Thanks for that Roger. Hearing Macero reminisce is always interesting.
Though he was very involved in the creative technical aspects of recording
(with hands off the gear), he seemed to always listen with the ears of a
musician, for qualities that supported the music. That can be hard for
technicians to do when left to their own devices.

Last week, I spent a morning with a client reviewing a season of
performances of her early-music ensemble, selecting some excerpts for
broadcast. I'd done some mild eq and a little compression here and there,
and wanted to get her impression of my tweaks vs. the straight mix. What
surprised me was that she hardly noticed the aspects that were so obvious to
me, like more or less room and greater clarity in inner-voices vs. more
ensemble blend. She could hear the changes when I pointed them out, but was
much more concerned with the purely musical aspects, and had a small
preference for the greater subtlety of the straight versions.

Our techno-nerd side can be overdone. An example from my shelves is the
painfully beautiful Billy Holiday album Lady In Satin. For the ca. 2000
reissue, the guys did a brilliant job of bringing out all the details
available; lots of ambiance, dynamics, and you are right there in Billy's
face. And that's the problem. The effect is more of a demonstration of the
qualities of a vintage U49 than of a soulful vocal performance. The
ultra-clarity is distracting, and a bit unkind given the circumstances. I
think this is an element of what Macero was talking about. More isn't
automatically better. Taste is part of what governed the final product
originally, and that may not be embodied in the tapes themselves, or not in
the first generation. That kind of forensic approach may be more appropriate
to classical than to other styles. Or not. Depends.

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roger Kulp
Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 8:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Bass less reissues from England,U.S. Record club
versions

I was watching this great interview the other day,with Teo Macero.It was
uploaded by Artist House Music.In one segment,he talks about how great
records are often ruined by remastering for CD.I did not know Teo  had
produced all of the first 200  Columbia stereo LPs,including the first
stereo classical ones,as well as a bunch of the Bernstein/NYPO records into
the early 60s.In the interview he talks about how Lenny called him one day
to write a piece from West Side Story for him,and Teo refused to do it.There
is almost two hours of interview here.There  is a LOT here about working
with Miles,Monk,and Mingus,and how Teo created the records.Here's the
segment about remastering.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvjWTOcoT3c  Roger