Interviews

Thanks Mike for the great interview. Really great to see the studio set up, and hear from Ryan, who seems like a really nice and thoughtful fan of the music, and the analog mastering process, he obviously cares about quality and it shows!

Cutting is a dying art form, unfortunately and nobody's getting any younger.
I listen and marvel at the sonic handiwork of those great engineers who have gone to the great mastering room in the sky. Kong, Marino, Sax, Moss, Ricker & Traugott.
A new generation needs to be trained under the living masters. (No pun intended.)

Any chance you caught what brand of towers are over his shoulder in video? Always curious as to what guys like that are using.

I really appreciated hearing how RKS came into this position and his overall candor. I've emailed Sterling and a few other houses previously when asking about client projects and their silence, although perhaps not unexpected, is regrettable (and not totally necessary IMO, despite what the contract may say)

It may have begun with a bit of luck here and there, but producers and labels who care about the sound quality of the project are the reason we have Smith today. I wish there were more of him (and them.)

Just noticed that he did Adele's latest too. I wonder what he did specific for vinyl as noted on jacket.

I thought those tracks sounded great on the Negotiations and Love Songs 2 record comp, but his mastering takes them to a higher level.

I'm going to have to order West Side Story.

I am not allowed to watch this video in Germany. What a shame.

Mike,

Great interview and it was very informative. Do you have any rough idea of how long Sterling went without the all analog lathe? I know it came back around 2008/2009 but I wasn't sure when it was retired. I've always wondered. Also, is Ryan the only engineer there that cuts AAA. I ask this because Ray Janos does excellent work but 95% of his cuts are contemporary artists and I'm sure most of his are digital cuts but a few of the records I have with his initials "RJ" are potentially all analog, particularly Drive By Truckers (Mastered by: Greg Calbi/Ray Janos).

Thanks and keep up the good work!

I think I follow you, so Ryan's room is the only one that has the preview head that can cut AAA. Ray's likely has a high res (24/96) digital delay for non analog cuts but would be capable with the right preview head. I know George and Ray both worked on the Mission of Burma reissues that you reviewed and that would be cut in George's room AAA. I know the majority if not all RJ cuts have a digital step, I just don't want to assume they are all this way. I imagine he could just as easily use the AAA room to cut as well if needed.

I know Drive by Truckers record and mix analog and go great lengths to make their vinyl sound good, so skipping the last step wouldn't make much sense. They are analog guys. Oddly enough, Ryan cut their latest live album which you would think that one is certainly digital due to the nature of modern day live recording. It sounds great! I'm mainly referring to their studio efforts.

Another scenario I noticed at Sterling were on the superb Beastie Boys reissues. Ill Communication was the first or at least one of the first to be cut AAA on that lathe at Sterling. I don't think any initials are in it, just Sterling, which if I'm not mistaken that was how George would leave it. Ray cut Paul's Boutique which I'd think would have to be digital due to all the samples. He also cut Check Your Head which I always thought was AAA, as the SQ is very similar to Ill Communication. The oddest of the bunch is that some of the B-sides in the Deluxe Beastie Boys boxes were actually cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.

Hopefully, I'm not mucking all this information up, just trying to have a better understanding. It's all about learning and appreciating this artform. Thanks for the response.

Like the new camera. Thanks to Ryan, Shane, and you!

Thanks for the info!

Hi Michael,

This has been your best interview yet. Not only that, but with an engineer of whom I am a huge fan. I first got wind of his name with the first of the just-completed Living Stereo series from Analogue Productions. I have bought virtually all of them, including the last four of the 25-run series that I purchased two weeks ago.

It is interesting because of that last batch, I'd never really felt the Brahms, Prokofiev, Rosza and Mendelssohn violin concertos were RCA's best work in a pure technical sense. I'd always put them down pretty low on the Living Stereo list. But these latest reissues in my opinion do more to bring out the best in these particular titles than anything I have heard before. With the Brahms and Rosza in particular, you'd think he'd found entirely new tapes that no one else has used before. The Classic Records reissue of that disc almost sounds like the tape had lost half its oxide, with that characteristic "tube overload" type of distortion even at low signal levels. This does not happen at all with Ryan's reissue. I'd love to see another batch of these from Analogue Productions - hopefully the series did very well.

Anyway, I will happily buy any classical stuff remastered and cut by Ryan and I hope classical projects keep coming his way. It was interesting to hear about all the 3 to 2 work he did. I never even thought about that when listening to my RCA reissues but I now realise that of course - he would have been working from 3 track masters for most of them.

By the way, if you ever happen to visit Abbey Road, I'd love you to interview Sean Macgee. That is another name coming up with increasing regularity on the vinyl reissue front (especially with classical from my own perspective) and like Ryan, his work is extremely solid, dependable and never disappoints.

Thanks again for this interview. btw, what power amps is Ryan using please?

Great interview! Were you referring to the Soundtrack or the Original Broadway Cast recording?

Anyone notice the Technics SL-10 on the desk? I wonder what they use it for.

Always a pleasure to see what's behind "the curtain."
I just received West Side Story and am looking forward to cueing it up; hope it lives up to the raves I'm reading. Thanks, and congrats on the new camera, as it really adds to the presentation.

Drive-ByTruckers record to 2" tape. Greg does a fantastic job on their records

Michael - is the George Marino interview available to watch anywhere?