Joe Nino-Hernes' Digitally Sourced "Katy Lied" Says "Re-do Them All!"
all of the lower cost digitally remastered Dan albums should have sounded this good
Until Katy Lied, the "commercial" $29.99 Steely Dan reissues were cut using Bernie Grundman mastered digital files. All of the previous Dan albums therefore should have sonically resembled the UHQR 45rpm versions issued by Analogue Productions. None did. All sounded D.O.A. They were cut by a lesser known, let's say "second tier" Long Island, N.Y. based mastering engineer. Was the problem the quality of his cutting system? After all, a lacquer cutting system is sort of a stereo playback system in reverse. Or did he make changes to the mastered files Bernie supplied? Who knows? It doesn't matter. They just didn't sound good or correct. I made that known to whoever at UMe I could contact (I did the same about Kevin Reeves's "Verve By Request" cuts too: they were at least as bad if not worse!).
UMe changed it for Katy Lied, assigning the job to Joe Nino-Hernes at Sterling Sound—a young cutting engineer with a penchant for crimson colored 60's and 70's era Ford "car boats" (Galaxies are his fave) and a well-deserved reputation for great lacquer cuts from analog tape and digital files. Instead of receiving a pre-mastered digital file from Bernie, he requested and received a flat hi-res file that he mastered and cut and the results scream "LET JOE RE-CUT THE PREVIOUS ONES!" (though that's not going to happen).
"Black Friday" made clear that this was going to be good—he somehow improved the bass thump and everything else was smartly clarified in ways that let individual instruments shine through in an orderly, well-balanced way. I'm not sure exactly what he did and I'm not doing a sonic forensic exam but if you get this edition listen to "Everyone's Gone to the Movies" and you'll hear one tidy mastering job! Vibes, congas, Fender Rhodes, absolutely sweet cymbal hits—all of it timbrally "in the pocket" and well-defined. As Fred Kaplan correctly pointed out to me the other day, the sonics generally improve as the album progresses and once you get to "Everyone's Gone to the Movies"—at least here and on the UHQR—you wonder what anyone was complaining about for all of those years.
This is a great sounding digital re-mastering job well pressed at Precision (a GZ Media company) that you're sure to enjoy. It was so good I had to return to the UHQR just to be sure it was better, and believe me it is: bigger, more vibrant images, greater three-dimensionality and solidity arrayed on big soundstage, greater sense of musical flow— all of the things you should expect if you're plunking down triple digit cash for a record.
You get your money's worth out of both productions—something not true of the previous digitally sourced versions. In fact, I think if you've bought the UHQR you should put down another $30 for this for two reasons: firstly you'll reassure yourself that you didn't waste your money, secondly if Joe is cutting the rest and one is not your fave, you might be satisfied with the $30 version. Uh-oh, my phone is ringing...I think it's Chad.....
