Elvis: 30 #1 Hits

25.02.2003 CHARTPLATZIERUNGEN - BMG-KÜNSTLER KW 08/2003

<span style='color:white'>53. (49) 21. Woche PRESLEY, ELVIS -- 30 #1 HITS (RCA 07863 68079 2)</span>

05.03.2003 CHARTPLATZIERUNGEN - BMG-KÜNSTLER KW 09/2003

<span style='color:white'>71. (53) 22. Woche PRESLEY, ELVIS -- 30 #1 HITS (RCA 07863 68079 2)</span>

Au weia, jetzt fällt sie aber. Wird Zeit für ein bißchen Marketing, oder?

MEIN TIPP!

Bei Karstadt gibt es die LP Ausgabe für 4,99 €

11.03.2003 CHARTPLATZIERUNGEN - BMG-KÜNSTLER KW 10/2003

<span style='color:white'>70. (71) 24. Woche PRESLEY, ELVIS -- 30 #1 HITS (RCA 07863 68079 2)</span>

After 40 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Top 200 Album Charts, the CD "ELV1S 30 #1 Hits" is holding on to the bottom spot on that chart for the week ending 7/12/03. The album, which debuted at the other end of this chart (and holding on to the #1 spot for three weeks) will drop from the chart next week.

<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Quelle: Billboard.Com</span>

<table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" bgColor="#f9f7e7" borderColorLight="#f4f2a2" border="0" id="table1"> <tr> <td vAlign="bottom" width="150"> <img height="150" src=" www.elvisrecordings.com/fecc/e1_review/cover150b.GIF " width="150" border="0"> <font face="Verdana" color="#000080" size="+2">


ELV1S 30 #1 HITS:
</font><font face="Verdana" size="3">An Audio Review in the Spirit of Steve Sholes</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000080" size="3">
 </font></td> </tr></table><table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" borderColorLight="#f4f2a2" border="1" id="table2"> <tr> <td vAlign="top" width="400"> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">I</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">n spite of more than 400 CD titles being available on for instance Amazon, not too many of Presley's master recordings had been released as expected, in a format decently faithful to source in September 2002 when Elvis 30 #1 Hits was released. Most of the catalogue as of September 2002 was transferred to digital and remastered during the first half of the 1990's. The problems with these remasters were much due to exaggerated faith in new audio restoration techniques. All old ambient audio recordings appears to have been considered corrupt and in need of restoration. If there ever had been more to evaluating sound quality than signal-to-noise ratio, this was long forgotten.

Waking up ten years later, it can be concluded that the untouched, basic digital transfers probably weren't archived and that physical transferring of old master tapes is a large project, because later releases of masters were all derived from these early digital audio restoration experiments. Ironically, this situation eventually resulted in better sound quality of more recently remastered outtakes that by far surpassed the quality of the masters. Not that there is anything wrong with outtakes released in stunning sound, but they can never replace the masters.

With this in mind, the news of ELV1S 30 #1 HITS being remastered from scratch, using a contemporary approach left some both excited and worried. Excited, since a sonic upgrade of these recordings was long overdue. Worried, because of what 'contemporary' might mean. Producer David Bendeth was kind enough to answer this and other questions before the album eventually was released in September 2002:</font> </td> <td vAlign="top" width="320"> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="4">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> <a style="text-decoration: none; color: #000080; font-weight: bold" href="#50s"> THE 50's MASTERS
</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">01. Heartbreak Hotel
02. Don't Be Cruel 
03. Hound Dog 
05. Too Much 
06. All Shook Up 
09. Don't 
11. One Night 
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#c0c0c0" size="-2">12. A Fool Such As I</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#c0c0c0" size="-2">13. A Big Hunk O' Love</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #000080; font-weight: bold" href="#Hollywood"> THE HOLLYWOOD SOUNDTRACKS 
</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">04. Love Me Tender
07. Teddy Bear
08. Jailhouse Rock
10. Hard Headed Woman
17. Wooden Heart
20. Can't Help Falling in Love
23. Return to Sender

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> <a style="text-decoration: none; color: #000080; font-weight: bold" href="#60s"> THE 60'S NASHVILLE MASTERS
</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">14. Stuck on You
15. It's Now or Never
16. Are You Lonesome Tonight
18. Surrender
19. His Latest Flame
21. Good Luck Charm
22. She's Not You
24. Devil in Disguise
25. Crying in the Chapel
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #000080; font-weight: bold" href="#American"> THE AMERICAN SOUND RECORDINGS
</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">26. In the Ghetto
27. Suspicious Minds</font><font size="-1">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #000080; font-weight: bold" href="#70s"> THE 70'S MASTERS</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#c0c0c0" size="-2">28. The Wonder of You</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">
29. Burning Love
30. Way Down

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000080" size="-1">2002 Remix</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#c0c0c0" size="-2">31. A Little Less Conversation (Radio Edit)</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">
 </font></td> </tr></table><table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" bgColor="#f9f7e7" borderColorLight="#f4f2a2" border="0" id="table3"> <tr> <td vAlign="top" width="50%"><font face="Verdana" size="-2">M&S: Naturally, modern mastering will mean that the amplitude has been raised between 6 and 9 dB or so over the peak 0 dB-limit?


