Joe Harley restores damaged Song For My Father Blue Note

[monkboughtlunch]

Great news from fans of Horace Silver. Joe's post on the Hoffman forum: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=5579459&postcount=526

Hi folks,

Sorry for the delay, I got tied up with other AQ related matters.

Here's the story: For many years there has been a rather serious problem with the title track on this album: Song For My Father. Unless you have an early pressing of the album, you can hear it instantly as Horace plays the repeated two note intro to the tune. There is severe flutter that seriously affects the speed stability of the tune.

That there is a problem, has been known for many years by everyone associated with the tapes at EMI, including Michael Cuscuna and Rudy. No one seems to remember what caused the damage to occur to the tape in the first place. It’s possible that the mishap occurred during the original transfer process when a safety copy was made. Somewhere along the line, the original master tape was lost or destroyed. It absolutely does not exist anymore. We’ve looked everywhere and listened to every available tape, including the Japanese tapes used for the Toshiba and King transfers. All have the flutter problem on the title track.

Several months ago Ron and I were talking about the incredible luck we’ve had with Blue Note tapes, including several (like Out To Lunch) thought to be lost to time. Naturally the subject of Song For My Father came up. Very early on we asked Cuscuna about it. He said “don't waste your time, this one is damaged on the first track and I’m POSITIVE that there’s no tape without the flutter. Believe me, I’ve checked.”

He had too, as we were soon to find out. Every copy was damaged. We did find a great sounding tape in every other respect, meaning that the rest of the program material was excellent, aside from that damn title track flutter. When that tape arrived Ron gave Kevin the go ahead to put it up to see what was there. Kev heard the familiar problem right away, but he could also tell that, even though a copy, this one was the absolute best of the bunch. Ron and I were both excited when we heard this so we told Kev to go ahead and make a transfer. (We were both dying to hear it!)

When we got the test pressings, we were knocked out by what we heard! (Those of you who attended my talks at Listen Up in May heard a track from these transfers btw.) But...we had another problem. All of the great advantages of 45RPM transfer and the utter transparency of Kevin’s system at Acoustech worked against us when it came to the familiar flutter problem. By now, we were determined to some how, some way find a tape with a useable first track. We would just use that for out first track since we already knew we had found the best copy in existence.

About this time, I went out to Colorado to do my lectures at Listen Up along with John Atkinson. At every event I played a comparison of “Calcutta Cutie” from our recent mastering to an original LP copy that I had. This caused tremendous excitement for everyone who was there since the improvement was pretty staggering!

However, the whole time I was in CO I was also wondering how in the hell we were going to solve our problem with the title track. (It didn't help when one morning in Boulder Listen Up’s Phil Murray handed me the test pressing copy of the first 45 LP and said “I hate to tell you but that first track has some serious problems!” I said “Phil, believe me we all KNOW and we’re trying to find a solution.”

That evening, while I was preparing to do my first lecture I got a tap on my shoulder. It was David Glasser from Boulder’s Airshow Mastering. David and I go back many years since has was one of the first mastering engineers to install a full DSD/SACD suite in his room. David and I have worked on many GrooveNote SACD titles over the years. I told David that it was good to see him but that I was about to go on and I’d catch up with him another time. He said “that sounds good. I just wanted to pass along something that really, really helps with tape flutter problems should you ever have the need.” Whoa! I told the crowd to give me 5 minutes and I’d be with them.

First thing I did was ask David if he knew that I was right in the midst of just such a tape problem. “No Joe, I don’t know what you are referring to.” Then David told me about the work he had been doing with sound engineer Jamie Howarth using a system that Jamie had invented called the “Plagent Process”. You can find detailed information about this here: http://www.plangentprocesses.com. I was excited about the possibility of a solution but at that point, I had no idea what it really was or how it worked, but I was soon to find out.

Basically Howarth has devised a scheme that cues off of a tape's steady state bias tone to restore speed stability. However, to do this properly, you really need the original tape to work with. We didn't have that of course. But...Jamie loves jazz, loves Horace Silver and he loves the spirit of what Music Matters is doing with this project. Yes, it does require transferring the analog material to digital, but this is done at 24/96. Jamie literally had to work note for note on this....he reckons that he has at least 30 hours so far working on this one track. The first track will, of necessity, be taken from a 24/96 digital file. The rest of the album of course remains analog.

