Gee Jon,

That's depressing news. Kind'a like shooting yourself in the foot. I too have noticed praise for your work on the List Serv and was happy for you to get the well deserved accolades.

We last spoke in July and I thought I should give you some space to attend to your own challenges (spouse out of work, etc). I take it Sony's new position on your services will keep you out of the archives too. And it seemed as if we were getting so close.

Warm regards,
Alex

On Nov 9, 2014, at 3:06 PM, Jon Samuels <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi Dave,
> 
> First, please accept my apologies for taking so long to respond. I just finished 
> my work on the Bolet radio program I previously posted about, and am just 
> starting to catch up on my emails.
> 
> Second, thank you very much for your very kind compliment. It's extremely  
> gratifying when a top professional such as yourself thinks so highly of my work.
> 
> I did not work on the recent Reiner box, I'm afraid. Even though the Horowitz 
> set I did last year has received a great deal of attention and universal praise, 
> Sony appears to no longer be interested in my services. As a matter of fact, 
> that's the only project they've given to me in recent years. Obviously, I'm 
> disappointed and disagree with their decision, but it's their company.
> 
> However, many of the transfers in the Reiner set are my work, including some 
> that don't have my name on it. Their policy, for the most part, is to take pre-
> existing transfers when they exist, and reuse them in the big sets. In 2010, I 
> convinced them to let me use the best existing transfers in such cases, rather 
> than just copy the one's used in previous sets. Since then, their policy has 
> been to use the most recent remastering, which is usually, but not always the 
> same thing (in order to use the best existing transfer, they would need to 
> consult with someone such as Dennis Rooney or myself, and they're clearly 
> not interested in doing that).
> 
> Mark O-T is correct that Sony only reproduces the CD layer of the SACDs  that 
> Soundmirror did for BMG for inclusion in their sets.
> 
> I worked on a number of the XRCD transfers for BMG. The way those were 
> done, the edited master tape (called a workpart in RCA parlance) was used to 
> make a two-track analog mixdown at 15 ips on 1/4 inch tape (work done in 
> New York City), using Ampex 102s and 440s through JVC's proprietary 
> equipment, and then that two-track mixdown was taken to Japan for mastering 
> to digital.
> 
> Please feel free to ask me any other questions that I failed to answer here.
> 
> --Jon Samuels