 </font></td> <td vAlign="top" width="50%"> <font face="Verdana" color="#0000af" size="-2">DB: Ours was very much a contemporary approach and although you might be right about the mastering in 6-9 dB territory. You also have to understand the process chains in mixing the record. This was not a simple noise floor to deal with and louder to us does not mean better, just means louder. Utilizing modern technology was certainly handy, however I think you will find the full dynamic range intact especially in the vocals and the bottom end. Nothing has been added and nothing has been panned in any place it was never before.</font><font face="Verdana" color="#0000af" size="-2">
 </font></td> </tr></table><table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" borderColorLight="#e4e2b2" border="1" id="table4"> <tr> <td vAlign="top" height="80"> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">"Full dynamic range" after mastering 6-9 dB over the limit doesn't sound possible, but let's take a closer look using a modern consumer approach.

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">The 50's Masters</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">F</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">irst song is </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> Heartbreak Hotel</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> and it makes an excellent choice for examination. Alternate take 6, recorded just before the master can be found in good quality on the 1997 'Platinum' 4-CD box, but the digital representation of master take 7 had been devastating. That is, until now because the new remaster sounds remarkably good and not too far away from source - on first listen.

The three main problems with the 50's masters are gone: 

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">1.</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> There is no sign of any kind of noise reduction and the benefit of that is ambience. 

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">2.</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> The high and low frequencies have survived the equalization process. In fact, high and low frequencies have even been increased or exaggerated, as we'll find out.

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">3.</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> The song is presented in genuine mono. The digital "bathroom" echo of the early 1990's is not present here and who will miss it? The original stairwell echo should be enough.
</font><font face="Arial" color="#000000" size="-2">
</font> <img height="268" src=" www.elvisrecordings.com/fecc/e1_review/hbreak.GIF " width="430" align="bottom" border="0">
<font face="Verdana" size="-2">Spectral plot of 20 second intro of </font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">Heartbreak Hotel</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2"> master. The left source (E1)
has more natural, or even exaggerated frequency response up to 22 kHz and good signal
above 15 kHz. The right source (50's Box etc.) is the previous, noise-free, official
version that we had been living with for the past 10 years.
X-Axis=Time; Y-Axis=Frequency components (black=silent; yellow/white=loud) </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">

With these crucial problems gone, let's go into the details. One such detail is a fluttery noise during the more silent parts of </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Heartbreak Hotel</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">. This noise is thought to be a heritage from the original recording rather than </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> just</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> the result of processing, although the new equalization and dynamic processing do make the fluctuations more audible. This assumption is supported by re-equalizing and limiting the Platinum outtake to match E1 a little.

The equalization of </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Heartbreak Hotel </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">as well as all of the other masters on E1 involves increased signal in the mid-to-high frequencies (from 600 Hz to 22 kHz) as well as the deepest bass (below 80 Hz). This roughly can be described as the opposite direction compared to bef</font><font face="Verdana" size="-1">ore and this increase of high and low frequencies is thought to be significantly more than needed.</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">

Much of the E1 equalization has been done </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">dynamically</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, which is funny because dynamic compression of original record masters often involved dynamically raised low level signal of high and low frequencies - typically increasing the ambience, deep bass and of course, noise. The main difference here is that the dynamic high-end raise goes all the way down to the higher midrange and you normally don't compress the higher midrange/lower high end (or say 600 Hz-3000 Hz) this much unless the entire frequency range is processed. This is controversial to say the least. Whether it is brave or stupid is subjective, but at least one vote goes for the latter. It is the reason for the increased vocal presence on the other hand, even on a song recorded in mono. One drawback is that the vocals sometimes sound very hard, but this is also due to the amplitude raise above the limit. Apart from this volume boost sounding a little unnatural it also leaves audible clipping on the following loud parts: 

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">1:03 "</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">if your </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2"> BABY*</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2"> leaves you</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">"
1:30 </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">GUITAR SOLO*</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">
1:44 "</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">although it's always </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">CROWDED*</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">" 
2:00 "</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">they could </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2"> DIE*</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">"
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">* = broken signal due to amplitude raise above the absolute 0 dB-limit</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
Still, an average power comparison indicates that this song only has been pushed about +2 dB above the limit, which is less than many of the other remastered #1's - the worst is yet to come.