After hearing the results, Michael Cuscuna wrote me to say: “ A major improvement! I think you have it where it needs to be.” To have Michael’s approval on this just means the world to us. Of course, we had also agreed that EMI gets to use this for all future releases of this title. Has all of this work resulted in perfection? No. Is the first track much better than it was? Yes! No, instead of instantly getting hit in the ears with those first two (instantly identifiable) notes swimming in a sea of warble, most will just start easing into a groove that lasts for the remainder of this incredible album.

Some people are less sensitive to speed stability than others. I’m amazed when I read the comments at Amazon, how NO ONE mentions this!

For those of you not sensitive to speed stability, enjoy the album! For those of you who ARE sensitive to speed stability, enjoy the album and know that we did the absolute best we could to bring you the very best edition of this timeless Horace Silver classic.

Cheers,

Joe

[AllenLowe]

1) Airshow is not a good mastering house, they've messed up a lot of the things they've noise-reduced in the past. So I am wary -

2) Why didn't they just take an early clean LP pressing, without the flutter, CEDAR it, and splice it in? Would been done in a jiff, for a fraction of the cost, and no one would have known the difference.

[Chuck Nessa]

Seems to be a bunch of mumbo jumbo for a simple fix. All to sell expensive new transfers.

[RDK]

Well, yeah, you don't sell needle drops for $50.

But if it's such an easy fix why didn't Rudy (or anyone else) do it over the last 40 years or so?

[Chuck Nessa]

Don't know why it wasn't done before. It would be the producer's job to listen and correct.

[David Ayers]

I don't know why you guys think it's an easy fix? I can see this guy is talking up what he did but - are you saying an easier solution already existed which could have been used? I don't really get what you mean. Certainly that horrid wow is there in the RMM and RVG issues, so neither Michael nor Rudy could have thought that is was fixable - surely?

[paul secor]

I'm sick of reading about remasterings and remastering geniuses. Let me know when they record some new music instead of messing with the same old stuff.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

my old japanese CP32 version has such a small amount, maybe a nanomoment of swirl - this is probably from vinyl, right ? - that is not even worth it. the RVG was downright horrible tho. just bring Mr. Silver back in for a couple minutes.

[clifford_thornton]

I'm sick of reading about remasterings and remastering geniuses. Let me know when they record some new music instead of messing with the same old stuff.

[RDK]

I'm sick of reading about remasterings and remastering geniuses. Let me know when they record some new music instead of messing with the same old stuff.

Feel free to start a thread about new music; this thread is about remastering an old classic.

[sonnymax]

It's a thread about sound, not music. I stopped buying remasters a few years ago and have since discovered a vast and rich world of creative improvised music. To each his/her own.

[Big Beat Steve]

So how many different masterings and pressings are we talking about that are plagued by this so grave problem and which exactly are they (release numbers etc.)?

[A Lark Ascending]

I'm not one for buying endless remasters but the wobbliness of that opening on my CD is off-putting.

Don't imagine I'd upgrade it - but it would be nice to know it was put right for future listeners.

A cheaper option would be to make a copy and then graft on the opening of 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number'.

Edited June 29, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[monkboughtlunch]

A cheaper option would be to make a copy and then graft on the opening of 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number'.

They could call the hybrid "A Pretzel for My Father."

What's up with all the crankiness and negativity (by some people, not all)? Harley is just providing a restoration of a historic recording. No one is forcing folks to repurchase this restoration. Personally, I like the song enough to purchase the restored version on XRCD should it be issued in that format.

Edited June 30, 2010 by monkboughtlunch

[Shawn]

I've always noticed that flutter at the beginning of the album, but it doesn't exactly keep me from listening to it. It's kind of like the distortion during Henderson's solo on Amanda (from Duke Pearson's Wahoo). Every copy I've ever heard has that distortion (except for the mono vinyl I transferred at one point).

Now, the last reissue of Song For My Father I wasn't crazy about, too much distortion in the high end during Calcutta Cutie (which is my fave track anyway), too much high end period. But I doubt very seriously I'd buy it again.

