chameleon

Are you really serious about music?

Alternatively titled….

The Future Of The Four Seasons Sound Part1

 Are Four Seasons fans geeky computer freaks who obsessively collect multiple copies of their fave group in the hope of finding a different mix?. And how do they listen to their favourite ‘Four Seasons’ tracks.  Record player, CD player, I-pod or computer? (I’m assuming most people have now abandoned 8 track and cassette!!) Well if you are reading this you might just be a fan (maybe not a geeky one!) and looking back over your life as a ‘Four Season’ fan…. what has been the music player that you’ve listened to the most?

 

Some would say it only matters what you choose today. And today whatever you choose, it finally looks as though sound quality will make a recovery as ‘music lovers’ with the benefit of today’s technology will take control of their ‘masters’. They are increasingly able to store and stream them in a variety of different formats. It is a matter of personal choice. But it also appears most of us don’t care much about the sound .

Greg Milner in ‘Perfecting Sound Forever’ considers the state of music in this decade and its quality…”When music on a CD is converted to MP3, or AAC (the I-pod default) between 80 and 90 percent of the music is simply discarded. We (supposedly) don’t notice because of the psychoacoustic phenomenon called masking” that this codec employs…… ‘High Fidelity’ barely exists today, not so much because recordings don’t attempt to document reality anymore but because the fundamental ethic governing recorded music has been reversed. ‘Presence’ implies capturing ‘everything’. Today, we try to capture as little as possible while fostering the illusion of everything. We don’t want everything. We want just enough “……..consumers are probably still more likely to take convenience over fidelity when push comes to shove.”

But this music trend has a built in problem for its listeners, as a leading sound engineer told us….”The problem with compression is that the technical design relies on  “normal, standard hearing of the human ear”, which doesn’t exist.

Listeners will find problems of age and gradual hearing loss: they will notice more problems in listening to compressed music (MP3, AAC) than younger people, because, what they are missing in the sound , can’t be replaced by something that has already been “thrown out”. This is because the encoder thought you have a “standard, normal ear”. Various tests have shown this phenomenon occurs, particularly for people with abnormal (but not necessarily deficient) hearing.”

So ignorance is a problem for us and thanks to this fascinating and educational  book we can learn so much about what is important in sound recording....and how the 60s and 70s analogue recordings are the 'Holy Grail'.... George Schowerer (former Four Seasons Sound Engineer in 1967) has commented on how “studios gave recordings a special sound” and the 'presence' and ‘ambience’ that can be found in many 60s recordings…even in ‘mono’. Every location has a distinct and subtle sound created by its environment….an ambience whilst the presence is created by the position of the microphone in relation to the space boundaries. A microphone placed in two different locations of the same room will produce two different  presences.

Focusing on these often confused aspects  sent me back to my ‘keystone’ albums and their sound. In terms of the Four Seasons it was "Edizione d'Oro'”  that really started me analyzing how I liked my music to sound and that double stereo album remains one of my reference albums for the group (even though some of the editing and sound tricks used were criticised) . 1966 to 68 were  classic years for great analogue studio sounds. Check out the ambience on Valli’s ‘Solo’ and ‘Timeless’ albums…either vinyl or well mastered CD

As Milner says the future seems to be compressed and like it or not the CD is dying as a commercial product….and even as a storage medium it needs to be used with care. Many commercial CD versions are not as good as the original vinyl or  compared to vinyl that is  digitized and carefully re-mastered.

A survey showed many young people preferring to listen to MP3's compared to CD as Greg describes in his book! Perhaps it is a case of what you are most used to…or what your ears get used to during your teens/formative years, but scientific tests have shown that even at 128kbps the loss of quality from CD to MP3 is hard to discern and some tests show with higher bit-rates that….”human hearing cannot differentiate between a high bit-rate MP3 and the PCM (ie CD) source used to create it”. AAC beats MP3 for sound quality in tests but FLAC is clearly the best (it stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality). Music catalogs in FLAC, AIFF, and MP3, are in existence and plans exist to offer 96kHz/24-bit FLAC files soon. Computers and software are beginning to emerge with sound cards capable of getting the best from these formats. Quality is coming back and will soon be available to those who don’t want…’just enough’. Another key thing to remember is that music in each of the last 6 decades has been different in each one as a result of technology, studio and engineer/producer and the sound is distinct as a result. Not only that, but the sound will be different due to the sound transfer medium. 78's, LP's, Cassette tapes, Eight Track, CD, and digital downloads -  they all have specific aspects that shape what you hear. So we all have several different sounding versions of the same classic Four Seasons tracks in our collections

