of “Friday Night ” for years – and – well I rather enjoy the recording – a dazzling acoustic guitar jamboree of three of the great instrumentalists of the 1970s and 1980s. The original album was a partial release of a concert in the Warfield Theatre on December 5th 1981. When I saw that there was a Saturday Night release, I was intrigued. These kind of recordings exist in bootleg (soundboard) form – and I have boxes of them, but – the chance to have a modern well engineered version seemed very tempting. However, having been badly burned several times lately by dodgy vinyl releases – I pre-empted the “Buy” button by streaming the 24/192 album on Qobuz. It was marvellous – extraordinary deep soundstage, great rhythm and timing, deep bass, natural harmonics, treble that sounds – analogue. On vinyl, I speculated that this would sound breath-taking. I clicked “Buy.”
A couple of days later, the album arrived. Nice cover, if a little bit flimsy compared with the Tone Poets. Clear vinyl. Nice liner notes. It looked great. Onto the turntable it went. Withing 3 seconds – WTF!!!! Dull! Dull! Dull! This sounded like a 1981 cassette with Dolby Noise Reduction turned on cut directly to vinyl. It sounded like it was recorded through a pillow. No treble. Not much bass. No soundstage. Absolutely dead. The music is, of course, nice – but it is about 4 levels below the version that I streamed on Qobuz. Had I been suckered again? Absolutely.
After a bit of digging (ok it took all of 4 seconds to find this out on the Hoffman forums) it turns out that Di Meola found a box of tapes at home. He is currently working with “Ear Music” – which seems to be an offshoot of Optimal GMBH (well known pressing plant) – they are issuing and reissuing a bunch of his recordings. It seems that Optimal took the tapes – I don’t know if they cut lacquers directly from them (AAA) or digitalized them, and then cut lacquers. But – regardless – a straightforward transfer. An that is the version of the recording that I bought. But, hang on, why does the 24/192 version sound – well – amazing!
Due to my not paying adequate attention, I did not realize that, as usual, on the other side of the Atlantic, the recording was enjoying a completely different re-genesis – a parallel universe of mastering. Impex records, for whom I have tremendous regard, and I do not know the timeline here, were simultaneously working on their own audiophile version of the recording. So, what follows is my understanding, based on various forum posts, as to what happened.
The concert was recorded in 16 track – so there were multitrack masters that needed to be mixed down to a stereo master to be cut into vinyl or mastered to CD or Hig Res PCM or SACD. The Ear version (mine) was mixed and edited by Al Di Meola and an engineer – presumably in the digital domain, and the files were delivered to Optimal, who happily used them for the “official” release. Impex presumably, at an early stage, made a deal to do an “audiophile” version (all vinyl reissues should be audiophile). When they heard the Ear version, they were unimpressed. They baked and de-moulded and digitalized the multi-track masters (32/384 PCM), corrected speed anomalies, wow and flutter. Then they professionally mixed the album, generated a new digital master, sent it to Bernie Grundman who cut the lacquers and the records were pressed at RTI. What I was streaming was the 24/192 version of that master. By all accounts, the Impex version sounds phenomenal. It also demonstrates the value of digitalizing the multi-tracks and creating a definitive modern mix – wider soundstage and greater dynamics. Those Luddites who believe that high res digital cannot create the “3D” effect of AAA vinyl should stream the high res files of this recording on decent equipment.
So, here we have it. One “album” – exactly the same cover, the same liner notes, similar labels – and COMPLETELY different products. Ok the “audiophile” version is roughly twice the price. But FFS – who the hell wants to buy a record that sounds worse than the CD? Seriously: I can’t send back the “Ear” version – there is nothing wrong with the product itself except for shoddy sound. It gets chucked into the pile of records that are unlikely to see the light of day again.
It seems to me that there is an increasing amount of vinyl apartheid going on that has determined that the USA should get “good” versions of album reissues and Europeans should get cheap ass digitally derived schlock that the record companies know that those multi-lingual soccer loving funny food eating suckers will buy. Perhaps the opposite is true for new releases.
