Album Reviews

...Zappa's "Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar". Masterpiece. Humiliating for guitarists to hear. Chops and ideas. Few have both.

I'm sure this sounds wonderful, but I have to question the digital last step.
Why?
When so much care and attention to detail has been taken in getting the recording to sound like it does, why take the last step to digital? Regardless of how nice it sounds as it does, I think most people reading this would agree that digital degrades sound and removes a certain emotional content, that texture that makes us come back to certain recordings time and time again.
I'm sure this is nice and I'm equally sure I'd play it a couple of times then it would go on the shelf, rarely if ever to be heard again.

Why does Bob Ludwig not offer Analogue mastering?
Quite frankly, why does one of the best, if not the best in the business NOT offer analogue mastering?
Is it too much trouble? More work to master analogue?
Has a certain complacency, or even laziness set in?
Is it "Bob's the best, so gotta go to Bob".
So you go to Bob.
"Yes, your tape is analogue, but we only master to digital. So if you want to work with me, you gotta' go digital. Sorry".
So having gone to extraordinary lengths to maintain integrity up to this point, the integrity is disrupted at the end.
Why can that integrity of the chain not be maintained?

I know, I know, I'm sure it sounds great. However, I am a great fan of Bob Ludwigs work, I have lots of stuff with the "RL" in the deadwax, from Tattoo You, to Back in Black, to Led Zep II, to Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, to Tibetan chants on Nonesuch records. All great, to truly great stuff. Big fan of Bobs work at Masterdisk and before. But I have to say it, I would not actively seek out Bobs stuff at Gateway mastering.
Because it lacks the soul.

howdy all!
my name is John Ziegler, and i'm the guitarist/composer/producer from the group known as VOLTO!. first off, on behalf of the band and everyone else involved in making "Incitare", THANK YOU so very much to all the folks who've taken the time to check out our stuff. we're trying our utmost to keep it as "real" as possible and we truly appreciate it more than you know, especially in this day and age.
plus, massive thanx to Michael Fremer, for your extremely kind words and your concise critique of the album. i'm an avid follower of yours, and not only do i enjoy but also really respect your opinions and insight, so please keep up the fantastic work you do, bravo!

now to address the mastering/cutting of the album's vinyl...
we(primarily myself, Danny Carey, and a few other trusted sets of ears) listened with extreme scrutiny as far as attemping to release the best sounding product we could unleash upon the masses...and from all the comparisons we did with the completed mixed tracks we believe that what you hear in those grooves is indeed the BEST representation of what came from the analog tapes! bottom line...being fellow audiophiles/analog mavens, we are damn proud and enthralled with the finished products!
(btw, with our label Concord Music Group/Fantasy Records our albums will all be available on as many formats as possible, from vinyl, to hd-downloads.... http://www.VOLTOband.com )
Bob actually did 3 final masters for us, specifically for vinyl, cd, and digital download. each so they'd sound the most "truthful" within their own medium and delivery system. also to be honest, he did very VERY little to the final mixes, which we went back and forth contemplating a little compression, eq-ing, and volume levels before the final decisions were made. but obviously what Mr. Ludwig did was nothing short of stellar sounding alchemy...the guy is a true sonic shaman, AND Chris B at Grundman's nailed it too, with the dynamics as best as i've ever heard coming off a turntable's needle, in my humble opinion of course. just turn it up and let it sink in, yeah!

the "endgame" of VOLTO! has always been to keep everything as authentic as possible, from our live performances to the recordings. we just hope that people will share our enthusiasm for all these cherished yet depleting things...musical conversation/improvisation, capturing performances to tape, placing that needle gently onto vinyl, and checking out all the stuff from an LP's liner notes and artwork. all of this is lifeblood to us!

with stating all that, if anyone is interested, here's a little further info on the process of making the album...
we went into the rehearsal room(18' x 18' w/20' ceiling) in our warehouse space/studio known as "the Loft", set up the gear just like we do for rehearsing, attempted to isolate the mics as much as possible...it's all close-micing, with a few packing blankets involved, guerilla style, lol! then BAM, we were off to the races!

over a couple of weekends, all of the tracks on the album were captured live, each performance in their entirety(through the gear listed in our liner notes, as mentioned here in the review) and to be honest, out of the 9 album tracks, 4 were first takes, 3 were second takes, and 2 were third takes. we didn't play anymore than 3 or 4 takes of the tunes and selected the best(or least abused? lol) complete performance from each song.
PLUS, i think there are only 2 or 3 added overdubs on the entire album...which was the guitar doubling a melody here and there, and that's it! then we bugged Joe B for a few days as he mixed all the tracks over at his studio, with our scrutiny meters running full tilt the entire time. i think we pissed him off a time or 2, oh well, lol. we all got what we wanted in the end...a pretty decent analog debut album.

so, with making a short story long....
what you hear on VOLTO!'s "Incitare" album is what you get from straight out of the room, live and in your face, yeah!
and we shall continue on with future albums done in the same manner. we love and respect our gear so damn much, from the old API board that "Super Freak" was done on, to all the other amazing vintage pre's/eq's/comps, to the awesome Studer behemoths, to the killer mic collection, to the plethora of top-notch and rare analog outboard gear, we are in this for the long haul!
we're also maybe looking into actually cutting 2 track stuff live directly to disc...now wouldn't that be bad ass?! life's short, why not!?! ;-)

long live analog, long live vinyl!

thanx again and cheers!
john Z

I've never heard of your band John, although I am a big Tool fan. I also haven't yet heard this album, but I just ordered it based on your obvious passion for your music, process and vinyl. Well done, keep it up!

I wouldn't have heard of these guys without your review, which was thorough and excellent as always. Thanks Michael!

I've seen these guys play live several times at the Baked Potato, the local jazz club here in Los Angeles.They never fail to kill it!

I just ordered the vinyl.

I am also happy to see a prog review (INDUKTI) and a fusion review in the same issue of Analogue Planet. Nice going Mr. Fremer.

Way too many people think that both of these genres died in the late 70's, but in fact, there has been a revival of both starting in the mid 90's and still going strong. There is even more variety than there was in the 70's.

John,
The label on the front of the album says recorded, mixed, and mastered in analog. A bit confusing, I would say. If I didn't read MF's review, I would have believed this to be an AAA vinyl lp. I will be listening to the album later today. I think AAA should have been the way to go. You should not have let Bob influence you in the way he did.

I listened to the vinyl. Excellent playing and music and recording.

Sorry, but honestly the sound is pretty veiled. Sounds like a blanket over the speakers. A bit compressed also. With all the talent behind this how does it sound this bad?
I've heard Danny and John live many times at "spud room" and they are amazing, so I'm disappointed.

I heard a bit of this tape at Grundman's last year while they were working on it. It sounded vailed then too. I'd say it was the recording unless RL did it.