Immense praise to Slicing Up Eyeballs for bringing this story to our attention: EMI have released a statement regarding the mastering of the last two entries in the ongoing Duran Duran remaster series. And it ain't pretty.
If you've been following this story at all, through ICE or Amazon or even our own review of the first album, here's how it goes: the new reissues of Duran Duran (1981) and Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983), while stuffed with some great bonus content, suffer thanks to admittedly poor mastering on each of the original albums. In particular, the punchiness of the first album has been largely sucked out of the mix, and there's a notable defect in the very beginning of lead track "Girls on Film"; the iconic camera shutter noise fades in awkwardly. (Seven and the Ragged Tiger doesn't fare much better, and for hardcore collectors the only sell is two new-to-CD live tracks and the DVD.)
Now EMI has responded through Duran Duran's official Web site, and it reads in part:
[...]Mastering is always subjective, and we acknowledge that the mastering on these versions is different to that of previous remasters, however that does not necessarily make it wrong. We have received both positive and negative comments about the mastering which is usual for any project - although those that don't like the sound of these new records are by far in the minority. [...]
There is a glitch due to tape deterioration in the camera clicks at the very start of Girls On Film on the Duran Duran album. Whilst this glitch is not ideal, as it is in the camera clicks and not within the main body of the music, there are no plans to replace any discs.
Bullshit. Like, five counts of bullshit.I must be clear that I know precious little about the ins and outs of audio mastering. Outside of "too soft" or "too loud," I'm not too good (although I applaud those who are). But here are a few points that make EMI's cavalier attitude toward this issue embarrassing.
- The Duran Duran catalogue has seen a surprising share of digital remasters. In 1998, the Greatest compilation boasted a remastered version of "Girls on Film"; in 2003, the entire album was remastered yet again, as well as "Girls" on The Singles 81-85 box set. In 2008, the master tapes were utilized to provide the tune as playable downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series. At what point could such serious tape deterioration have occurred?
- The camera click has been a sample since the song was first recorded. To this day, Nick Rhodes uses the same sample when Duran Duran plays the track live. Could EMI not ask Rhodes for a copy of said sample to fix the apparent deterioration in the tape? Or were the engineers unable to loop the sample so it sounded more acceptable?
- A question fans have been asking since this whole controversy spread: all the Duran Duran sets have been remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London. Andy Walter handled the new batch (Duran and Seven), while Steve Rooke handled last year's deluxe edition of Rio (which, while somewhat hot in the mastering department, wasn't a mess at all). How do two mastering engineers in one of the world's best studios (and I assume the two are both great in most respects) yield such wildly night-and-day results?
- Let's assume fixing the glitch in any way, shape or form was in fact impossible. Why couldn't EMI have owned up to the mistake in the liner notes? Hip-o Select's Motown Around the World: The Classic Singles from earlier this year was completely forthcoming in the liner notes about which master tapes were not located, necessitating the substitution of mastering from the best vinyl source possible. Is it the most ideal situation? No, but kudos to them for their honesty. EMI apparently can't afford the same consideration.
- Once again, at the risk of beating a dead horse, none of this rage would be nearly as potent had the reissues been released closer to their original release dates. These sets were first announced in December for a March release, and were eventually released in May. Music isn't as necessary as, say, food, but if a restaurant delays your order and then gets it wrong, you have every reason to be upset. This supposed "majority" that likes the sound of the new reissues are apparently used to eating bad food. (But it's become rather plain that EMI doesn't take much stock when it comes to timely delivery - after all, this statement comes out nearly two months after the fact.)
This may seem like nerd rage from a die-hard Duranie (which I can own up to in most regards). But this should have been a lesson learned years ago, when CDs were king: if you're going to reissue something more than once, at least improve upon it with each reissue, so even grumpy fans will want to spend money on it. Now go home, EMI, and make sure the same fate doesn't befall your next batch of reissues.
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The "tape deterioration" defense is really strange, since, as you said, the song has been remastered a few times over the past few years with the camera sample intact.
