A Capitol Idea

Once an hour, Mike Mettler, music editor of our sister publication Sound and Vision, introduced live demonstrations in the Hi-Res Audio Pavilion's mini-simulation of the Capitol Recording Studios. Each session was conducted by a different award-winning engineer or producer.

When I visited on January 5 in the afternoon, Eric Boulanger, mastering engineer for releases by Green Day and Rufus Wainwright, was preparing to speak. When I asked him what would be going on, he quipped something like, "We're trying to impress people with our big speakers." Having recently auditioned the massive Wilson Audio WAMM, I took that with a grain of salt.

I also snared the sweet spot in front of the console for the first of the five tracks Boulanger played. Alas, the sound level, which was designed to reach people milling about, was excessive from my supposedly privileged vantage point. I think folks standing behind me, who were not aligned with the tweeters, heard Frank Sinatra hold forth at a more realistic volume level.

COMMENTS
deckeda's picture

(or artist's producers, for that matter ... hello Mark Ronson?)

... had control over what the FACTORIES do. Left hand, meet right hand.

Every? U.S. pressing of "Out of the Game" possessed for a 3rd side, Florence + The Machine's 3rd side for "Ceremonials." It would be a funny collectable if it weren't a > $20 mistake I couldn't support.

The record store I returned it to was both surprised and left with basically no recourse against the distributor.

I wonder if Ronson and Wainwright were left wondering why Decca didn't sell many copies. Decca sure as hell didn't care when I contacted them in good faith.

I'm not bitter. And yeah the 24/88.2 release sounds good.

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