Acoustic Sounds
By: Tracking Angle

August 22nd, 2023

Category:

News

A True Digital Test Coming Up: Chris Bellman Digitized @192/24 Personally Overseen By Waits/Brennan Released on Vinyl

you could say "why not just let Chris just cut from tape?"

Here's the press release:

Personally overseen by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Waits spectacular middle-period albums–released on Island Records between 1983 and 1993—have been newly remastered from the original tapes and will be reissued on vinyl and CD this fall via Island/UMe. Waits’ transformative creative breakthrough, Swordfishtrombones (1983), its sprawling and superb sequel, Rain Dogs (1985), and the trilogy-completing, tragi-comic stage musical, Franks Wild Years (1987), will kick off the series on CD on September 1, 40 years to the day that Swordfishtrombones was released into the wild, ushering in a new and critically acclaimed musical era for Waits and his longtime songwriting and production partner, Brennan. The trilogy of records will be released on vinyl on September 22

The epic song-cycle, Bone Machine (1992) and the under-appreciated Waits (with Robert Wilson and William S. Burroughs) musical fable, The Black Rider (1993), will arrive October 6. September, incredibly, marks the 40th anniversary of Swordfishtrombones, and the 30th of The Black Rider

Ahead of their physical releases, all of the albums are now available to stream featuring the newly remastered audio, allowing fans to hear how these landmark recordings now sound better and more vivid than ever. 

Each album will be released on CD and in two vinyl options: 180-gram black vinyl and a limited edition color variant that will be available exclusively via TomWaits.com and UDiscover Music. Swordfishtrombones will be pressed on canary, Rain Dogs on opaque sky blue, Franks Wild Years on opaque gold, The Black Rider on opaque apple and Bone Machine on translucent milky vinyl.

All albums were mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering under the guidance of Waits’ longtime audio engineer, Karl Derfler. Swordfishtrombones was sourced from the original EQ’ed ½” production master tapes while Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Bone Machine and The Black Rider were sourced from the original ½” flat master tapes. Bellman meticulously transferred the tapes and then remastered the audio in high resolution 192 kHz/24-bit. The lacquers for all titles were cut by Alex Abrash at AA Mastering. The new vinyl editions will come with specially made labels featuring photos of Waits from each era in addition to artwork and packaging that has been painstakingly recreated to replicate the original LPs, which have been out of print since their initial release. Surprisingly, The Black Rider and Bone Machine were never released on vinyl outside of Europe and will be making their vinyl debut in most of the world.

 These critically acclaimed works are a monument to an artist’s ability to break through into new creative territory.

Waits went from ‘70’s-era “bluesy, boozy” wordsmith and melodist with seven albums behind him to sound sculptor, miner of the subconscious, abstract orchestrator, sonic cubist—while retaining his innate lyricism, melodic invention, humanity. A rough analogy: Picasso switching from exquisite literal depictions to pouring his brain and id out onto canvas. Waits was still painting, in other words, but the frames were made of blood and bone and feathers and old carburetors.

Working with experimental composer Francis Thumm, and taking inspiration from the music of found-object composer Harry Partch—plus Waits’ friend, Captain Beefheart—the renowned singer-songwriter reinvented his sound, album by album.

As he put it in a 1983 interview: “I tried to listen to the noise in my head and invent some junkyard orchestral deviation—a mutant apparatus to drive this noise into a wreck collection.”

Not that Waits’ early albums were devoid of artistic progression. There were the piano-based jazz-folk ballads of his remarkable debut, Closing Time (just remastered for its 50th anniversary), the beat/jazzy/smokey flavor of Nighthawks at the Diner, the piano-bass-sax-drums sagas of the landmark, Small Change, the experimental tone poem, “Burma Shave,” on Foreign Affairs, the grit and grunge of the stripped-down Heart Attack And Vine… All this would stand alone as a great body of work if the man had never written another note.

But with Swordfishtrombones and the albums that followed, Waits shifted gears, or rather, deliberately ground them. New York Times music critic Stephen Holden wrote: “Miles away from the (music) he used in the ‘70s to evoke the wrong side of the tracks, his evolved style is an abrasive, lurching honky-tonk that at its most adventurous suggests a fusion of Captain Beefheart's Dadaist extensions of the delta blues with the Kurt Weill of 'Threepenny Opera.'” 

Comments

  • 2023-08-23 12:36:43 PM

    Ron Blomgren wrote:

    The first 2 releases are well earned classics for sure but Bone Machine is a masterpiece

  • 2023-08-23 05:16:45 PM

    Jeremiah wrote:

    I can't wait to finally have Bone Machine on vinyl. Wish it was AAA, but I have faith in Chris Bellman. Still, it does raise the question, why work from a file?

  • 2023-08-23 09:08:44 PM

    Jeff 'Glotz' Glotzer wrote:

    YESSSSSSSSS!!! Come to PAPA!!! Counting the days!

    The mastering on Mule Variations sounds substantially better and more to the fore than the original. I have faith!!