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">S</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">ince </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Hound Dog</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> had been the worst sounding 50's masters during the 1990's, it is a relief to find that a good source tape had been used this time, i.e. a source tape not being the 1957 'Golden Records' album master. This is thought to be derived from a similar tape source as the excellent Rhino version, although the processing is very different. The compression, high-end raise and the amplitude raise about +3 dB above the digital limit gives a loud, even aggressive sound and the pitch is out of place and at least 1.9% too fast. The main reason to search for the Rhino version may be gone, but it subjectively remains the best source to many, simply because of the more careful dynamic compression if nothing else (and it doesn't say 'pop' near the end...). 

The other non-soundtrack 50's masters, </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Don't Be Cruel</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Too Much</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">All Shook Up</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Don't</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> and </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">One Night</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, have all been processed with similar equalization, compression and amplitude above the limit as </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Heartbreak Hotel</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> and </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Hound Dog</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">. Outtakes, instead of masters, were used for </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">A Big Hunk o' Love</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> and </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">A Fool Such As I</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">. These will not be examined. The amplitude of </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">All Shook Up</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> has been raised with as much as +4.5 dB (68%) above the 0 dB limit, sacrificing the slap beat peaks mainly, but there are clipped vocal parts as well. </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> Too Much</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, that used to run a little too fast is now presented fairly correctly in the key of A</font>_{<font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">b</font>}<font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">. 

A decent digital version of </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Don't</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, not derived from the damaged 50's Box restoration, was released on the CD 'From the Heart' (PD 90642, BMG 1992) and another, acceptable, but slightly noise-reduced version could be found on 'Elvis Sings Leiber & Stoller' (CD 3026-2, BMG 1991). The remastered version of </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Don't</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> has only been raised by about +0.5 dB above "what's possible". More couldn't be justified since the recording has a lot of dynamics and overstepping the mark even this little still breaks a few vocal peaks here and there, but the result may be considered acceptable to some. The high-end raise may have been taken a little too far, but this is again a subjective issue and, unlike the broken vocals, it can be adjusted.

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">The Hollywood Soundtracks
T</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">he Hollywood soundtrack recordings on E1 are represented by </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Love Me Tender</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Teddy Bear, Jailhouse Rock</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Hard Headed Woman</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> from the 50's and </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Wooden Heart</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Can't Help Falling in Love</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> and </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Return to Sender</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> from the 60's.</font> </td> </tr></table><table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" bgColor="#f9f7e7" borderColorLight="#f4f2a2" border="0" id="table5"> <tr> <td vAlign="top" width="50%"> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">M&S: I hope you had the opportunity to use the stereo tape of Love Me Tender (Aug. 24, 1956) since the dynamic range appears to be a little better on that.


</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">
 </font></td> <td vAlign="top" width="50%"> <font face="Verdana" color="#0000af" size="-2">DB: The "Love Me Tender" we worked on was not the one mentioned. However, after multiple hours of figuring out the wow and flutter, we settled on an extremely balanced and diverse mix. There was a problem with the original taping but using the technology we had we were able to make this baby sit down. It is a great performance and vocal take and I think you will be happy with the results.
 </font></td> </tr></table><table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" borderColorLight="#e4e2b2" border="1" id="table6"> <tr> <td vAlign="top" height="80"> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">So the source of </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Love Me Tender</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> is unfortunately the flat and hissy mono tape and there certainly was a problem with the original taping. A little research might have avoided use of this inferior source and maybe some of the extra work. The restoration job as such is better than expected. The hiss reduction is well done considering the source, but what a waste of studio time.

The Radio Recorders songs</font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">were recorded in a different manner than other studio recordings and any attempt at remastering them from the original backup tapes, mono/2-track('binaural') of the 50's or from the 3-track of the early 60's, must be regarded a true challenge because of the flat, dynamic sound, the dry vocals and tape hiss (mainly 50's). The 1990's remasters typically involved overdone digital echo of vocals resulting in decrease of vocal presence and intact dynamics, whereas the vocals were carefully compressed and only had a little (more natural) echo added on the original 60's stereo masters.

The 1957 </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> Jailhouse Rock</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> mono masters from the master reel turned over to RCA had a natural-sounding tube echo and ambience as well as very nice dynamic compression, especially of the bass. One could easily have guessed that the masters on that tape, dated August 22, 1957 were processed live during recording, but that shouldn't be the case. It should also be pointed out that it wasn't until the 1962 </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Girls! Girls! Girls!</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> soundtrack that RCA really knew how to produce soundtrack stereo masters properly and that the standard of the processing gradually became more uneven or even sloppy after 1964. The original stereo masters of </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Blue Hawaii</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> and especially </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> G.I. Blues</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> were far from perfect in the first place.

