I’d like to start by asking where and when you were born?
I was born in Boston, Massachusetts in November of 1963. At the age of 4 my family moved to Long Island, New York, so I’d have to say I’m mostly a New Yorker although I still root for Boston teams in sports. I currently live in New Jersey about 6 miles from Manhattan.
What music did you listen to when you were growing up?
I had a very well rounded musical upbringing because my dad was a music teacher. He used to bring home albums all the time, ranging from rock to classical to broadway to jazz. He took me to many orchestral concerts and we also had season tickets to the Metropolitan Opera so I attended at least a half dozen operas a year. My mom was a big country music fan, especially Johnny Cash. I started playing bass when I was 9 so I was playing everything from jazz to rock to classical. Growing up I listened to lots of Beatles and anything on the radio although I gravitated towards rock.
Did you always want to work in music or did you have any other ambitions?
I really enjoyed playing bass in various ensembles but I didn’t want to be a performance major at the university level and I wasn’t interested in being a music teacher either. My dad and I were looking through the New York State college catalogue and discovered that Fredonia State offered a 4-year degree in sound recording technology. I thought that would be perfect for me because I could still be involved in music but I wouldn’t have to be constantly practicing my bass. The degree was weighted heavy on music, math and sciences which I excelled at.
Have you always worked on mastering or have you had other jobs during your career in the music business?
Coming out of school I thought I was going to be this great recording engineer working with the stars but then reality set in. I soon found out how grueling the music business was when I was answering phones at the famous Hit Factory Recording Studios for $4 an hour. Luckily that position fell apart after about 10 weeks and discouraged by my first experience I worked at a video post-production house where I was setting up rooms in the morning and running their duplication room by day. I had sent out resumes all over Manhattan and had met with Bill Townley, director of CBS Studios, who liked my resume but didn’t have any positions available at the time. He told me to keep in touch which I did monthly for about a half a year. In the mean time I was freelancing as an assistant engineer here and there to keep my audio chops up and hoping for a break. About a year after my first meeting with Bill I sent him my updated resume and told him I was still interested if he had any openings. Luckily for me he did and the rest is history. I’ll be celebrating my 20th year in May.
Mastering is an essential part of the recording process. Can you give us an overview of what is involved in the process?
By definition mastering is the final step in the creative process and the first step in the manufacturing process. What leaves the mastering engineer’s room after it has been approved by the artist/producer/engineer is now ready for public consumption. The process – final mixes are given to the mastering engineer who then transfers them to whatever format they will be released on (CD/vinyl) utilizing equalizers, compressors and compiles them into an album or single format. What also must be taken into account is what audio path is being used. Everything from the tape machine to the mastering console to the A/D-D/A converters, digital clocking, cables, speakers, amplifiers, wiring, etcetera are all tools in a mastering engineer’s processing chain and each engineer meticulously chooses his/her tools.
What is the difference between mastering and remastering?
Remastering is the mastering of an album that has been previously released. The greatest variable here is how much the mastering engineer takes into account the original “sound” of the previously released material.
What problems can arise when mastering for CD?
The biggest problem can be with damaged tape. You’re dealing with tapes that are 30-50 years old and it’s very important how they were used and stored. Splicing tape where edits were created wear out sometimes pulling oxide off the tape, which can cause audio dropouts. If the tape was quickly spooled off to a reel it can wrap unevenly. The edges of the tape will bend back and forth which we call “scalloping”. This causes the tape to lift off the playback head in a cyclical pattern. With Scotch 206 if the tape is wound too tightly close to the hub you sometimes have problems with the oxide flaking off which can result in very noticeable drop outs. And the most common problem is with Ampex tape from the 70s on. Due to an unstable formulation the oxide will shed off the tape backing while playing. The remedy for this is rather simple, we just bake the tapes in an oven at 130 degrees for about 8 hours. The shedding stops and the tapes can be played anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks before shedding will occur again. And if I need to use the tape months or years later, it’s OK to bake them again, although we do archive our tapes after baking.
Is it easier working with material recorded in the fifties and sixties or with recordings made in the eighties and nineties?
The condition of the tapes from the 80s and 90s is usually better just because they’re not as old. The biggest headache I have is baking the tapes to temporarily stop the oxide from shedding from the tape backing, and this is primarily an Ampex tape problem. Assuming the tapes are in good condition I find myself doing less work on the earlier tapes because there usually wasn’t a lot of heavy handed mastering done to these masters by the time they were released. Many times they can be transferred flat.
How do you decide what the finished product should sound like. Do you try to duplicate the original sound achieved in the studio or how it sounded when released on vinyl?
Most times I put up the tape, give it a listen and then do a lot of comparing to vinyl and any other reissues that are out. I put a lot of weight on what came first because I know a lot listeners have the ‘sound’ of an album ingrained in their memory so I usually don’t want to stray too far from that.
I know it is probably a difficult question but on average how long does each project take?
For an album reissue project I spend about 6 -10 hours which involves mastering, quality checking the master under headphones and creating a CD master. Of course the time increases as the complexity of the project increases, ie; damaged tapes, bonus tracks, mixing of unreleased material, etc.
I believe the majority of your work was carried out at the Sony Studios in New York. I read somewhere that the studio was sold recently, is this correct and if so at which studio do you now work?
That’s right. The beautiful building on West 54th Street was sold. I’m temporarily working at an existing mastering room at Battery Studios, which is owned by SonyBMG on West 25th Street, while they build our new rooms.