    • 2023-08-24 02:29:19 AM

      Roscoe wrote:

      Mule Variations isn’t among the newly remastered albums.

      • 2023-08-24 03:40:11 PM

        Silk Dome Mid wrote:

        I think Glotz is talking about the 2018 version.

        • 2023-08-24 03:49:01 PM

          Roscoe wrote:

          Thanks, I was unaware of that version.

          • 2023-08-25 12:51:49 AM

            Jeff 'Glotz' Glotzer wrote:

            Thank you sir. Qobuz also has the latest remastered Island years releases available. More of the detail deep in the recordings are readily audible.

  • 2023-08-24 10:35:46 PM

    JACK L wrote:

    Hi

    "YOU COULD SAY "WHY NOT JUST LET CHRIS JUST CUT FROM TAPE?" per TA press release.

    Yes, why go thru the AD-DA conversion process which would not better the sound if not promising it ??

    Please don't tell me a pototo, once smashed, could be restored back to its original or even better shape. Please don't tell me a sinewave signal, once chopped up digitally, could be converted back to its smooth seamless original waveform envelope !! Please don't blind me with whatever advanced digital science as my skeptical ears detect it easily.

    On the contrary, a well-known music production produced a CD with tube-only vintage gears instead, for its musicality. I got the same CD - it sounds superb musically to me !!

    Which one? Titled: "Die Rohre - The Tube" produced by TACET in Germany 1999 using first time ever: "Semi-Conductorless" as the slogan for promoting the musicality of the CD: a classical chamber music performed by the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.

    How come "semi-conductorless" ?? From the vintage Neumann M49 tube microphones - tube mic amp - passive faders - the mono-upgraded vintage Telefunken tube tape deck for mastering - custom-modified AD converter - removing all the standard solid-state electronics, e.g. emphasis/de-emphasis/overloading limiter etc etc. 100% 'semi-conductorless' from music to the A/D converter !!!

    Simplicity makes better music ! I

    So how come digitized vinyl now?? For true musical loving or for digital marketeering ??

    Listening to pure analogue is believing

    JACK L

    PS: I use all-triode amps only.

    • 2023-08-24 10:45:43 PM

      JACK L wrote:

      PS: I own over 40 digitally-mastered LPs & 4 24bit-mastered reference CDs. Sonically, they just don't impress me as much as the LPs of old old recordings decades back - airly, spatially-rich & open up like live !

      JACK L

      • 2023-08-24 11:19:11 PM

        Malachi Lui wrote:

        all-analog LPs often sound better than digitally sourced LPs, but unfortunately this has become the usual in recent years. only now are labels being more transparent about what resolution file it was cut from. and despite the digital step, these could be an improvement over the original LPs. the original 'rain dogs' masterdisk cut sounds pretty average, while the 192/24 stream of the new remaster has more texture than i remember hearing on the original. would i prefer the new vinyl reissues to be cut AAA? of course. but do these new LPs cut from 192/24 files have the potential to beat the original AAA LPs? definitely.

        • 2023-08-25 12:01:53 AM

          JACK L wrote:

          Hi

          " despite the digital step, these could be an improvement over the original LPs." qtd M Lui

          So please elaborate what "improvement" could it be ??

          I am all ears

          JACK L

          • 2023-08-25 04:44:04 AM

            Malachi Lui wrote:

            well if the new remasters, even though digital, are done better than the original all-analog masters, there's definitely a possible improvement. not an improvement over doing it AAA again now, but an improvement nonetheless. regarding 'rain dogs' specifically, the original US LP is definitely lacking in texture and is a bit compressed. listening to a bit of the new 192/24 remaster on streaming, i can hear that chris bellman brought out some textural nuance not on the original LP (mastered by howie weinberg) or the 2014 SHM-SACD that features a flat transfer of the tape.

            in other cases, a plangent-processed digital file cut to lacquer can sound better than an all-analog LP. for example, the doors' 'waiting for the sun' 50th anniversary LP cut at 33rpm from the plangent file sounds more natural than the AAA analogue productions double 45. these tom waits remasters unfortunately didn't use plangent but i still think the new vinyl will turn out great.

            on a related note: in the 90s, it was very common for artists to record and mix their records onto tape, but since CD was the dominant format, no one bothered assembling a cutting master for vinyl. each mix for each song would be on its own individual reel, from which the mastering house would digitize it, master it with the rest of the album (typically at CD resolution), and cut the vinyl from the CD master. very few will go back and assemble cutting masters for those albums (and reasonably so--cutting up tape from 30 years ago probably isn't the best idea), so new remasters of albums done that way will use new, higher resolution transfers of the tapes. for example, the 2012 2LP reissue of blur's 'parklife', cut from 96/24 files, is MUCH better than the original UK single LP pressing, cut DMM almost certainly from a CD-resolution digital master. (and of course, A/D and D/A converters have significantly improved since then.)