Those who want a tangible object to store their sound will perhaps collect the above list of formats. But today as we enter the ‘Streaming Age’ anything will work. You can stream your vinyl to the new streaming amps either hard-wired or wi-fi. The choice will be yours. So don’t sell your vinyl!! Vinyl will survive and prosper as it often has a greater dynamic range than the CD mastered version. And the CD won’t disappear, it just will not be the primary storage/listening medium. But reading 'The Long-LP Good-bye' and 'Appetite for Self-destruction – The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry In the Digital Age' you can see the collapse of the recording industry and of the process of recording. At the moment it is a confusing time for music collectors with the historic data-base of music from the last century available in many formats

 The 50s to the (early) 80s it seems could be called...'The Analogue Age’ for pop music and it remains the key period for the music of the Four Seasons. But is it wrong to focus our listening on recordings and music created during this time.? With the ‘loudness wars’ and some terrible CD productions on the market today, it is no wonder that vinyl is re-appearing in the shops and why collectors are focusing on it more than in over 2 decades. Particularly, as you get a digital ‘download’ copy with the re-issued vinyl today and with the high quality of today’s record decks and sound processing software you can stream it to your player in either format.

We asked a leading European Sound Engineer his opinion……”As a person partly in the industry, I really must say there are no ways left to earn money on NEW music unless you can gain mass exposure to OLDER people. Young people won't pay for CD / music at all, and they don't care about quality, because, primarily there is so much music around, if you don't like this track, you will have another one that fits your personal taste within days or hours, by electronic media. There's no real identification with music and artists. Back in the 60s and 70s fans were anxiously awaiting the next release by their favorite star /group. That has gone. No CD is played to death nowadays! Music is not worth anything anymore - it's just entertainment for a few minutes, until you have something better to do! And there are a lot of alternatives nowadays. In the music business, the real money makers are ADSL providers, File Sharing services, wireless carriers, Apple, Amazon, and anyone concerned with digital communication….the CD age is finishing”

’The CD Age’ looks like spanning 1986 to 2010...and now we are moving onto a future of streaming digital files. We heard Linn the Scottish audio firm have stopped making CD players and now make a solid state music streamer. Even Cambridge are selling a de-compressing I-pod dock to connect to your audio amps and provide improved sound amplification.

The future…. It is all about storage and accessing the best sounding versions of classic studio sounds. Centralised storage of Video and CD for home wi-fi transmission seems to be capturing the market and any sound file types can be used in this format. So eventually DSD sound will be a storage option and players will emerge based on computer technology. You can see the market in downloads expanding to sell such files on-line.

The Four Seasons where firmly locked into ‘The Analogue Age’ and in fact only 2 of their original albums (‘Hope and Glory’ and ‘Romancing The Sixties’) are ‘digital recordings’ All of the others appeared originally on vinyl with the warmth and dynamic range of that analogue tape based  recorded sound….so is streaming our original vinyl a good choice….or can we and should we re-master it ourselves?

In Part 2 we’ll consider this and if illegal copying really has caused the collapse of the music industry’s economic model of selling ‘physical objects’ that contain music …plus we assess the likely approach of a new generation of ‘digital’ Four Seasons fans…young and old….and what they might want.

 

Casey Chameleon

Photo of Frankie Valli courtesy of George Schowerer

Finding the Four Seasons 'Masters' !

The real question is do we already have them?

Think about what we believe is the sound of the Four Seasons……“A recording is nothing until it is decoded and what it decodes is an illusion.”…is a quote from Greg Milners ‘Perfect Sound Forever’.

Back in the sixties when Bob Crewe first produced the Four Seasons incredible sound….(the sound of Frankie Valli’s falsetto) there were some who doubted the sound was natural ….as no-one had ever sounded like that!!. And to some extent there is a distortion in the records of the day as tracks were ‘bounced ‘ on the tape machines to create the final MONO mix. Phil Spectors ‘Wall Of Sound’ is perhaps the most ‘perfect’ distortion of the 60s?

So in a week that sees the release of the long-awaited Beatles RE-MASTERS it is worth reviewing the state of the Four Seasons catalogue and in doing so the future of music!

Greg Milner’s book really asks questions about the sounds we treasure. Described in the Sunday Times as “a tour-de-force of fascinating anecdotes, lucidly expounded science, witty asides, stylistic verve, and page after page of ‘gosh I never new that facts”. This book de-mystifies hi-fi like never before and whilst describing how sound has been recorded and sold for nearly 100 years it leaves us wondering whether things have gotten better or worse.

We’ve laboured in our previous blog notes re the MONO v STEREO argument and the advent of the ‘Loudness Wars’ and we have asked if music now is approaching a ZERO value as so many downloads and CD copying is reducing the economic model for CD production.