If EMI was going to "replace" the camera sound with a sample from Nick Rhodes' keyboard, they'd need to own up to that in the liner notes as well, just as they should have owned up to the tape deterioration in the liner notes.
If there's a bright spot to this story for 80s synth-pop fans, it's that the Rhino/Bill Inglot remasters of the first two a-ha albums are spectacular in every way... the sound, the bonus tracks, the packaging, etc.
Maybe the bottom line is that EMI is now in such bad financial shape that they can't afford to replace an entire production run of a CD.
I recall that that EMI/UK released a number of 4-CD collections by early 1960's Beat Groups, and three of them("Herman's Hermits","Gerry & The Pacemakers","Manfred Mann") had significant defects, but EMI swept the problems under the rug. The Hermits set had several instances of incorrectly placed track start points(something that would only be audible if you accessed the songs individually), and the Manfred Mann set had an unintended editing glitch, causing a previously unreleased song("Let's Go") to skip in mid-verse, causing the loss of 15 seconds of the song.(I KNOW that 15 seconds are missing, because I had access to the uncut recording through a Manfred Mann biographer back in the early 1990's) And the Gerry & The Pacemakers set had a severe, audible defect on the mono mix of the song "Without You", in which there were uncorrected, piercing, unpleasant noises due to uncorrected sticky tape syndrome or oxide shedding. Fortunately, a sonicly perfect stereo mix appears elsewhere in the set.
I bought the EMI Duran Duran product, and found the "Rio" 2-CD set(mastered by Steve Rooke) to be fine, but, like most, I find the "Duran Duran"(debut) & "Seven & The Ragged Tiger" 2-CD + DVD sets to have appalling sound on the "Disc One". I blame this on the "Loudness Wars" practices of mastering engineer Andy Walter.
There was a time when the EMI & Abbey Road names stood for the pinnacle of quality in recorded music (the company once called itself "The Greatest Recording Organisation in The World"), but the people in charge now have let quality standards deteriorate.
Forcing Abbey Road engineers to do distorted loudness wars masterings is appalling. And I'm not some super-sensitive audiophile(I have no complaint about most of Peter Mew's masterings), but these Duran Duran 2-CD + DVD titles have faults on their "Disc One" that are audible to regular people, not just the golden ears crowd.
Steve Rooke has done excellent work on mastering none-more-important than The Beatles. "Rio" is loud, but not fatiguing to me at all. Why they changed engineers is anyone's guess.
As for the camera FX glitch, they could have done any number of fixes, including simply splicing it onto the new digital master from any of the previous remasterings.
I've rarely seen a record company or executive ever take the public's complaints about mastering seriously. To them, we are squeaky wheels, nothing more. The only way to speak is through your wallet.
I recently had the opportunity to hear an advance of an upcoming catalog remixing project that I can't mention. The person who remixed the tracks is generally acknowledged as doing excellent work. So when I heard the atrocious mastering, I flipped out.
The person who got me the advance agreed and gave my review to the people involved. Turns out the remixer agrees with me and is really unhappy...but the label head and the rights owner loves it. So, who's right here?
Maybe EMI is starting to get the message. The postponement of the next Duran Duran 2-CD + DVD sets gives them a chance to get things right. And the latest postponement of the "Deep Purple-Come Taste The Band" 2-CD set is because the initial mastering was too bright sounding to the surviving group members.
I wish EMI just die already, and put their catalogue into more capable hands...*cough*Warner Music Group*cough*
I praise Rhino for calling back the New Order CDs and reissue them in a respectable state. I personally don't think getting the sound right again will cost EMI much - it will probably cost about a month's salary of one of EMI's top executives (Guy Hands are you reading this?). I am holding my breath though for DD's upcoming remasters - namely "Notorious" & "Big Thing." I am not chucking away my vinyls and their old CDs just yet!
Thank you for the article, reporting much of the good arguments about the recent EMI statement.
The DD remasters were just delivered within a production budget and schedule, the band was not even involved. An operation similar as for the Spandau Ballet's SEs -also worked by Walter- and, once again, the result is under quality standards.