</font><font face="Verdana" size="+1">R</font><font face="Verdana" size="-1">emastering the Radio Recorders material today </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">will have to involve compromises and we shouldn't expect miracles.</font><font face="Verdana" size="-1"> The use of refurbished vintage analogue equipment in order to produce a natural echo/reverb </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">as well as careful compression of vocals</font><font face="Verdana" size="-1"> would certainly be one option. Hopefully it will be possible to do it just as good or better entirely in the digital domain in the future.</font> </td> </tr></table><table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" bgColor="#f9f7e7" borderColorLight="#f4f2a2" border="0" id="table7"> <tr> <td vAlign="top" width="50%"> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">When asked about the overall processing on E1:

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#0000af" size="-2">
 </font></td> <td vAlign="top" width="50%"> <font face="Verdana" color="#0000af" size="-2">DB: We brought out the air in the top and the bottom end by using by using analog eq API and Neve 1081, 1082 four band eq. The vocals were mostly suited to Massenberg stereo eq, Neve compressors and Lang tube, LA2a and LA3a tube compressors - always using a lite approach without squishing it all down.
 </font></td> </tr></table><table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" borderColorLight="#e4e2b2" border="1" id="table8"> <tr> <td vAlign="top" height="80"><font face="Verdana" size="-1">Without being familiar with the equipment mentioned, a quick Internet search implies that at least some of the units were semi-vintage equipment that is being manufactured again these days. </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">It seems some of the right decisions were taken when remastering the three 60's soundtrack masters for E1 and yet the result isn't quite what one would have hoped for. They still sound sharp and flat. It's interesting that an outtake of </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Can't Help Falling in Love</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> (take 26) recently was released on BMG's 'Today, Tomorrow and Forever' box, that the same hiss problems were encountered and solved in a similar way (i.e. de-esser at 10.5 kHz on TTAF, 12kHz on E1). The job done on the TTAF outtake is in fact considered a little better.  </font> <font face="Verdana" size="-1">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">The 60's Nashville Masters </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">

If some of the 50's masters are an improvement, the same cannot be said about most of the Nashville 60's masters. Some of the original 1960 two-track masters were very good in the first place, processed live with a characteristic tube sound. It isn't obvious that they need to be remixed at all, although any effort always is welcome as an experiment. On E1 the vocal presence is increased due to the nice use of compression on the vocal channel. However, the raise of lower frequencies is out of place. The signal near 50 Hz reaches ridiculous levels, especially on the first song presented in stereo, </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Stuck on You</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">. This together with an amplitude raise almost 4 dB above the natural maximum gives a "boosted" sound with sacrificed dynamics and even distortion. If this is aimed at the general public, they must have ignored that a cheap modern micro-stereo typically has a set of different loudness buttons and that the chance of neither of them being pushed is close to zero. Then we have a "double-boosted" sound to move the building. 

The Nashville stereo recordings really suffer from the generic E1 processing. Nevertheless, </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Crying in the Chapel</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> is one of two highlights on this release. It is not necessarily differently processed than the other masters, but the compressed vocals are very nice here. The mean conclusion is that the same processing brings better results on this particular song because of the sparse instrumentation.

 </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">The American Sound Recordings</font> <p><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">N</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">ext up is probably the best sounding remaster on this release, </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">In the Ghetto</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">. Like on </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Crying in the Chapel</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, the compression has increased the vocal presence without adding any unwanted effects. Again, it's the sparse instrumentation that makes this approach work here. It wouldn't be possible to get the same results with a full band/orchestra such as on the louder American Sound recordings. In other words, this would be well suited for a single release rather than on a Memphis Sessions anthology. </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Suspicious Minds</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">, on the other hand, has several unwanted effects. The song is mastered far too loud. Nearly every peak is clipped and then we have the overdubbed brass causing flanging artifacts of other channels. </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-2">
 </font></td> </tr></table><table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" bgColor="#f9f7e7" borderColorLight="#f4f2a2" border="0" id="table9"> <tr> <td vAlign="top" width="50%"> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="1">David commented this restoration before it was released and the following home-made stereo mix inserting mono vocals and doubled instruments of the soundtrack version of <a style="text-decoration: none; color: #000080; font-weight: bold" href=" www.elvisrecordings.com/fecc/e1_review/flangieandjohnny.mp3 "> Frankie and Johnny was prepared for this review to illustrate this kind of inevitable flanging problem when combining the same instrumental track from two analogue sources. </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#0000af" size="-2">
 </font></td> <td vAlign="top" width="50%"> <font face="Verdana" color="#0000af" size="-2">DB: Remember on "Suspicious Minds" there were no horns on the master and "It's Now or Never"had no piano on the master. Both tracks have been repaired and are restored to their original overdubbed form... It took me FOUR DAYS!
 </font></td> </tr></table><table cellSpacing="1" borderColorDark="#f2f0a0" cellPadding="8" width="720" borderColorLight="#e4e2b2" border="1" id="table10"> <tr> <td vAlign="top" height="80"> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
The problem is that the channel with the overdubbed brass obviously wasn't isolated. It isn't possible to synchronize the other, duplicated channels with the precision needed. Maximum acceptable deviance would be shorter than 1/44100 or 22.7 ms in CD resolution. Even a 1-sample delay will cause some flanging. Analogue tape machines wouldn't come close to that precision of course. 
If the final overdubbed brass tracks recorded on August 7,1969 aren't available, better options would have been to omit the Las Vegas overdubs like on the 1987 Memphis Record, or to use the original stereo master. For an over-produced, major consumer release like this, re-recording the lost brass section might have worked best of all.