But what gives hope for the future is the emergence of the ‘Pleasurize Music Foundation’. This sets standards for the production/mastering of all CD’s and has enabled us to start to evaluate the Four Seasons CD Discography….

You’ll find a full explanation of these standards at our new Sound Evaluation web page, and in our CD Discography evaluations of some of the most important CD releases by the group. But this is only the start……..Other recent developments show the desperation to reclaim the ‘golden days of album sales’.

Apple is working with the four largest record labels to stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads, in a move it hopes will change buying trends on its online iTunes store. This may appeal to younger people but it will be competing against the re-surgence of vinyl which whilst not needed by the 'on the go' listener will re-capture the collector. The sound is arguably better and you can get so many more albums or 45s on a shelf. !!

With more models of USB record players emerging too the thought crossed my mind that the PC based digitiser that I have become is perhaps the future model of the serious music collector. The CD will still sell although it is increasingly difficult to make any money from CD sales. Music in download form is such a low value low profit market that it is difficult to see how anyone can continue to sell it and gain royalties & profit based on the old economic model. HMV in the UK are increasingly prioritizing ‘technology sales’ of speakers, mp3 players, docking stations and the like and emerging technology featuring home wi-fi players and digital headphones is opening up the way for improvements to digital sound…..with players that ‘de-compress’ the sound!. This market is huge as listeners become more educated in enjoying their digital music.

In many ways the model from Apple is perhaps a way forward to maximize this enjoyment. It is no surprise that the most popular Four Seasons blog we have had was the one on 'I Wonder Why' which included an article and a You-Tube video with original artwork and old photos and the track. Fans wrote to me and praised this approach and I maintain people will want to listen to music in a fully interactive way. Take our current research on the early Four Seasons ‘Billboard’ cuttings, if that was linked to artwork and sound files of the tracks ..and interviews with artists/producers and fans it would be a fully interactive digi-book newsletter item.. You Tube however remains the best way at present to discover music and artists. Our recent Tribute to Ellie Greenwich has had over 1600 views since her passing on August 26^th.

Perhaps Apple's idea has a future. But we do it for free and have more info generally than the owners of the music...so it is difficult to see how the owners will make money in this model. Four Seasons fans do not want to go on and on re-buying versions of their vinyl/digital collections from the past. Unfortunately with Jersey Boys rumoured to be making Bob and Frankie $1m a week each…and a film deal to come…it is likely they wont care. A Four Seasons Re-mastered project seems unlikely.

But to truly enjoy the music you need good masters and after over 160 plus re-issues of the original vinyl material since 1987, it seems that the Partnership may have literally ‘lost’ their masters……to us!!

"We didn't understand what the unexpected consequences of moving into the digital domain would be," one record company executive candidly said. "We thought we were doing this great thing of improving the sound and being able to make perfect copies and all that, and we just did not understand that we had crossed a line that meant we could never go backward. That's the realization that is finally dawning on the record companies --- there's no turning back. As long as we were in the analog domain, we had an advantage in the marketplace, but now we don't. As soon as we made it possible for things to be transmitted over the Internet and for copies to be pretty good or perfect, we could never go back."

So consider that maybe they have given us the masters by the multitude of releases on CD. All we have to do is identify the best mixes and you can gather them. The Four Seasons Sound Archive is perhaps how we (the fans) will take control of the music. The CD evaluations we have started will enable any of us to identify the best ‘masters’ on CD and to build our own ‘best of’ collections from past releases..

Josh Indar argues…..“Yet for all the freedoms gained by the ability to record and manipulate sound, there is a cost. However important music is in our lives, it is no longer a fleeting expression of the emotions of its players. It has become an artificial construction, a simulacrum, a ghost of what it once was.”

So is there a genuine ‘master’ of the Four Seasons recordings?

Jersey Boys performance of the Four Seasons  songs is a ‘distortion’ of their original performance….for theatrical effect….and we love it!!

“While the freeing of music from the boundaries of the physical world has brought plenty of catchy songs and powerful ideas into existence, it has also devalued music as a cultural binding agent and reduced the power of live performance, causing many to wonder why the songs they hear at a concert don’t sound as “good” as they do in their Ipod’s earbuds. The simple answer to this question is because almost all modern recordings are deceptions, “records” of performances that never existed, and in many cases, could never exist.

Milner(In his book that we opened with) rightly blames this development on the advent of magnetic tape, which was conceived of in 19th century America, patented some 30 years later in Austria, perfected by the Nazis and then rediscovered by an enterprising GI, who brought it back the states after WWII. Magnetic tape, Milner writes “taught music how to lie” by introducing the ability to cut, splice and layer sounds into musical constructions that sounded completely real, yet were anything but. “ argues Josh Indar in his review.