There are lots of technical stuff that could be said about it, but everything suggests a poor work. From the remastering engineer to the record label, these releases are branded 'get 'em out'. There was little respect for the music, the artist and the fans.
But the point here is that EMI intentionally published a glitched product, and that's a clear FRAUD. There are enough things to present an action (as some are already doing), but the label showed uselessly arrogant, instead. We'll see.
andy taylor did a fix of the glitch on the camera shutter . he said it took him about 10 minutes and he posted it on his web site. it sounded good to me and i went to college for production and engineering. so like the early poster above, i cry bullshit on emi...
Hi Mike,
I've just spent the best part of two hours (sad, I know!) reading all your Duran reissue posts and reviews, the links contained therein and Google searching for definitive, as-unbiased-as-possible info on how the Duran/Arcadia/Power Station reissues have been botched - or not.
I'm a longtime fan of the band and intend picking up the rest of the reissues that I don't already have. However, the more I read, the more confused I get, as to the best sources for the original album tracks.
Can you possibly tell us, in a nutshell, the generally-accepted, relative merits and demerits of each recent reissue and which are considered the best-sounding of the 80s, 90s and early 00s album CD issues? It would be a great help!
Lastly, you mention one track on the So Red the Rose reissue being problematic, but I can't find any reference to this anywhere else. Which is it and what is it?
Regards
Hey Brent,
First up, apologies for taking so long to respond. Second up, don't think it's sad reading all the Duran Duran stuff! I wouldn't have wrote 'em all if I wasn't a bit obsessive.
Now I'm not the best person when it comes to differences in mastering. I'm sure everyone's results may vary. But here's a breakdown of what I've held onto and why.
- For Duran Duran (1981), I held onto the 2003 remaster in addition to the 2010 deluxe edition. This is one of the few times I've explicitly felt a remaster job was bad. The low end fell a little flatter than I would have liked, in particular. But particularly there's the issue of "Girls on Film" on the 2010 remaster - there are some inexcusable tape dropouts in the first few seconds that could have easily been corrected with some editing.
- For Rio (1982), I kept both the 2001 remaster and the 2009 deluxe edition. This wasn't for mastering reasons, but mixing reasons. The 2001 CD has a slightly different mix of "Lonely in Your Nightmare" and "Hold Back the Rain," not to mention the single edit of "Save a Prayer" instead of the original. I was and am glad to have the original U.K. and U.S. mixes of the album material on the deluxe edition, but I'm enough of a collector of Duran mixes to want both.
- For Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983), I again held onto my 2003 remaster. No dropouts or anything, but I too found the sound quality to be lacking.
- From So Red the Rose (1985) onward, I replaced my original CDs with the deluxe packages. Some will disagree, I'm sure, but So Red, Notorious and Big Thing are more in line, volume-wise, not only to the other Duran albums in my collection but the other albums in general in my collection. There is that one track, though, the instrumental of "Say the Word" from the Arcadia set, that has a few dropouts toward the end. It was Atlantic/Rhino, not EMI, who supplied the master tape for the track, and apparently would not have been able to present an un-dropped-out version without editing (which would have ruined the whole "Extended Instrumental" thing). I applaud them for not searching for a 12" to rip from, but it sucks all the same.
I still hope against all logic that Liberty, The Wedding Album and Thank You will get expanded versions. I think Liberty in particular could benefit from a nice, tasteful remaster.
Thanks as always for reading! Hope this helps!
Hi again Mike,
Thanks for such a comprehensive reply; I've now picked up another handful of DD CDs, based on your recommendations!
One last query: I know the mastering is flawed for the actual album tracks on the 2009/10 reissues of DD's first and third albums. Can you, or anyone else, comment on how the Singles 81-85 box B-sides and remixes compare to those found on the reissues?
I too fervently hope that we'll eventually get reissued, expanded versions of the last three EMI albums... We shall see!
I picked up Journeys to Glory 2nd hand remastered 2010 version a few days ago & it sounds terrible!!
My original lp sounds great.
I was unaware that this remastering has been poorly handled by Andy Walter & I cannot
understand for the life of me why it sounds so bad?