</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">The 70's Masters</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">

The 70's masters are represented by </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Burning Love</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> and </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Way Down</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">. The tape with </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> Way Down</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> had to be baked to reactivate the binder. A reminder that time is running out for some of the 1970's master tapes.

It appears as if the compression of vocals may have worked well on </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Burning Love</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> and the new mix may have had some benefits, but all these efforts are more or less in vain due to the catastrophic volume raise. </font> <font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Way Down</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> is even 5 dB louder than the Japanese "24-bit/paper sleeve" version and </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">Burning Love</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> might be the loudest remaster on E1. The result can be described as a pulsating loudness effect as the original peaks try to break the 0 dB barrier about 3-4 times per second. Unnatural and not just occasionally clipped, this is plain distorted. The promised "full dynamic range" occurs during the first 5 seconds and during the fade-out of Burning Love.

Footnote: </font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> Dynamic range</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> describes the ratio of the softest sound to the loudest sound</font><font face="Arial" color="#000000" size="-2">
</font>
<img height="200" src=" www.elvisrecordings.com/fecc/e1_review/blove.GIF " width="430" align="bottom" X-SAS-UseImageHeight X-SAS-UseImageWidth>
<font face="Verdana" size="-2">Hard to guess, but this is the waveform of </font><font face="Verdana" size="-2">Burning Love</font><font face="Verdana" size="-2"> with "full dynamic range".
X-Axis=Time; Y-Axis=Sample Value (+/- 0-32768).
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1"> 
</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="+1">Summary</font><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">

An interesting experiment with a large budget, perhaps too large. It is remarkable that the processing has been called so "contemporary" when in fact another description could be "revival of traditional dynamic compression". The use of tube compressors says it all. The major difference is that the upper midrange to lower highend (or 600 Hz to 1500 Hz) has been dynamically raised this much. This increases the vocal presence more than usual, but also results in vocals sounding unnatural. The contemporary part of the project is instead the terribly overdone amplitude raise above the limit, let's call it "static compression". The artifacts introduced due to this spans from a few clipped vocal peaks of Heartbreak Hotel to the totally distorted Burning Love. Going this far with amplitude raise above the limit would not be acceptable on a release for collectors or anybody interested in audio. Bearing in mind that this is aimed at the general public, or a new generation that never has had a chance to listen to music with dynamic range, it probably will go unnoticed. 

Since its release in September 2002, a myth has been created that the sound is so much better than other releases and that one of the main reasons is that the true master tapes haven't been used before or since. Many thought that the early 2003 DSD releases (e.g. "ELVIS 56") sounded dull in comparison. The DSD releases weren't subjected to dynamic compression at all so a simple comparison will not reveal quality of tape sources and digital transfers.

The E1 digital transfers were done using a Sony 3348 in 24 bit/96 kHz PCM and it should be pointed out that the different sound that everybody hears has nothing to do with PCM or DSD. The following <a style="text-decoration: none; color: #000080; font-weight: bold" href=" www.elvisrecordings.com/fecc/e1_review/A-B-C_dontbecruel_m.mp3 "> A-B-C audio sample of Don't Be Cruel was prepared to illustrate this:

 A. Either the first or second sample is the ELV1S 30 #1 HITS version.
 B. Either the first or second sample is a clone attempt derived from the 2003 DSD release "ELVIS 56".
 C. The third sample is the 2003 DSD version of "ELVIS 56", as released.

Guess which is which of A and B. </font> <p><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="-1">
<img height="200" alt="SONY 3348" src=" www.elvisrecordings.com/fecc/e1_review/sony3348.jpg " width="267" border="0">

Quelle: Elvis-Collectors.Com

Hat eigentlich jemand diesen letzten Review hier gelesen? Wenn ja, würde mich mal interessieren, was eure Meinung dazu ist.

