Posted by lunadude2001 <russell_smith@ntlworld.com> on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/UFO-Theme-tp1498171p1498215.html

Marc - if it's four track it's unlikely to to be multi-track studio
tape the theme exists on. By early '69 not many studios had "proper"
multi track facilities. It is only the big boys such as EMI, Pye and
IBC, where the like of the Beatles, Kinks and Who recorded would have
had access to this sort facility - as it was new and quite expensive
method of recording, would this expense have been extended to music
from a Tv show ??

Do you know which studio the music was recorded at?. If you are right
[and I'm not disputing for one minute you are not] and it is four
track, the recording would have been built up by over dubbing direct
onto each of the channels and bouncing the effects through a
additional reel player. I don't know for sure this is how the did with
the UFO music, but this was a very common method of committing music
to tape during that period. But only minimal mixing or remixing can be
done.

Even with the big selling artists of the time, because multi-track
tape was so expensive it was not uncommon once a production master of
the mono and stereo mix had been committed to a production the master,
that that the multi-track session tape would have been erased and
re-used. This is why studio tape can't be accessed for remastering for
re-issues - it simply dos'nt exist any more. I have done a lot of tape
research down the years in amazing how many times this sitution exists
even with quite prominant artists. Now! if itwas privately funded
project and part of the deal was owner ship of ownership of the studio
tape, I guess it could still be around.


Knowing how the industry worked back then, and further knowing that
the music was going to be added to a Tv programme and could have ever
been needed in mono. I have serious doubts that they would have gone
to the considerable expense of producing a proper stereo mix, unless
there was a serious intention of releasing a soundtrack album, you
will obviously know if that was ever a serious proposal. But it is
entirley like that a guide stereo mix would have been done in the
studio, before the mono reduction was completed and maybe that's what
you have heard? From what you say "improper levels" it appears to me
thats what you have heard. If it four track the remaster engineer
should be able to correct that, but don't be fooled into believing
that is the original, because there probably was no original.

Lets say for argument sake the music was recorded on 1/2" multi-track
tape and the session tapes did still exists. It would need mixing from
scratch again, and to achieve the exact same sound as the original you
would need the engineers original cutting notes. Where as the
production masters can't be remixed as they are a fixed mix

You can get a really nice remaster from the 1/4" production master.

All interesting stuff, some speculation on part, as I'm not au-fait
with the tapes. But based on considrable experience of the recording
industry from this period.

Marty........



>
> The UFO theme was recorded on multi-track tape -- I think it might
> have been 4-track. The upcoming Fanderson UFO soundtrack CD will
> feature a stereo mix of these tapes. The Sci-Fi Channel CD from
> a few years ago gave a sneak peak of what the quality will be like,
> as original 4 track tape was mixed down to 2 stereo, but
> it was horribly done, with improper levels and the wrong take.
>
> Marc