 But without it Bob Crewe, George Martin and Phil Spector…(to name a few) could not have created the 3 minute gems we all love.

Perhaps the best we can hope for is to see if amongst the vinyl and CD versions of the Seasons tracks we can find ‘the illusion’ that Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio tried to create.

We will see what our CD evaluations show and let you know. Will we find the ‘Best Mixes.?

The intended recordings perhaps but…“A recording is nothing until it is decoded and what it decodes is an illusion.”

Casey Chameleon

(Photo of Bob Crewe and George Schowerer - Sound Engineer at the mixing desk 1967 'creating the illusion' courtesy of George)

 

A Tribute To Nick Massi

Very few live performances of the original Four Seasons have survived and some don’t do them justice. Their ability to entertain an adult as well as a teen audience has recently come into focus as our forthcoming posts will show.

 

So as a tribute to the late Nick Massi and to illustrate what they could do we constructed a video for the song, “Close Your Eyes” from our very first live tape of the group at

Clearwater

in 1964.(track courtesy of John Hornsby) Originally by the Five Keys and a hit in 1955.  Nick and Frankie do a great version.

 

Read more about Nick before he became a Four Seasons here

 

And of his other role with The Victorians here

 

And our You Tube tribute..

...............

Casey

How Did Susan De Passe Lose A Four Seasons Master?

Stories make music sound better…It’s a fact!

That’s why Jersey Boys is such a great show….and sometimes they give us a song which might never have been heard. So it is with the Four Seasons.

At last years International Four Seasons Convention for the fans, special guests Joe Long and Demitri Callas ….former Four Seasons during the mid 70s…..told the story of how a song that the group believed in and recorded was lost by the Executives at Motown.

Read the full story here ….

Added notes......In our rush to produce the demo 45 image we made a grave error and omitted one of the key writers and arrangers - Joe Long aka LaBracio. As Demitri said ..."It would be appropriate to see Joe LaBracio's name under the title of the song; without his superb bass playing, singing and vocal
arranging, this song would be lifeless and devoid of the true Seasons'flair.  If Joe had not recorded the unmixed playback as we were leaving the studio, the recording would be lost forever.  LaBracio to the
rescue! "

And the ever modest Joe ...."That song brings back many happy memories. And, the YouTube video is terrific. Thank you very much. As I recall, Demetri and Lee did the bulk of the writing. There was added input from the rest of us. I had the most studio experience, so I handled that end. It was a fun session."

So now we are correct and you can hear the ‘almost lost’ song below….

More Salvaged Four Seasons

It is not very often that Four Seasons fans get to hear anything new. After all the best of the groups work arguably happened before 1980….but we avidly sought out their 80s and 90s efforts in the hope that something new would capture the quality of the old group sound and to be fair some of the 80s/90s original songs and the dance re-mixes have been pretty good.

But unreleased material and the lack of properly re-mastered versions of the released material is still the main complaint that we continue to level at the Four Seasons Partnership.

So when we got a new ‘bootleg’ release of a ‘Live’ concert from 1974 we were in seventh heaven. Particularly as the sound quality is pretty good and it contains 8 songs never recorded by the group in the studio. Frankie even tells us this in the song introductions..

Another reminder of what we have missed and how badly served we have been since their 70s revival. Two original albums in the 80s and 90s amid the hundred plus re-issues as seen in our CD Discography…(click the image below to visit the web pages)

In an interview last week on an American Radio Show (WABC Saturday Night Oldies Show #179: May 23, 2009, 6:00 to 10:00 PM ET) Frankie Valli said that as he sees it that his fans are loyal and they come to concerts because they want to see him do the 'hits'. …..they wouldn't come if he did new material or covers....he maintains.

Well maybe in 2009 that is the case…..but Bachelors III shows that back in the 70s he did quite a few 'alternative' tracks and for me that is what I want to hear.....not the boring re-modeling of the hits. So today when most fans are happy that he is still performing…..this concert reminds us of …..’The Way We Were’…which features in the concert.

To read the full report on this CD release and the reasons for its importance click on my link here for the full article which will appear in our late summer Newsletter. And watch this blog for more re-visits to the 70s revival over the next month.

Chameleon

The Four Seasons 'DS' Remixes

A real candidate for a "Write A Caption" competition. Bob Crewe is clearly unhappy with the playback....Frankie Valli is trying to re-assure him and George Schowerer is staying out of this argument! Photo courtesy of George 1966

When Bob Crewe and the Four Seasons where in the studio in the sixties their only aim was to get a good single that would be a hit record. Mono ruled!  Recording technology was based on generally 4 track tape machines (up to 1964) and stereo sound was a luxury and usually an afterthought for the record company to focus on with the sound engineer. In the forty plus years since we’ve seen the rise of the audiophile and the emergence of  Dolby and Surround Sound. The sound quality of movies has been revolutionized with multiple channels..