Ursprünglich bin ich über das FECC Forum auf diesen Artikel aufmerksam geworden, habe ihn mir aber nun an dieser Stelle noch einmal zu Gemüte geführt. Wer ihn noch nicht gelesen hat, sollte das möglichst tun, denn er gehört - obwohl an wenig "prominenter" Stelle veröffentlicht - m. E. mit zu den besten, fundiersten und deshalb interessantesten Artikeln, die ich über eine Elvis-Veröffentlichung gelesen habe. Ich habe zwar keine Ahnung, wer sich hinter dem Pseudonym "Steve Sholes" (<a href=' www.elvisrecordings.com ' target='_blank'> www.elvisrecordings.com ) verbirgt, aber entweder es ist jemand offizielles oder ein verdammt gut informierter und ausgebildeter "Amateur". Wie gesagt, da gibt jemand m. E. sehr fundierte Details zum Besten, fast schon könnte man vermuten, dass es sich um so etwas wie Insider-Wissen handeln könnte.

Da der Text ein Meilenstein-Album wie E1 betrifft, ist er umso relevanter für das, was in letzter Zeit bei BMG unter dem Stichwort "new sound" stattfindet bzw. zukünftig noch stattzufinden droht. Und wenn das eintritt, was hier beschrieben wird, dann hat die Elvis-World nach dem Zusammenstreichen des BMG-Kataloges im Jahre 2002 ein neues massives Problem, das u. U. weitreichender sein wird als man es sich momentan vorstellen kann. Der Autor spricht von lediglich "two highlights on this release", und irgendwie ist diese Feststellung geeignet, einem bei weiterem Nachdenken echte Magenschmerzen zu verursachen ...

Keiner?

Auf Wunsch von Rider:
Hier das Interview mit Bendeth bezüglich der Arbeiten an E1 und dem ERSTMALIGEN herausholen
der ORIGINAL Masterbänder aus den Kellern von RCA

ELVIS: STILL NUMBER ONE!

by Blair Jackson

Mix, Dec 1, 2002
(veröffentlicht auf EIN Australien 2002)

Elvis Presley's hits have been packaged and repackaged a zillion times, but it's safe to say that no single-disc Elvis collection covers as broad a swath and boasts as high a level of audio fidelity as this fall's collection, Elvis: 30 #1 Hits. It encompasses songs that hit the top of various U.S. and UK charts between 1956 and 1977 and presents the full range of Elvis' work, from rockabilly to sweeping ballads to country-flavored tunes to Vegas-y workouts — “Heartbreak Hotel” to “Burning Love,” with lots in between. It even includes, as a bonus track, this season's surprise Elvis hit: The contemporary JXL remix of “A Little Less Conversation,” which topped the charts in England. Fittingly, Elvis: 30 #1 Hits debuted at Number One on Billboard's album chart and in several other countries around the world.
“I think it's one of the few collections out there that goes from mono all the way up to Pro Tools, with 3-track, 4-track, 8-track, 16-track and 24-track analog in between,” says David Bendeth, who produced the compilation for RCA with the technical assistance of engineer Ray Bardani.
For Bendeth, whose production credits include Bruce Hornsby's latest CD, Big Swing Face, as well as discs by Crash Test Dummies, Cowboy Junkies and others, and Bardani, who's engineered projects for the likes of Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Marcus Miller, Miles Davis and many more, the Elvis project involved more than merely digging up and dusting off the old masters. The goal was to sonically improve the tracks wherever possible, which meant going back into the original multitrack masters (more than half were 3-track or above) and putting them through improved signal chains to give the performances greater punch and clarity. A 5.1 version is likely to come out in the not-too-distant future, too.
We spoke to Bendeth and Bardani about some of the technical aspects of this process.
Bendeth: At first, we didn't know what we were going to do or what it was going to end up being. We really had no clue. <span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>So I spoke to my assistant and we called up Elvis' master tapes, which had never been done before. We went to the original source for everything, which is at Iron Mountain in Pennsylvania.</span>