I will save my final venom for “Sony Legacy.” Sony, of course, own the Columbia catalogue: Michael Jackson, Springsteen, Dylan, Miles, SRV, Brubeck, Monk etc. They reissue LPs and CDs under the “Legacy” moniker. What this means is that, in the USA, a recognized mastering engineer (Gray, Grundman, Smith etc.) is given access to the original master tapes (or analog copies of them – which I suspect) and cut AAA lacquers for albums pressed in the USA for the local market. Unfortunately, a lot of these are pressed at United – where the quality is highly variable, by all accounts. Simultaneously, a 24/96 (presumably) set of files is made from the tapes, Dropboxed or emailed to some no named cutting engineer – who cuts lacquers to be pressed up in Haarlem, the Netherlands, or GZ, for the European market. Why they can’t just FedEx over a couple of AAA mother stampers baffles me. Buyer beware – do not buy European Sony Legacy vinyl without checking the provenance on Discogs. And this brings me to Bob Dylan.
I really enjoy the mid 1960s Bob Dylan catalogue. One of the few Dylan albums that I enjoy, but do not have a high quality audiophile pressing of, is “Blond on Blond” (I do have the Sundazed mono – but – its not great -compared with the SACD). Again, Amazon, 2022 vinyl reissue “Blond on Blond.” Vinyl-spider-senses twitching, I did my homework. The European version was mastered and pressed at Pallas – the best pressing plant in Europe: no contest. But, the rub, almost 100% certainty it was cut from digital files by inhouse engineers. The US version was cut by Ryan Smith (Sterling Sound), with no claims for AAA on the record and pressing plant unclear. Probably United – but who knows. There is a THIRD version out there – not yet listed on Discogs – the Vinyl Me Please record of the month version. Disclaimer – I am a VMP fanboy – they produce excellent product, the provenance is made clear from the outset, they replace faulty product quickly with minimal fuss – my only complaint is the tendency to press up a lot of their “collections” on coloured vinyl at GZ. Regardless, the VMP version: “(AAA) Lacquers Cut From The Original Mono Master Tapes By Ryan Smith, Sterling Sound; Plated At Record Technology Incorporated (RTI).” Well that’s a bit of a no brainer – except there is no way of buying this version, currently, without being a member of the club (and it absolutely will sell out before they offer it to non members). Gold vinyl; sigh. Presumably, the US version is the exact same mastering. Pressing – who knows – but it is likely that separate mothers were produced for the US wide version and the VMP version (so why not the effing European version). Vinyl apartheid indeed.
Also, be aware, that although this is listed AAA – we do not know exactly which tapes were used by Ryan Smith (RKS). We know that Sony do NOT let the Original Master Tapes (OMTs) out of their storage location – that is what got MOFI into trouble: they had to digitalize the OMTs. So what do Sony send out to RKS? He does not bring his studio to Sony – so Sony MUST be supplying him with a copy of the OMT. AAA, presumably, but not AAA-OMT.
Trying to be a well behaved vinyl consumer, and assemble a decent long term collection of the best available copies of favorite albums is hard work indeed. We seem to be in an era where record shops have opened or re-opened all over the world selling slabs of vinyl that do not out perform the files that you stream from Qobuz, Deezer, Tidal or Apple Music. Although high quality vinyl is available, it is either geographically restricted, confined to exclusive deals with boutique labels (e.g. Steely Dan on Analogue Productions) or ringfenced within fairly expensive “members only” record clubs.
Needless to say, I have shelled out a pile of money for the Impex version of “Saturday Night.” My new years resolution for 2023 – to stop buying bad records. Again. Outcome: likely the same.
Addendum: FFS – I just re-read the blurb on the VMP website: “Plated At Record Technology Incorporated (RTI)” – click another box and it says “Pressed at GZ.” Another swiz. Of course – colored vinyl always equals GZ. So, three versions of the same album out this year. It is being pressed up in three different locations simultaneously – an AAA version pressed up in Europe and exported to the US (VMP), a Digital version pressed up in Europe for Europe, and a (presumably) AAA version pressed up somewhere in North America. Although on the surface the VMP “exclusive” looks really good – it is just the colored vinyl that is exclusive and the standard black US version may well be the best of the lot. Again – the f***ing plates, cut by Ryan Smith, were physically IN EUROPE, how hard would it have been for Sony Legacy to give us a non digital version of the album?
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