Worst Masters You Ever Heard

Well, it's almost impossible to tell how good or bad a master is without hearing the pre-master.
 
Cold Spring Harbor - Billy Joel
The album was released by Family Productions, but through an error in the album's mastering, the songs played slightly too fast, causing Joel's voice to sound unnaturally high (a semitone higher).
Wiki

:) SH
 
Manslick said:
Cold Spring Harbor - Billy Joel
The album was released by Family Productions, but through an error in the album's mastering, the songs played slightly too fast, causing Joel's voice to sound unnaturally high (a semitone higher).
Wiki

:) SH
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Whoah! That sucks. :eek:
 
The edition of Love's Forever Changes that I have that has a constant high pitch tone throughout the whole record. A great album, but rendered completely unlistenable by this oversight. Just googled it after seeing this thread to see whether the issue had been noticed and picked up elsewhere and saw this:

Years ago I had the original Elektra CD of Love's classic album "Forever Changes". I was always bothered by the high pitched tone that pervades most of the album but assumed it must be on the master and put up with it.

Then, along came the 2001 Rhino remaster and finally I realised that the tone was not on the master and promptly sold the original in favour of the remaster...Forum member Zal Schreiber, the Atlantic Studios mastering engineer credited with the mastering of the original Elektra CD clarified the details behind the dreaded high pitched tone on the original release. From what I understand, Zal did indeed prepare a master for the original CD release but before it was pressed Bruce Botnick and Paul Rothschild decided they wanted to master it and Zal's master was pulled. It is the replacement overseen by Botnick and Rothschild that has the tone - apparently the result of an engineering snafu whereby someone left a 12kHz test tone running through the desk during at least one of the mastering sessions (it is not present on all tracks).
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Unbelievable :facepalm:

The other record spoiled by what I can only assume is a bad mastering job is Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. Not to anywhere the same extent as Love, but it sounds like the final mix was run through speakers packed with cotton wool and then the output recorded back and released. Excellent songs, but the record sounds flat and dulled from what I assume is the final mastering.
 
RAMI said:
Well, it's almost impossible to tell how good or bad a master is without hearing the pre-master.
Click to expand...
^^^^c'est ça^^^^

I wonder if most of the examples aren't just going to be one off snafus that can be/have been corrected as opposed to across the board lousy mastering.
 
I read an article about controlling masters and making sure they were right:
This major label had 3 masters done, Record release, Cassette release and CD release, they were mastered to suit the various formats. Somehow the cassette master ended up at the CD plant, so what you ask, well the cassette version had a 2 min gap between side 1 and side 2 to suit the cassette production. Just what was on the CD.

I had a personal experience where I finished the mix for an album, back then it was supplied on DAT (2 track) tape. I left 20 seconds of space between each song and assumed that when the band got it mastered there mastering house would set the gaps. The tape was clearly marked "Final Mix for mastering, NOT Production master" Guess what, the band set the final mix DAT directly yo the CD plant. So a low volume CD with 20 second gaps.

And finally, back in the record days I knew a local musician who sent tape masters (properly mastered) to a record plant, tape 1 for side 1 and tape 2 for side 2, clearly marked, standard way to do it. The records came back pressed with side 1 on both sides.

My personal horror stories.

Alan.
 
One of my favorite records Stone Temple Pilots - No. 4, the mastering has always bothered me. Everything is crunched into the mids with little frequency spread making it sound really weird and flat.
 
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