I would have thought the masters had been used many times before for previous collections.
Bendeth: A lot of the early mono records had been re-EQ'd and remastered at some point; that's true.
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Bardani: They might have taken out the master monos, but the multitracks had never been touched; that's for sure.</span> So we went into the Hit Factory — Studio 4, which is an SSL 9000 room — and we made a transfer of “Burning Love” from the 16-track to 24-bit 3348HR.
So you stayed with tape?
Bardani: Yes, for solidity and consistency, and to make sure that we had a good tape copy in case anything happened to the master tape. You get back to the 3-tracks and they're 45, 46 years old.
Were they in pretty good shape?
Bardani: Absolutely. They were in very good shape.
Bendeth: It's funny, the only problem we had was with a 2-inch 24-track from the '70s that we had to bake. There were some leader problems — leaders were breaking on the 3-track, and the 3-track machine overheated every hour, so we had to reset the alignment constantly.
Did you have information on what kind of machines they were originally recorded on?
Bardani: The 3-tracks were done on an Ampex 3-track, and that's what we had. And there aren't many of those around these days. Actually, we got ours from some guy — a collector — who had one in really good condition.
Those machines — their tubes — get hot, and the transport's not great, either. So we had to make sure that when we played it, it was aligned perfectly and we got through it before anything could possibly happen. You're sitting there listening, and all of a sudden, everything stops. You don't know. Did the tape break? Did it overheat? It was a pretty laborious process. It took us several days to transfer everything. Every recording had to be checked for the right recording level and alignment level, but, luckily, we were able to find that information on all of the reels, so we had the right alignment curve for each tape.
Bendeth: Except, of course, the 24-track, which wasn't marked. [Laughs]
So you started with “Burning Love” [1972] to see what you could do sonically?
Bendeth: Exactly. “Burning Love” was 11 tracks on the 16-track. We basically took the approach going in that we were never going to either add anything or take anything away; we were going to use what was there and build upon that by using different chains of EQ and compression. There was a big experimental phase of what we went through, going back and forth between many pieces of gear. It was a matter of finding the right chain. When we put up the original, we were pretty sure we could beat it.
Bardani: Because there was more information on the master tapes than I think anyone's ever heard before. The actual recording was pretty good, considering everybody was always live in the studio; nothing was ever overdubbed. That's the way he always worked. Elvis was in the middle of the room, everything was bleeding on his track, his vocal or echoes or effects were on his track, as were every other instrument; if a guitar had echo on it, it was on there like that.
Bendeth: So, we sat at the console for a couple of days and went at “Burning Love” with a real fervor. We knew the bottom end was on the bass and could be brought out more. We knew Elvis' voice was pretty well-recorded but could be improved. The backgrounds were buried, so we brought those up and compressed them and made them sit [in the track].
We mixed a few songs over a long period — we did “Burning Love” and then “Return to Sender,” “Can't Help Falling in Love,” “Wooden Heart.” And the point was to play this music for my company [RCA] and see if they liked it. Everybody loved it, so we got to keep going.
Was this project modeled after The Beatles' 1?
Bendeth: I guess there are similarities, but that's really a marketing consideration. Our job was different because we were actually working with the master multitracks and not just remastering. Although the remastering was very important. In fact, one of the interesting things about this project is that the mastering was done at the same time as we mixed. We would finish a mix and get George Marino and Ted Jensen [of Sterling Mastering] to master them, to see where we were at sonically. We ended up using George on all of the songs we mixed, and we ended up using Ted on all of the mono tracks, which we didn't touch. Then, at some point, Ted did the whole compilation as one work, too.
I would think that with the different eras and tape formats, you would have run into a lot of anomalous things — basses recorded differently, panning issues, etc.
Bendeth: That's true. It was all over the map. Like with the 3-track, we had this chain going that we were really digging on “Return to Sender.” Ray was looking at me like, “We're going to be able to breeze through these songs.”
Bardani: On “Return to Sender,” the music was all on track 1. Elvis was on track 2, in the middle, with the music bleeding through on his track; and then on track 3 were the background vocals with their echo, with the music again leaking slightly into their track. On that particular song, we went through a Neve compressor, a Neve 1081 EQ, and then some console EQ with some slight filtering to make sure that the low end and top end were clean. So that was the music. Elvis' vocal went through a dbx 160S compressor and then a Massenburg EQ. That was the chain before it hit the console.
We thought we were cool with it; this was going to be the layout. Wrong. Because the same year even, there might be another session and the split of the music and the vocal and the sound was completely different — sonically different, different placement, track spread differences. Different vocal EQ and echoes. So, basically every song was a new journey for us, and sometimes, the Neve [EQ] didn't sound right. Sometimes, it was an API EQ; sometimes, it was a Massenburg EQ that worked best.
Bendeth: A lot of the work came in through the detailed riding of the vocals. Once we would get the music to fit where we wanted it and have the balance of the third track, we would ride the vocal. Also, we were doing moves on the music; even on the one track with the music on it, we would raise certain things at certain times.
Bardani: If there was a guitar on the right side, we might poke it up a little for a bar and then bring it down, but you had to be really careful. All these moves were very detailed and this is where the SSL automation comes in, with the auto-takeover and the accuracy in small increments of moves where it was inaudible, but you would feel the energy.
