UHQR Perspective Please!
what makes a great reissue?
The less than enthusiastic review I gave to the UHQR reissue of Steely Dan's "Pretzel Logic" produced some nasty and totally unfair comments aimed not at me, but at Analogue Productions and Acoustic Sounds that I think need addressing now, not later.
All of the UHQRs shown in the photo got great reviews on this site from me or from Fred Kaplan. Why? Because they elevated the sound of those recordings to above what either of us heard on any other pressings, though of course to varying degrees, some more so than others. Both the mastering and pressing quality were responsible for it.
And all were cut from analog master tapes, which I can't believe at this point I have to reiterate but I do, because a commenter insinuated otherwise. All of what Analogue Productions UHQR or otherwise reissues are cut from either the master tapes, or, as in the case of A Love Supreme, from a tape copy that sounds better, or in cases where there no longer is an original master tape, from the best available analog source.
At one point, Chad Kassem mastered albums where the tapes resided: in the U.K. or in Germany or in America, either in New York (at Sterling Sound before the lacquer cutting moved to Nashville) or in Los Angeles. He didn't ask for tape copies to be sent here to make it easier or less costly, he used original tapes wherever they were located, regardless of the additional costs and increased logistical hassles involved that he, not you the buyer absorbed.
When he wanted to reissue The Doors catalog, management refused, offering instead to send high resolution files prepared by Bruce Botnick and Jack Holzman because he was told "the tapes aren't in good shape". Chad persisted and further opened his wallet until the green paper turned to brown mylar and the albums were released AAA all from master tapes, other than the first album because that master tape had disappeared (I almost typed "no longer exists" but I bet it does in someone's basement somewhere).
As I wrote in the serious knock on the truly awful Rough Mix reissue, there are numerous reasons, not just one reason, to produce a reissue, with improved sound and the scarcity of original pressings being tied for the number one reason. Remixes, by Giles Martin, or Steven Wilson, or Jon Astley or whoever, come in farther down the list in my opinion, even if the original had some problems, though I'm not opposed to revisionist history. My preference is for the original document and in cases where the original sound is magical and you could say beyond criticism as with Rough Mix for instance, the goal should be to duplicate that as closely as is possible.
Where bass was attenuated and dynamics compressed to make records that were kiddie phonograph friendly, or playable on budget turntables as in the Beatles mono catalog, or RVG's original Blue Notes that some prefer (mistakenly IMO), of course revise to add what's on the tapes.
The first two Steely Dan UHQRs were better than originals but not "drop your jaw" better because, to begin with, the recordings, while good, were not spectacular or iconic or anything else. They were just good early '70s studio productions. And they got treated well in the reissues and sounded better, at least to me, in every way, both because of the mastering and because of the pressing, but not as in "WOW". Whether or not one wanted to invest in those or any of these is of course a personal matter.
To me, Pretzel Logic is the first "real" Steely Dan album for the reasons outlined in the review. When I played the UHQR for the first or the fifth time it didn't sound even somewhat better overall, it sounded perhaps better in a few of the usual checklist sonic items, but worse in other ways, particularly on top and in the lower midrange where there was too much of it. I thought the original pressing and the files from the 2014 flat transfer had, in some ways, more life and were more enjoyable.
Writing that review was not easy for me at all and I knew it would upset Chad Kassem but I had to offer my honest opinion. Had I written the kind of mindless rave I see on too many websites and people bought and heard what I heard, who wins? Obviously not me! I take a serious credibility hit. Not the buyer. He or she takes a financial hit. And not as far as I'm concerned, Chad Kassem or Acoustic Sounds. I suppose a few orders were canceled because of what I wrote, but I don't part the Red Sea or make time stand still or issue "buy" orders! People who want that record will buy it! And they may really like it and think I made a big mistake and I hope those people comment and tell me so and why!
Had I written a rave and people bought and were disappointed, what happens when the next in the series Steely Dan album is released? What will my word mean if I'd written enthusiastically about a reissue I thought was only so-so? If the next one is a sonic real step up from the original and I write that, I think people will rely on it. I hope Chad and his production team work hard to make it so, and don't try to anticipate what "audiophiles" might want, which in some ways is what this Pretzel Logic, wrongly or correctly, sounds like.
I don't want the Mo-Fi "smiley face" bass and treble bump heard on many of its reissues, just for the sake of a record sounding different from the original, but if a tape can use a bit of added sparkle to come alive or a touch less mid bass to add clarity or whatever, it ought to be considered. On Pretzel Logic I didn't hear the UHQR bring much to the table that made it clearly superior and as I wrote, in a few ways to me it sounded worse through four cartridges on three different turntables, so as much as it distressed me to write what I wrote, I felt obliged to, and let's be adults about this, Acoustic Sounds is an important site advertiser, but I never have and never will let that influence what I write because in the end my credibility is my working capital and I don't ever plan on depleting any of what I have worked so hard to accumulate.
That's all I have to say about this, though I will chime in if I read any nasty comments under the Pretzel Logic review!