Descriptions of stereophonic sound tend to stress the ability to localize the position of each instrument in space, but in reality many people listen on playback systems that do a poor job of re-creating a stereo "image". Many listeners assume that "stereo" sound is "richer" or "fuller-sounding" than monophonic sound. This is inaccurate — stereo and mono can have equally detailed abilities to play recorded notes. The spatial illusion is what sets stereo recordings apart from mono recordings.

So what is wrong with simulated stereo?

 

Audiophiles and music purists often deride this method of playback because the audio doesn’t sound how the composer or producer intended. Or they maintain the result sounds artificial. But even sound engineers have been fooled by this technique….and these arguments just don’t hold up.

 

In our network of world-wide contacts we found a sound engineer who is actively experimenting with the Four Seasons catalogue and the latest technology to manipulate sound in this way. We asked Enrique from Valencia in Spain for his view on this subject…..

‘That can be a problem” , said Enrique when we asked him. “Some processing of mono to "duophonic or artificial stereo" is so close to "real stereo" it is not detectable on electronic equipment or meters. For me, stereo is: clear separation of different instruments/voices on the left/right/middle. What is on one channel should be only occurring again as an echo (room hall) on the other side or not at all. When something from the middle is on both sides, too, it's mixed (or probably meant) that way.

What you get with the comb filter channeling is "ambience" on the channels and a better (wider) stereo picture with clearer location of the separate instruments at the front. There's no way to re-produce "depth" with a pseudo stereo recording unless you use complicated mathematical models.

Some people say that several Four Seasons tracks 
which appear on vinyl in stereo no longer exist in 
the Partnership’s archive of ‘stereo masters’. 
But only Bob, Frankie or perhaps Bill Inglot would 
be able to confirm that.”

“What about the rest of the Four Seasons catalogue” I asked him?

“It is important to continually examine the catalogues of important artists like the Four Seasons within our constantly evolving technological era. It is possible to give ‘volume’ and ‘shape’ to a monophonic record using pseudo-stereo techniques.

 One vinyl album that contains stereo and alternative ‘takes’ that really needs to be salvaged from vinyl and restored on CD as a set of masters is ‘Edizione D’Oro’

The original Edizione D'Oro LP in 1968 contained some first time stereo remixes: "Rag Doll", "Girl Come Running" , "Dawn" (without intro), "Let's Hang On" (without intro, ACE coupled it with the mono intro) and an alternate mix of "Save It For Me".  "Ronnie" was the only mono song not remixed to stereo, maybe there was too much overdubbing involved. Obviously the multi-tracks still existed in 1968. Actually, in the case of "Girl Come Running" the stereo version has the background vocals on the intro, whereas the mono 45 version does not. It is not clear how many of these are genuine stereo tracks or ‘electronically enhanced mono.

And on many tracks in the Four Seasons catalogue the stereo imaging is awful. The Philips albums in 1965 and 1966 are an example. I found this when transferring tracks to an archive for future mixing to DSD.

 With a sampling frequency of CD, 44,100 times per second it’s very difficult to reproduce a good ‘sound stage’ which is why you may find that the sound of a CD often ‘sticks to the speakers’: you’ll hear it coming from the left speaker and from the right speaker but there’s nothing in between – the proverbial ‘hole in the middle’. This is an area in which DSD excels.” This article indicates it may be the future for sound recording.

But ‘how do fans make their own assessment of what is a good stereo mix?’, we asked him.

“Stereo images are best assessed on headphones. You have to listen. Wide is 120 to 180 degrees, anything between 60 and 30 degrees is small, 60 to 120 is normal (90 degrees as usual). I haven't found any meter / display that can show this.

With my fellow sound engineers we have done a set of mixes to show what can be brought out of these recordings and this demonstrates just a little of what may be possible in the future. What would Bob Crewe have produced for our ears if he had been using the tools available today we have asked ourselves. Maybe ‘Edizione D’Oro’ is an indicator.

We used a plug-in tool in ‘Wavelab’ software to create stereo versions of the ‘mono only’ mixes. A comb filter created the left and right channels from the sound spectrum and a delay between these channels created the stereo effect. ( a tutorial on this technique can be found here). It was simply a case of setting a width that represented the preferred sound stage and we chose to visualize the group performing live with a tight centre.