We had to be really careful when we did the moves on Elvis because when we'd ride him, the sound of the record would change because so much music was bleeding onto his track. You had to be really careful and focus on what kind of EQ you used to make sure it sat well, and then when we did the ride, to make sure that, say, the drum ambience didn't get too loud if we raised his vocal.
Bendeth: One thing we got to do that I hadn't done in many years is, even though we had the SSL, we ended up doing some manuals on Elvis' vocals, on the 1081s. Something would go by where Elvis' voice was distorted and breaking up and the EQ was wrong, so we'd get it to the point where we really liked it and then right at that point in the mix, we'd kick it in and start moving stuff down a dB and up a dB. We just looked at each other and said, “This is so cool! We're doing it like we used to do it!” Hands on the console or, in this case, on the EQ.
Bardani: It was necessary because there were certain points on there where Elvis was singing and he obviously overloaded the mic pre and the mic, and all of a sudden, it got really distorted and bright and weird. We would soften those for consistency. So when you listen to his vocals, especially on the mixes we did from track 14 on, you can hear that his vocals fit right there. Every year was different, but generally, his performances were really solid.
Bendeth: Sometimes, we would put up the original tracks and they already sounded better than the masters just going through the SSL. We put up “Marie's the Name” and looked at each other and thought, “This is incredible!”
What does it say about the original recordings that you could improve them so much?
Bendeth: I think everything was recorded pretty well before, but I don't think everything was mixed really well, and I don't think everything was really mastered very well before. We didn't do anything particularly unusual. We just used modern technology — although if you look at the list, it's mostly classic stuff — and used a combination of balance with EQ and mastering.
But everything was put down fine originally. I think they used Neumann microphones to record Elvis' vocals and had RCA ribbon mics on the sessions. Good tape machines. What we did was just take what was there and polish it.
Bardani: We were very conscious that whatever panning or split was on the original classic record, we didn't tamper with that at all. If the bass was on the left side, it stayed on the left side. There was no trying to make things stereo that weren't stereo. We wanted to keep the integrity of the original tracks, but we wanted to get it up sonically to what we like.
Bendeth: We were tempted to change the panning a zillion times; I'm not going to lie to you. When you've got a song like “In the Ghetto,” where the drums are all the way to the left and the bass is all the way to the right, and you put them in the center and they sound better, you want to do that. But we didn't.
We ran into a couple of interesting problems, too. On “Suspicious Minds,” which was an 8-track, there were no horns on the master tape. And on “It's Now or Never,” which was a 3-track, there was no piano. What probably had happened is those things had been overdubbed at a later date and then the tape of the overdub had been lost. We didn't know what we were going to do, but we started mixing the songs anyway. Then I got this wacky idea: I realized that in both of those situations, the missing instruments were on the far right, so what we did was grab far right and filter out all of the bottom and top and got it to a point in Pro Tools where we had isolated it, and then, piece by piece, I flew it back into our master and brought it up so it doesn't flange. And I did the same thing with the piano. That's all we used the Pro Tools for on this. It allowed us to put these parts back in time with the song. We even made the horns sound a little bigger. That was the only manipulation that was done on the whole record.
Was anything done to the mono tracks? They sound better, too.
Bendeth: That was all Ted Jensen; he did a great job. Basically, he took out the other side of the mono — the noisy side.
What do you mean?
Bardani: They were 2-track mono. They mixed it to mono, but it was from a 2-track and they panned everything in the middle. So, what Ted did was pick the best side of the mono and work with that. In a lot of cases, I guess one side was a little dirtier or more distorted.
Bendeth: He did his thing. We couldn't believe it when we heard it. He definitely took them to a place they'd never been before.
Bardani: It certainly helped working from the absolute master, too. We knew it was from the best source we could have.
It must be cool to get to work with the master tape of a classic like “Heartbreak Hotel.”
Bardani: It was. Everybody was scared!
Well, it's like the Holy Grail of rock 'n' roll in a way.
Bardani: People were lining up at the studio just to look at the tape!
Can you sum up your experience working on this project?
Bendeth: Well, we've never worked with an artist of this magnitude before. And I don't know if we were the “right” guys to do it or not. There are many phenomenal mixers out there who could've taken this on and done a good job. But I think the advantage we had is that we were two people working on this together and we were always able to be objective about each other's ideas. I'm not sure one mixer could've done this — sat in a room and mixed it by themselves. So, we realized the magnitude of the artist and the importance of the record, and also we were going to put our names on this record.
Bardani: You work with Elvis and you're putting yourself up on the firing block.
Bendeth: I kept saying, “We're going to get crucified by someone for this. We're messing with the Mona Lisa — like putting longer hair on her and better makeup.” I was pretty scared, but Ray was always confident about it, and he's such an Elvis fan he wasn't going to mess with it. And once we had the four-man team in place — us and Ted and George — there were enough people with a knowledge of sound that we were always going to check each other and give each other a lot of feedback.
Bardani: It was musical respect. The music was always going to be most important over the technical considerations. We always went with feel. We were always in sync on everything, because the concept was designated from the get go to try not to be clever with it. We always had the original record right there because we wanted to be sure everything was as it was.
Bendeth: Only better.


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