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http://www.elvisrecordings.com/r50s.htm

Anybody ever seen that page before?

Sounds like fun. Record company politics! Oldies record company politics!

Yes, that article actually pre-dates Kevan Budd and Vic Anesini's involvement with the Elvis catalog. For a long time, Elvis's CD catalog sucked. The first releases were shit, and it's funny how some of the shitty fake stereo ones are collector's items - probably for rarity.

The 90's reissues were big upgrades, but they still sucked - bad, harsh EQ, harsh denoising, some bad sources, etc. as mentioned in the article. It ALMOST explains why people would pay $100 for a 24 Karat Hits CD from DCC (insanity plays some role too).

So things've gotten better?

I have minimal knowledge about the various Elvis CD releases, but from what I have read, things have indeed gotten better. Kevan Budd seems to have adopted Steve's mastering philosophy, Vic Anesini's reputation is well-known, and Dennis Drake mastered the various "Elvis Presley Collection" Time Life 2 CD sets. Especially Kevan Budd's album remasters ("Elvis Presley", "Elvis" and "Loving You") get recommended a lot.

I've seen that before. Isn't Jorgensen on the record somewhere totally bashing the DCC?

Who did the Elvis mastering? Was that Bill Lacey? The earlier BMG Sam Cooke sets (like the box) have that same sound - high end a bit rolled off, tons of midrange, along with some NR to make things even worse. Although narrowed, the ABKCO remixes are a *lot* better.

Amen.

I think most of Elvis's A+ material has been mastered well. Still waiting for the entire Memphis sessions and the TV special to get better mastering...to be fair, the latter will never sound hi-fi.

So has anyone compared Kevan Budd's or Vic Anesini's remasters against 24 Karat Gold Hits? Or against the Drake collections? Is there any interest?

Anesini's definitely sharper and harder. I'm not saying they're overly sharp or hard, but Hoffman's mastering is definitely a touch rounder and warmer. Part of it may be the playback console but Anesini usually adds a touch around 8k or above. Not like Inglot, but he does.

MK wrote:Anesini's definitely sharper and harder. I'm not saying they're overly sharp or hard, but Hoffman's mastering is definitely a touch rounder and warmer. Part of it may be the playback console but Anesini usually adds a touch around 8k or above. Not like Inglot, but he does.

Another reason to check out Kevan Budd's work. In the Elvis CD jungle, his album remasters are not that easy to locate, especially with titles like "Elvis" and "Elvis Presley"...I have never seen them in Germany. Anesini's comps ("Elvis '56", "Elvis By The Presleys") are much more common.

Xenu wrote:So things've gotten better?

Yes, a hell of a lot better.