But the remixing of the ‘mono only’ mixes in the Seasons catalogue in to stereo is only a first step. The wide stereo mixes that don’t do their performances justice also need to be ‘fixed’. The Four Seasons Partnership probably won’t invest the time of a sound engineer in re-mastering the catalogue with the help of the creators of the production for several reasons. Cost compared to Return, the age of the participants (Frankie’s lifelong hearing problems may prevent him from appreciating the new mixes fully) and their commitment to other things.(e.g. touring and Jersey Boys productions). But in the long-term someone will see the value of ‘Re-Mastering’ as a good financial investment”

Mixing engineers should mix tracks with a live sound stage/concert stage perspective in mind . We found a blogspot that defines this.

 

“Panning is how the instruments are arranged within the stereo image. By properly using this mixing feature you can create a very realisticsound.

Vocals are always in the center because the band lead singer is the star of the show. At the back of the vocals is the bass player. Typically at the back of the bass player is the drummer. The band's two guitarists are on the left and the right. Although, different panning arrangement are possible for additional instruments (such a band with piano or others), this concept illustrates the basic things on how to do panning in audio mixing to create a very realistic stereo image.

Live sound monitors for vocals and bass are placed up front facing the audience, so that fans can get a great feel of the vocals and the bass groove. On the left and right loud sound monitors are the guitars.

In the best commercial audio production and using  software, panning can be controlled between -100 to +100. Where mostly -100 is the leftmost part of the stage and +100 is the rightmost part of the stage.”

 

Enrique agreed…..”In the case of the Four Seasons recordings that we have……….. listen to any track on headphones and see how much these principles are adhered to. Many of the early stereo recordings fall short of this standard (with instruments and vocals panned far left and far right with acres of space between occupied by ‘nothing’).

With the ‘Mono only’ versions of songs it is not possible with present technology to create the sort of mix that multi-track recordings can provide. But it is possible to give them ambience and a degree of separation that gives them a soundstage not apparent in Mono. It is a compromise. But it is perhaps not as good as listening to DSD Mono which unfortunately is not really commercially available yet. There is a ‘feel’ to the DSD mono transfers that makes mono listening a really new experience. For most fans this is still a few years away. The technology is coming.”

It is clear Enrique really loves the Four Seasons music…..”. The fun is when you are re-mastering and you are trying different settings. Sometimes you suddenly find the groups sound just works better. That is such a ‘buzz’. ..a real adrenalin rush. With our ‘Digital Stereo’ mixes we have tried to put some of the ‘feeling’ back into the mixes that Bob Crewe and the group aimed for at the time of recording. We think we’ve done this. They are certainly interesting to listen to and a worthy item for collectors and fans”

Well it may be a compromise but we think they really bring the songs back to life and allow the listener to get into their arrangements like never before. This CD is not available commercially but Lynn Boleyn has a copy in our Four Seasons Archive library so contact her if you are interested.

CaseyChameleon

Four Seasons 'Best' Mixes

Bob Crewe and Sound Engineer George Schowerer recording the Four Seasons in the Mirasound studios in 1966.

The recordings of the Four Seasons have been collected by fans for nearly 50 years on vinyl and CD. In that time there have been thousands of releases but in terms of a properly mastered set there remains great concerns amongst fans. Unlike the Beach Boys catalogue the ‘Seasons’ tracks are not re-mastered to DVD-Audio or SACD standard and available to fans

 

So what do we mean by a ‘Best’ mix?

 

We agreed recently that Steve Hoffmans assessment of tracks applied to our favourite group when he said….

 

“It’s all in the mastering. Digital is a great medium. Any CD can sound good….. It takes a good mastering engineer! : Stereo is better but it’s not about stereo vs. mono, it’s about which classic song has the best mix. If the stereo mix “nails it” it’s the mix to listen to. If the mono mix “nails it”, it’s the mix to listen to.”

 

Steve Hall is chief mastering engineer at Future Disc in Hollywood, California recently mastered the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds DVD-A for surround release and has done albums for a long list of top-name artists, including Al Jarreau, Alanis Morissette, George Harrison, and Madonna, along with many film-soundtrack albums, such as The Matrix. He said….”Basically, mastering is balancing, equalizing, compressing, and just trying to get the most out of a musical performance,” says Hall. “It's smoothing out all the rough edges to make a polished, finished performance.” The idea, he explains, “is to make it as musical and exciting to listen to as possible.

 

In the course of their work, mastering engineers have to do all kinds of sonic doctoring, including matching levels from song to song; adding shimmer to the top and punch to the bottom; adjusting the levels of individual instruments by using precise EQ (remember, they're working with a mixed master); goosing up the overall loudness; and much more.”