You have been involved on a number of Elvis Presley releases including 2nd To None and some of the material that appeared on Close Up and recently worked on the Waylon Jennings Nashville Rebel set. Can you tell us about these projects and if there were any particular problems that you had to overcome?
As most people know, 2nd to None was the follow up to the incredibly successful 30 #1 Hits. Sticking with the same formula the decision was made to remix tracks where we had multi-track tapes, which was handled wonderfully by Ray Bardani, and master the project with a more contemporary sound, i.e.; hotter levels. Close Up and Nashville Rebel were fairly straightforward. I had access to original masters and the tapes were in great shape.
I have seen your name mentioned on some of the Elvis ‘Follow That Dream’ releases including the gospel set His Hand In Mine. On that particular project you are credited for audio restoration. Can you explain a bit more about exactly what this involves?
I have mastered some releases for Ernst Jorgensen’s FTD label in Denmark and other times I have transferred masters for him that are mastered there. In those instances he gives me an audio restoration credit. Typically audio restoration credits are given when you do clean up work on material. There’s a real taboo about saying you No-Noised or Cedared something so to keep it vague producers will give audio engineers restoration credits. There is some truth to the taboo because some of these de-ticking, de-crackling or de-hissing software plug-ins can be destructive if used too liberally. But in the right hands these plug-ins can clean up a distorted or hissy tape or a vinyl transfer with ticks and pops wonderfully.
Besides Elvis, Jennings and Cash, who we will get to later, can you tell us about some of the other artists you have worked with?
I’ve been fortunate enough to work on almost every artist in the Sony catalog. The list would be too long for this interview but I’m very proud of my work with Simon & Garfunkel, The Byrds, Janis Joplin, Sly & The Family Stone, Bob Dylan, Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Jones and Aerosmith, to name just a few.
Can you remember when you first heard Johnny Cash’s music and can you recall what your initial thoughts were?
My mom used to spin a lot of Johnny Cash records when I was a child so it’s been a long, long time. Can’t say I remember the first time because it always seems to have been there.
What was the first Cash project you worked on?
Gregg Geller had completed a successful 3-CD compilation titled The Essential Johnny Cash. Years later Sony initiated a tape archiving program to help better identify and catalog their masters. During this overhaul, master identification was greatly improved so Legacy had me and Bob Irwin go back and master from better sources using the same A&R.
I’d like to talk a little about the Personal File release. These tracks came from what have become known as ‘The Hendersonville Tapes’ due to the fact that they were discovered behind a wall in the studio at the House of Cash. They had sat undiscovered for over twenty years. What was the condition of the material and how much work was needed to get them to sound as good as they do?
For the most part they were in fine condition. Most were on 3 and 5-inch plastic reels recorded in various formats. i.e.: 1/2 track , 1/4 track, 15ips, 7.5ips, 3.75ips, etc. A lot of them were mono, some stereo and others were binaural, meaning Johnny’s vocal would be recorded to one channel and his guitar would be recorded to the other channel. Instead of having his voice come out of one speaker and his guitar the other, Gregg and I decided to pan the vocals more towards the center of the stereo image.
They sound incredible and listening to the CD you can almost believe Cash is in the room with you, the sound is that good. Were you pleased with the way they turned out?
I’m very pleased with the results. I was out at my mom’s house recently and she was playing the CD on a boom box in her kitchen and I was impressed with how good it sounded. His performances really grab the listener, it’s very intimate.
Was there any material that was beyond repair and could not be included on this set?
No, we used everything we wanted, although there was varying quality from tape to tape. Some of these tapes came from the studio while others were recorded on Johnny’s consumer tape deck in his home.
The deluxe edition of The Legend included a rare live recording from 1954. This was an amazing find. How much work was needed to make it good enough for release?
The biggest chore was correcting the speed. We compared the songs that he performed on the radio show to the released studio versions to get the tape at the correct speed. There was also a fair amount of tape hiss that we cleaned up.
Were you part of the team that listened to and catalogued all the material that was found and if so can you give us an idea of how long this took?
I was. I worked on all the 1/4-inch and cassette tapes with Gregg Geller. We listened to every tape and then backed up every reel and cassette to a hard drive at 24bit/96k. Keep in mind that Johnny had a publishing company so numerous songwriters sent him demos for years. These we didn’t archive, only the tapes Johnny sang on. Gregg and I worked on this for about two months in June of 2006 off and on.
You are credited on the San Quentin (Legacy Edition) release. This is the definitive release of this historic concert. Do you think the same treatment will be given to the Folsom Prison album?
That’s for the fine folks at Legacy to decide.
Do you have a favourite Cash album or song that you have worked on?
I’d have to say my favourite Cash projects to work on were the live shows at San Quentin and Folsom Prison. They really stand the test of time and are true documents of what a great artist Johnny Cash was.
And is there a particular favourite of all the material you have worked on?
I really enjoyed working on Simon & Garfunkel.
Your name has appeared on so many projects over the years but is there an album, Cash, Elvis or other artist, that you wished you’d had the opportunity to work on?
The Beatles. I’ve worked on Bob Dylan, I’ve worked on Elvis, the Beatles would complete the Holy Trinity.
What projects are you currently working on and are there any Cash projects lined up that you may be involved in?
I’m currently working on a Legacy Edition of Willie Nelson’s Stardust album. I’m remastering the original album and then bonus tracks that will fill up a second CD.
Thanks Vic for all your great work and for taking the time to talk to us.
Thank you Peter, the pleasure’s been all mine.
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