The Loudness War - (and questions on the new Stone Roses)

[dobyblue]

Hi John,
First of all, thank you so much for doing this - to be able to have the ear of someone so entrenched in the industry and whose name is on so many of my favourite albums is absolutely double pukka, really appreciated!

I had a few questions about the new Stone Roses release that haven't been addressed in the other two threads and about The Loudness War:

1) In the mastering stage for the Stone Roses 20th was the vinyl mastered directly from the analog tapes or was there a digital intermediate used? If the latter, what was the bit depth and sampling rate of the digital master.

2) Will this CD be "louder" than the original release which is one of the CD's I point to constantly as an example of what the CD format is capable of? If so, was dynamic range compression and clipping avoided? What is your opinion of how loud so many recordings are these days and what teh lesser of two evils is (drc vs. clipping) and what can be done moving forward to get dynamics back in our music?

3) Was any consideration given to a high resolution digital version (Blu-ray, SACD or DVD-Audio) for the Stone Roses 20th release and/or a multi-channel 5.1 mix? I think it's a shame (Pearl Jam - Ten, Beatles Mono/Stereo re-masters, The Stone Roses 20th Anniversary, etc.) how often the potential to go beyond the same old boring CD medium is ignored by the major labels. You'd think Sony might have considered an SACD hybrid at least for the album.

4) Any idea whether or not a 20th Anniversary edition of "A Storm In Heaven" might be in the works? I'd love to get a MINT copy of this on vinyl!

Thanks for any chance you might have to answer these questions.

Regards from Canada,
~burkey

[johnleckie]

Hi Burkey
1. The vinyl was mastered from a digital intermediate. And I think it was just 24bit 48k.
2. Yes it will be louder than the original CD but there should be no clipping or compression. Its not mega loud and needn't be. I hate loud CDs and always sound congested. The new Roses 20th I think the main difference is in low end where we haven't added any, just kept it true to the original.
3. Sony had no interest in a higher quality version of record and though I pleaded to do a 5.1 mix they couldn't see its commercial potential. Also to do 5.1 mix would cost at least 2-3 weeks in major studio.
4. Dont think there's any plan for me to remaster Verve....(5.1 ? Yes!)
Cheers JL