[paul secor]

I'm sick of reading about remasterings and remastering geniuses. Let me know when they record some new music instead of messing with the same old stuff.

Feel free to start a thread about new music; this thread is about remastering an old classic.

Just giving my opinion on the deification of remastering engineers. Threads can go in many directions - unless you're into censorship.

[MomsMobley]

Rufus Harley >>>>> Joe Harley

And while this is a briefly interesting question, re: why the fuh nobody copied the first press vinyl before...

Paul and others are 1000% correct, the endless conspicuous consumer nonsense over remastering is the death of the culture; forget the article, perhaps, and just call it the death of culture.

This doesn't mean we should not recognize, and celebrate, first class engineering and transfers (viva Roy DuNann, John R.T. Davies) but this a lot more people should call bullshit on these re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-issues than than they do.

On the other hand, as soon as Max Roach "It's Time" comes out as a ** 78 RPM ** folio reissue, I'll be the first in. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson FTW!

[JSngry]

On the other hand, as soon as Max Roach "It's Time" comes out as a ** 78 RPM ** folio reissue, I'll be the first in. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson FTW!

I can see it now....Coleman Hawkins - Back on a 78. Where He BELONGS!

[monkboughtlunch]

I disagree. The 2009 Audio Wave XRCD of Soul Station, for example, is a night and day improvement over the compressed, poorly eq'd and quasi-mono blended RVG remaster CD published back in 1998. Harley's work is valid. Buy or don't buy. He's simply providing a great product and more consumer choice.

[RDK]

Rufus Harley >>>>> Joe Harley

And while this is a briefly interesting question, re: why the fuh nobody copied the first press vinyl before...

Paul and others are 1000% correct, the endless conspicuous consumer nonsense over remastering is the death of the culture; forget the article, perhaps, and just call it the death of culture.

This doesn't mean we should not recognize, and celebrate, first class engineering and transfers (viva Roy DuNann, John R.T. Davies) but this a lot more people should call bullshit on these re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-issues than than they do.

On the other hand, as soon as Max Roach "It's Time" comes out as a ** 78 RPM ** folio reissue, I'll be the first in. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson FTW!

I'm not about to drop $50 for another version of this, but I find the restoration work interesting nonetheless. I'm more glad that it's been done than if the glitch was ignored again. Can't understand why anyone would frown upon the fix.

[jazzbo]

Just a note: I bought two of the first batch of XRCDs (Soul Station and True Blue) to check them out, and they sound fantastic. And I paid 23 dollars each for them after they'd been out a bit (from deepdiscountcd).

[Teasing the Korean]

Why didn't they just spend the time fixing the opening bars, where the flutter occurs, and then crossfade this into the analog master for the rest (vast majority) of the tune?

[Big Beat Steve]

Why didn't they just spend the time fixing the opening bars, where the flutter occurs, and then crossfade this into the analog master for the rest (vast majority) of the tune?

Exactly my impressions upon listening to my copy of this record (RVG edition CD by EMI). I really cannot make out anything that could really be called "SEVERE flutter" during the vast majority of the tune. A slight raggediness (which may be intentional?) in the way some instruments sound here and there but nothing distracting and no discernible change of fidelity vs the subsequent tunes on the CD. (And my ears cannot possibly have been damaged that badly by listening to too many French DMM pressings of BN's? )

I realize it is frowned upon in circles that probably consider themselves particularly "enlightened" to speak out against what would be considered the "accepted wisdom" of BN-ism but honestly, to me all this is "much ado about not all that much".

Maybe these characters ought to tune in their ears to a hefty dose of CD remasters from the 78 rpm era where you often just cannot eliminate all the hiss, pops and crackles without flattening the sound. That would teach them a lesson about music that is worth "listening through" a wee bit of surface noise any time!

[sidewinder]

First time I heard the flutter was on the French Pathe Marconi DMM LP (which was the first time I heard this album) and have noticed it on all CD and LP reissues since then.

[AllenLowe]

"deification of remastering engineers"

best idea I've heard in recent years - would say more, but I have to prepare a few recordings for the next worship service.