On 11/14/2020 6:27 PM, Jay Bruder wrote:
> There are so many "King" products in circulation from different eras and different nations that you need to be more specific. In the 1970s Gusto was notorious for altering the sound of King/Dixie/Starday masters by adding echo and changing equalization.

As far as I can tell, these aren't King/Dixie/Starday masters; as far as
I can tell they come from obscure R&B labels. I'm pretty sure the
original issues were on 45s, but these don't seem to have been
remastered from 45s. Instead, they seem to come from tapes. As I said,
these sound like they were played back on an IEC-standard machine; I've
done a little experimenting, and rolling off the bass at 50Hz plus
boosting the treble with a +3.1dB shelf at 4500Hz seems to make them
sound more reasonable. I have no doubt that Gusto did the sort of thing
you mention, but they don't seem to have done it to these recordings --
no trace of added echo, and the EQ seems to be consistent with the error
I surmised.

> When I master tracks for my radio show, I go back to original 78s and 45s and accept the surface noise as preferable to changes Gusto frequently made in reissue mastering.

I agree -- but I don't have access to the 78s and 45s. Luckily, they
seem to have limited their abuse to the EQ error. I was just wondering
if others had encountered this sort of error.

Peace,
Paul

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