            • 2023-08-25 04:39:52 PM

              JACK L wrote:

              Hi

              "typically at CD resolution" qtd M Lui

              What is the " typically at CD resolution" ? Typically 16bit 44.1KHz, correct ??

              I already stated my 24bit-mastered reference CDs do not impressed me MUSICALLY as much as LPs of all-analogue old old recordings : "airly, spatially-rich & open-up like live", much much closer to live performance than any HD digital media let alone streaming, IMO.

              "the doors' 'waiting for the sun' 50th anniversary LP cut at 33rpm from the plangent file sounds more natural than the AAA analogue productions double 45." qtd M Lui

              Please qualify your meaning of "more natural"?

              My meaning of "natural" is always compared to live performance, the very source of any music medias!!! Nothing can replace LIVE !!

              JACK L

              • 2023-08-25 05:31:40 PM

                Malachi Lui wrote:

                yes, records in the 90s were often cut from 44.1kHz/16bit CD-resolution masters. sometimes it's from the fully mastered (EQ, compression, etc) CD-ready master, other times it's because it was mixed to digital tape.

                'bone machine' in this new set of tom waits reissues was only released on vinyl in europe in 1992. the CD was mastered in the US. it's quite possible the original LP was cut from an EQ'd tape copy sent overseas, but more likely a digital master for the time. (i have no confirmation about that particularly album one way or another.) if that was indeed the case, then the new reissue cut from 192/24 will sound better. good digital mastering, higher resolution... as long as it's cut well it can sound great.

                sure, most recordings with a digital step don't sound as good as older all-analog recordings, especially those done on tube gear, but recording all-analog isn't always practical. digital tape became prominent in the mid-late 80s, and by the 90s many had adopted a hybrid approach. did it sound the best? no, but it was easier. just like how the SSL mixing boards weren't the best sounding, but the mix automation made it easier to bring around to different studios and get identical settings immediately. some artists and engineers value sound first, others equally value efficiency and will sometimes sacrifice sound quality a little bit.

                those '24bit mastered' CDs you mention... others have different opinions but i think it's mostly a marketing tactic. you can master in 24bit but you still have to dither to 16bit for CD anyway. and if it's mastered at a higher sample rate than 44.1kHz, sample rate conversion has to be properly done. you can introduce tons of aliasing errors when going from a multiple of 48kHz down to 44.1kHz for CD. good 24bit files will always sound better than the equivalent CD.

                regarding that doors album, i think the LP cut from the plangent-processed file sounds more natural as in more convincingly lifelike, less congealed.

                while nothing can replace live performances, keep in mind that almost every live performance these days (except for maybe classical music) is run through a digital mixing board!

                • 2023-08-25 09:42:07 PM

                  JACK L wrote:

                  Hi

                  "the mix automation made it easier to bring around to different studios and get identical settings immediately. some artists and engineers value sound first, others equally value efficiency and will sometimes sacrifice sound quality a little bit." qtd M Lui

                  Fully agreed. Yes, digital editing automation is sooo crucial for nowadays music productions where the performers can be recorded at different timing schedules, studio locations & the final master can be done digitally without fail. Huge saving in time & money.

                  "almost every live performance these days (except for maybe classical music) is run through a digital mixing board!" qtd M Lui

                  Yes. I know too well. Any location recordings nowadays are done universally thru digital control consoles for the sake of precise editing.

                  That's why for any live performances, classical music particularly, I only go for 10-13th front row centre seat. Being so close to podium, the actual acoustic performance dominates the hall edited sound reinforcement coming out from the hall PA system & the hall reverberation. Both impair the acoustical performance bigtime if seated on the balconies or rear part of the hall.

                  JACK L

  • 2023-08-25 11:48:23 AM

    Jake wrote:

    The digital files from the tape transfer of Steely Dan albums are also being sent to Alex. Is Bernie Grundman Mastering incapable of cutting the lacquers directly from a digital file?

    • 2023-08-25 04:27:43 PM

      Malachi Lui wrote:

      they can absolutely cut from digital! i've got tons of LPs cut from digital files by bernie grundman, chris bellman, scott stratton etc. cutting from digital is way easier than cutting from tape. not sure the rationale behind having bernie or chris master the files and having alex abrash cut from them. cost, maybe?

      • 2023-08-25 05:10:50 PM

        JACK L wrote:

        Hi

        "cutting from digital is way easier than cutting from tape." qtd M Lui

        Sure. But "easier" cutting does not necessary means it would sound better.

        JACK L

        • 2023-08-25 05:32:58 PM

          Malachi Lui wrote:

          of course 'easier' doesn't mean better. all i was saying is that if one has the ability to cut from tape in 2023, they also have the ability to cut from digital. being able to cut lacquers from digital files is a necessity.

          • 2023-08-27 12:26:50 AM

            Jake wrote:

            I suspected so Malachi, that CB can cut from the digital files. Kind of sick of companies out there cutting corners and making mediocre quality records. Waste of materials, from the lacquer themselves to the vinyl material itself, and then they end up on shelves not moving because people know the sound quality is crap.