Contemporary Records Mastering Session with Bernie Grundman, Chad Kassem, and John Koenig 

Half speed is something that used to grab my eye some years back. After buying a few and not being wow’d, then hearing multiple respected people (like Bernie) stating they don’t do it, I now stay far away when I see Half Speed Master on the hype sticker! Direct Metal Mastering too!!

The entire RIAA curve needs to be shifted an octave lower than with normal speed cutting. The crossover point needs to be shifted from 1 KHz to 500 Hz.

No, it's not as great as "regular" speed cuts , but "half-speed" aren't really that bad! There not great, but not as bad as folks claim in my opinion!

@@analoguecity3454 The problem is that half speed mastering was always promoted as a superior method, mostly by Mobile Fidelity. It's interesting to note that even they no longer use half speed mastering. My theory is that at the time when MoFi was promoting half speed in the late 70s/early 80s, most people had systems that benefited from the additional clarity at the top end, but really didn't have the bass performance to highlight the limitations at the bottom. The quiet vinyl was also a big plus, at a time when most pressings were pretty sketchy.

Anyone with a functional understanding of how records work knows that half speed mastering is a joke. 45RPM is where there are real, measurable benefits to be found.

Yes, I caught that too. But right away I thought of Zeppelin II and Norah Jone’s Analogue Productions pressing. Is that the human condition that wants our records played at full throttle, to feel it. Or is just after years of the loudness wars for CDs that it’s ingrained in all of us that louder is better? Sadly, when you get a vinyl record pressed it’s an option. They actually recommend that you don’t use this option, but a lot of new albums do. I chose not to use this option for my latest album.

@@mlblue5355 The problem with LZ-II after the RL cut isn't so much the loudness of the cut, but the fact that they seriously pulled back on the bass level.

@@gotham61 I guess I should of been more specific. I was meaning the “RL” cut before they pulled back the bass. I guess that sounds amazing though. I have a UK pressing, a plum and red label. I saw one “RL” at an antique store and it was $46. It looked like someone took a knife or something and marked up both sides. It was so bad, that I don’t think you could play any of the songs all the way through. Even my Kiss Alive from I was a little kid doesn’t even look half as bad.

I don't agree with this. Oversimplification. Of course there was a limit as with the loudness wars of the early 2000's. Take the Are You Experience UHQR for example. Bernie cut it louder than Marino did with the regular cheap release and it's much better for it

@@mlblue5355 the Norah Jones AP is on that I think is really hot, on the other hand I have the AP of Mighty Sam McClain "Give it up to Love" which I think is incredible. Anyway, great to here stories of the early days at Contemporary and hope there will be a lot of titles in this series!!!!

He’s 78, an appropriate age

We are already planning the next 6 or so.

Same. my heart raced when I heard the intro music.

It might have been in the Universal fire.

@@DorianPaige00 I hadn’t thought of that…..we will never know the full list of what was lost…..thanks for your reply….👍

@@myles7522 Pretty much anything that wasn't called out of the vault on the following labels: MCA, ABC, Decca, Geffen, Impulse, A&M, Chess, Perspective, and Uptown. Executives from Universal were scouring used cd bins for some of the Chess stuff and asking collectors for reference material...not kidding. The Polygram acquisitions was on the East Coast stored below a salad dressing processor. When a leak occurred some years back, many of the Motown masters had to be dry freezed in order to recover costing millions of dollars. I guess it was good the W's were near the floor or else that assessment might have went the other way. Atlantic lost a warehouse of alternate takes in New Jersey in the late 70's. Now that was the one worth crying over. "The vaults" were routinely mislabeled and there was little backup held at other facilities. A reference copy used to cut discs abroad probably has survived if it wasn't chucked. I don't really bemoan a transfer to cd from another cd or vinyl record because in many cases, that will be the only way to repress. Countless independent labels with albums and singles were just disregarded or lost in foreclosure. The canonization of 20th century music really only started in the 80's when I think many figured out what they like ain't coming back in the form of new music. Recordings going into the public domain after a set number of years was supposed to alleviate availability issues. Jordi Pujol of Fresh Sound records has done more legally for jazz with his gray market, public domain compilations than Concord after acquiring the entire Fantasy catalog and sitting on it. I forgot Concord and Universal did issue a bunch of cheap cd-r's of select titles in the Riverside and Prestige catalogs. Fresh sound has filled the gap for more obscure artists and have also included original essays, unique session photos, and even unreleased tracks. I even winced when watching one of Chad's video's about reissues and he said, "these are Prestige titles he would possibly consider"....what? Get the music out there! You'll never understand it as a fan if what you have to pick from is already cherry picked!

@@DorianPaige00 thank you for an interesting perspective…..maybe one day a decent copy can be founded- my dream - to replace my aged copy…..again thank you for a detailed reply….I enjoyed reading it 👍👏

It’s not up to Bernie to remaster it, it’s up to the labels to hire Bernie to remaster it. I don’t know that there is a great market for that record so I doubt it will be reissued anytime soon. But if it’s on A&M there’s a big chance Bernie already cut it in the first place, so I’m not sure what he would choose to do differently the 2nd time around 50 years later.

The original is much better

@@jackfalco5351 Wish I had an original copy to compare it to. What do you like better about the original?

@@jackfalco5351 in what ways?

@@jackfalco5351 OG 1st pressing ?? Late 60's/early 70's can sound even better! Ask Tom Port from Betterrecords ;-) he knows. Yes, i own six or seven Hot Stamper from him (Jazz-Rock), and no one copy is a 1st pressing !! Best sounding versions of a record i have ever heard. I 'm music collector since the mid 70's !

That's not their goal