Question for Mr. Diament - Linda Ronstadt

I was wondering which Linda Ronstadt CD's you worked on? Do you know if you were able to use the master tapes? Thanks!

 

Hi PaulB,

I'm sorry to say that was so long ago I don't remember for sure which ones I did.
"Simple Dreams" comes to mind and I'm sure there were others but...

In those early days of CD (I believe I was perhaps the 5th engineer in the world to start mastering for CD--- there was Sony, Polygram, Warner in LA and perhaps another place doing CDs before Atlantic jumped in and made me the CD "department") getting original masters was not how management wanted to approach most CDs, no matter how much I tried to convince them. That being the case, I remember the occasions when I had originals to work with. This wasn't the case with the Ronstadt CDs as I recall.

Some of the ones I remember having original tapes for:
CSN (first album)
AC/DC ("Back in Black" and I think, "For Those About to Rock")

I'm sure there was a handful of others but more often than not, the best I could get were "flat" copies and all too often, they just gave me "EQ'd Limited" copies.

When I went independent and formed my own company, that's when the masters started coming in. Even Island sent me "flat" digital transfers when I was about to start doing the Marley catalog for Tuff Gong (to replace the original Island CDs). Happily, when I told them the CDs I was about to master were most likely what folks would be listening to for years to come... and what were they saving the originals for?... I received an overnight delivery of original Marley tapes.
When I worked on remastering the Genesis catalog, they too sent "flat" digital copies of the original tapes. (Strangely, to this day, I've never seen or heard one of those remastered Genesis CDs... and I'm pretty sure that like the Marley's, they too have been done again since then.)

Back at Atlantic, there may have been some Ronstadt CDs she did with Nelson Riddle too... again, from "EQd Limited" tapes, not the original masters.

Wish I could be of more help.

Barry
www.barrydiamentaudio.com
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com

 

Thanks for the response!

 

Barry,

Great job on the original AC/DC Back in Black. I just sought out this CD recently after trying out the later two Sterling (George Marino and Ted Jensen mastering).

 

Barry, even if you didn't have the best available sources you still managed a superb job on the stuff you did at Atlantic. Out of all the 'early' CDs I have yours are still some of the most 'real' to listen to. Thanks for taking time out to share a little history.