 

Defining a good mix is ‘subjective’?......well perhaps but we think 80% of it……..is a mixture of technical…..and ‘feel’…….that instinctive knowledge that the group’s performance is as good a soundstage as you can get. The rest is down to personal preference.

 

Firstly the characteristics that make it sound great……

 

1. Clarity – that sharp clear shape to each element in the sound
2. Content – the sound stage and it’s constituent parts
3. Separation – the difference or space within the sound between the elements
4. Depth – the position of the sounds in terms of the distance they appear from the listener and each other.

 

We believe the definitive versions need to be stored in the best digital form for future generations of collectors. As mastering improves and the technology to process the sound, we will be able enjoy the Four Seasons as never before. Their collection is too important to be neglected

 

OK so you have some questions?

 

Why is there a need for the archiving of the Four Seasons catalogue?

 

Well the problem is that the Four Seasons Partnership doesn’t have a comprehensive set of masters nor have they re-mastered these to an adequate standard.(eg The Jersey Beat Box Set) The multi-track recordings have been lost according to quotes from Bob Crewe’s former sound engineer George Schowerer and Mastering Engineer Bill Inglot.

 

Also, there is no comprehensive session log which would track the recordings and masters (including alternate versions).

 

Some versions of their songs only exist on vinyl and copies are increasingly hard to find in mint or good condition. Well many of them have been around for over 40 years. The 70s and 80s tracks are not so much a problem as management and storage has been OK and the alternate takes are not so many ( said before a full evaluation of the Collectors choice recent releases)…..but this was not their hey-dey. It is 1961 to 1967 that requires the most research and archiving.

 

When we recently started the archive at 1961 we found there are 11 important issues of ‘Comma Si  Bella’ and we have been able to identify the ‘best’ mono and stereo versions. It is proving to be a real detective job to find the material and document the quality. But we hope it will be worth the effort.

 

Let me give an example of what we’ve been trying to do in our project to identify the ‘best mixes’ of Four Seasons songs. “Goodnight My Love’ first appeared on the ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry & 12 Others’ album (Vee Jay LP 1056 ) 1963, and but has always been  in mono on CD releases as far as we knew. Subsequent CD releases like the ACE twofer  CHD 507 retained this mono mix….so when we discovered a stereo copy on the ‘Looking Back’ vinyl album on Philips  PHS600-222   1966…. we wondered if we had found a lost stereo master. Examination of a digital dubbed version indicates possibly a 25 millisecond delay to the right channel. Perhaps the Philips Engineers where not averse to using the ‘creative’ license afforded by the mastering desk and their ability to create a pseudo-stereo version.? But listening to it, it is hard to tell whether it is genuine stereo or not. It’s impossible for most of us.

 

We asked a sound engineer to do an analysis of the releases for us.

He told us…..“I’ve checked all the vinyl and CD that I can
 find and the version on these vinyl albums is genuine 
STEREO whilst the CD versions are MONO which 
means that the Stereo master no longer exists..we'll 
have to salvage the copy from vinyl. This means that 
vinyl remains a key reference point. There is a rare album on 
Candlelight that should also be checked.

There are two stereo mixes I believe, both real 
(genuine) stereo and both different.

Here is my “VERDICT”:

 The CD’s are all mono….at least the Curb CD - mono 
3:06 and the Ace CD - mono 3:05 are (both similar, but 
not the same) RMS -13db peak -17db average I haven’t 
checked the 45 rpm vinyl yet, but most likely that is mono
(Update note added25thMarch - "even the CCM CD of 
"Folk-Nanny" has the mono version on it")

So, on the rest of the vinyl versions….

Folk-Nanny=Stay VJ LP - stereo 3:09 (drop out in 
volume on right channel between 9 and 10 secs): 
RMS -8db peak -13db average

Lookin’ Back PH LP - stereo 3:11 (different mix to Stay 
VJ LP, no drop in volume on right channel between 9 and 
10 secs): RMS -9db peak – 16db average

Greatest Hits set = Longines Symphonette Society 4 
LP set - LP #4 - stereo 3:06 (same mix as Stay VJ LP, 
but NO drop in volume on right channel between 9 and 
10 secs): RMS -10db peak -16 db average

Candlelite LP (SING MEMORIES OF SOUVENIRS IN 
GOLD Candlelite CU 151B) 

I haven’t been able to find this album yet.

Big Girls Don't Cry VJ LP - stereo 3:07 (NO drop out in
volume on right channel between 9 and 10 secs): The sound is
similar to Stay VJ / GH LSS LPs, BUT this is the only version
where the "phase" on both chanels is different to the three others.
RMS -13db average

So there are versions to be salvaged and restored in the 
‘Four Seasons Archive’ of Goodnight My Love which we 
believe the Four Seasons Partnership don’t have.

