"Smile" de Brian Wilson

Llevo varios meses leyendo buenos comentarios en general sobre este disco. Aun no lo he escuchado por lo que no puedo dar mi opinion. Sin embargo, un follon que se ha montado en el foro oficial del sitio Web de Brian Wilson (http://www.brianwilson.com/cgi-bin/w...3&l=level2) me ha llamado la atencion. Todo empezo cuando uno de los foreros, Robert Wheeler, escribio lo siguiente el pasado 9 de octubre del 2005:

"Further to the posts below regarding the Smile vinyl, I've got to admit, I don't like the Smile CD mastering. I've got a HDCD capable player, and a Envy 24 equipped computer to test it on, as well as some classic Kef monitors and a marantz and bang and olufson amps, and my domestic liberty 3 speakers. I can tell you the one overiding factor in me disliking the master, that being Bob Ludwig. I didn't even have to read the album credits to know he was involved, he left his indelible mark in the sonic imprint of the record. I have no idea why this guy is so highly rated, all his masters have to my ears a very muddy bott0m end and just an overall iffy eq. To be fair Smile is nowhere near as bad as Imagination, which in my opinion deserves to get a reissue with a whole new stereo remix. ok, I'm a bit fired up, I was just reading an article in this months sound on sound and an engineer is describing how he "fixes" a variety of problems in a recording which some may previously have mistaken for "part of the performance". This includes such amazing things as homogenizing the levels across the album, as obviously having one part of an album quiter than another is unacceptable, as is songs with quiet and loud passages. Quite clear that."

Continua...

Esto ha llevado a que Bob Ludwig, el ingeniero de masterizacion del album, le contestara lo siguiente el 12 de octubre pasado:

"I'm sorry your tastes in mastering run contrary to mine and my clients. I am a musician and hold a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music so sound is very important to me. Not everyone hears things the same. The internet has the ability to highlight your negative opinion of my work for all to see and that is fine. I would humbly point out to you that of the 5 albums up for the 2005 Grammy Awards "Best Engineered Album" I mastered two of them, "The Bad Plus" and "Smile". While "Smile" was nominated (by many many people) for "Best Engineered Album", it lost to Ray Charles (as every category did that year!). So, somehow, amongst the literally thousands of records released in 2004, enough people seemed to forgive my "very muddy bottom end and just an overall iffy eq" and vote it into the top 5 list of "Best Engineered" albums. By the way, the previous year my client WON the "Best Engineered Album" award for "Hail to the Thief" by Radiohead. Rolling Stone magazine gave "Smile" 5 stars. Tower Records.com gives it 5 full stars. Other engineer friends of mine tell me they calibrate their systems with it. Thank goodness the vast majority of people seem to like my work. I'm delighted Brian and Mark chose me to work on it, I'm a big Brian Wilson fan (having engineered several of his previous solo albums and growing up with his music). For the sound and dynamic range of the "Smile" mastering, only TWO opinions counted for evaluating my work, Brian Wilson and, to an extent, Mark Linett. If a SINGLE NOTE was not satisfactory to either of them they would have changed it. (and they did!). As to "homogenizing levels" I can only point you to "Wind Chimes" which goes from very soft to very loud within the same song. If you want more dynamic range than that I'm sorry, Brian and Mark thought it was just right (I had previously given them versions less dynamic and MORE dynamic from which to choose). What you don't like, Brian did, and I think that is important. Best wishes. Bob Ludwig President Gateway Mastering & DVD Portland, ME"

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