Is it ok to apply eq to old master?

Thanks James. I'm pretty sure the replay chain was calibrated to the test tones - the recordings were indeed made at Spaceward! I wish now that the transfers had been made with and without the Dolby A decoding. I think the tapes were BASF as you say. One of the problems was that we only had a 15 ips Dolby A copy of the original 1/4 master to work with. This has also been stored in Gary Lucas (the Spaceward Engineer)'s loft for around 26 years maybe had lost a bit of sparkle? Interesting that you have transferred quite a few of their tapes. Have you not noticed any lack of top with some of the older tapes?
 
If the replay machine was matched to the calibration tones then any loss of top will be compensated for. I'm fairly sure that there would have been a 15kHz tone on the tape as well as a 10kHz tone on most Spaceward tapes. I'd guess that what you are hearing is simply the way the track was mixed and, having listened to the two versions, I'd say that the remastered version sounds a little too scooped in the midrange and the hi-hats are now too prominent.

One thing I've learned when transferring and remastering tapes is that record collectors (which is the main market that I deal with) don't like remasters that sound too clean and modern - those recordings were made at a time when music and recording technology was changing rapidly and you can often date recordings from that era by their sound and production values. If you change that sound unsympathetically then it will sound wrong to most fans of that style of music. The best you can do is to ensure that the transfer faithfully copies everything on the tape and then make only minor adjustments to correct any blemishes.
 
Thanks for your thoughts James. I can see how collectors would appreciate the original sound. It is just that these recordings have always seemed to lack the sparkle they should have. The CD releases were pure copies. But I am really pleased with Miroslav' s terrific remasters and enjoy listening to these much more.
 
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