We would like to see a full session log of the tracks from 
1961 and although some exist, assembled from the ACE 
CD’s back in the 1990s, they are not comprehensive or 
verified. Our research will seek to use this information to 
verify the ‘best mixes’ of each recording since 1961. A big 
task we know.

With our on-going up-dates on the CD Discography and 
track research for the ‘Best Mixes’ Sound Archive we will 
try to work through the early 60s tracks up to 1967. And 
we’ll keep fans informed via this blog.

Casey Chameleon

 

The Four Seasons 'Sound Archive'

Every time that I listen to a past or present Four Seasons CD it becomes more apparent that we are so much in need of this archive. Since 1986 and the advent of their music being presented in a digital format we have seen the best and the worst of mastering in what was supposed to be the ultimate listening experience.

With over 100 CD releases on the group in that period we have moved from the world of  hi-fi to the world of the I-pod, and it seems we have lost our ears or is it the sound engineers and the record companies who have lost theirs.

It has been publicized in the ‘Loudness wars’ and every day sees another re-mastering project being condemned for its almost mindless compression.

To understand this here is a quote from Wikipaedia…

The concept of making CDs "hotter" began to appeal to people within the industry, due in part to how noticeably louder CDs had become and also in part to the notion that customers preferred louder CDs.  Engineers, musicians and labels each developed their own ideas of how CDs could be made louder. In 1994, the digital brickwall limiter with look-ahead (to pull down peak levels before they happened) was first mass-produced. While the increase in CD loudness was gradual throughout the 1990s, some opted to push the format to the limit, such as on Oasis' widely popular album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, which averaged -8 dBFS on many of its tracks^[15]—a rare occurrence, especially in the year it was released (1995). In 1997, Iggy Pop assisted in the remix and remaster of the 1973 album Raw Power by his former band The Stooges, creating an album which, to this day, is arguably the loudest rock CD ever recorded. It has an average of -4 dBFS in places^[15], which is rare even by today's standards^{[citation needed]}, though getting more and more common.

The standards of loudness would reach their limit in the 2000s. -10 dB had been the standard for the past several years, but this was often pushed to -9 dB. However, -6 to -5 dBFS is common in rock, pop and rap music. Quieter exceptions to today's standards are rare. The latest releases as of 2008 have reached average levels as high as -3 dBFS

Everybody wants their disc to sound great, but it seems that nowadays a lot of people equate “best” with “loudest.” That puts a lot of pressure on mastering engineers to compress their masters heavily so that they can achieve as hot a level as possible. “It's a losing battle for musicality,” Bob Ludwig laments. “To me, it's a fact that highly compressed music is tiring to the ear and doesn't make you want to listen to something over and over again. Could this be one of the reasons for the record industry's demise? The problem is that many artists, producers, and A&R people are very short-sighted,” he continues. “If you take a new recording and compare eight bars of a piece that's been mastered by four different engineers, often the loudest one sounds immediately the most impressive to the listener. Hardly anyone listens to 40 or 50 minutes of the whole recording todecide how the total musical experience was for them”.

In terms of recent Four Seasons releases you might ask how their releases compare?

Well it requires a lot of listening time to be definitive and every CD released (which is impossible for any one collector) but the pattern is clear. Releases since 2000 show levels moving closer to a -0db peak. Whilst max levels of -10 db could be found before then the latest CD’s are showing max loudness as high as -4 db on some tracks. This is unacceptable re-mastering.

So looking back what makes a best mix and how do you recognize it.?

Well we hope to help fans with this in our ‘long-term’ project to define and preserve the ‘best mixes’. In the ‘Sound Archive’ pages we are compiling the Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons ‘CD Discography and Buying Guide’ which will review and evaluate every CD master of the groups work we can find. Many have in the past been reviewed by George Ingram in past UK Newsletters…….But we are delving into the ‘sound quality’ that you get. And we would like to develop the ‘Best Mixes’ page to list the best master tracks and where to find them (Vinyl and CD/Mono and Stereo). .During 2009 we will publish pages as we progressively build up the ‘Sound Archive’

As Charles Alexander says in the ‘Jersey Beat’ booklet…….”Millions of people from all walks of life have bought 4 Seasons recordings and attended concerts for decades- as loyal a group of followers as any artist could ever hope to have”. They deserve to know ‘what are the ‘best mixes’ and where to find them. Maybe some day the whole catalogue will be re-mixed to the very best sound standards.

Click here to access the first sections…and if you have one of the CD’s and can add to the reviews e-mail me. Casey Chameleon.

…and if you are into audio…check out ‘The Ten Biggest Lies In Audio’