For Elvis CD Collectors

The latest member of the FECC forum is David Bendeth. Is it the David Bendeth of '30 #1 Hits' fame? I think we should be told.

If it is! Welcome to board David.

If it isn't! Welcome to the board David.

So if it isn't him he gets a 'the' in his welcome?

What did the David Bendeth of '30 #1 Hits fame' do to be denied his 'the'?



Jules

We'll need to see some ID, please...

Old Blendeth has been with the forum for some years.. how do you think he managed to invite two of the chat room members to the 30# 1`s party in New York....Welcome back Davi

Careful of ol' Bendy, he likes to put his "pop" in wherever he can.

Whatever that means.

I don't know what to make of this, but let's keep Jerry Nodak
away from David Bandeth.
I, for one, mostly enjoyed E1 and the record shows that so did
most fans, even many curmudgeons.

Yeah,and the less said about his "Flange" the better !

Colin.. where have you been...old Blendy put the pop in Hound Dog.....

Bendy the ol' bugger beat us to it.

Click on his name and view his profile, especially his occupation

To think he tried the old, "It was a flaw in the master tapes, honest" approach

Great to see David in this Forum
Welcome onboard David

As I said.....he`s been around the blocks a few times..on here...now I want to get him back into chat..IM me Davi and I`ll round up the gang..love to the family xx

I knew that.

Well, thanks for the warm welcome from the old gang and the new gang. I am finally free of BMG and I can say whatever the hell I want now, Isnt that cool?
Ok, the pop, the flanging, the outakes, the mastering, the spaces between songs, the NO menu DVD, the compression. I am sure that I really asked for it coming here to this forum.
Frankly its fine with me. Everyone has made mistakes in their lives, everyone should be forgiven unless they hurt someone phsically or damaged them mentally. If I have upset you I apologize, I just didnt have all you guys in the room with me to advise me and give me hot Elvis tips. Although deep in my heart, even with all of you there helping me, there would always have been some SOB whining about something. So to the people that want to be constructive and positive, maybe inquisitive, I am here as a layman, like you. I never proffessed to be a genius, I was humbled immensely by the experience and now years have passed and we can talk freely. So lets talk. I am not going to engage in petty mudslinging crap though. If that happens, I will just leave and come back in 10 years..or so. I have a habit of going underground for extended periods of time without notice.
I know there are people in this group that know a lot more Elvis than I ever will. I respect that.
I learned a lot behind that console for 6 months, a lot about Elvis and a lot about myself. I am not a know it all, I am a student of music and continue to try and do that everyday. Hope everyone here is well, I miss Ian he had a big heart and was real in every way, you need to know how we met, its a great story. so again thanks for the welcome, lets talk,
DB

David welcome back to the forum. I loved the job you did on E1, especially the video promotion where Glen Hardin and James Burton listened to the excellent job you did on that CD, not to mention the interaction with the kids on that video as well. Looking forward to your input!

Hello and welcome. I liked the mixing you did on the E1 release. But like some audiophiles we found it to be mastered too loud. And yes The Wonder Of You was not the hit version. I did not mind about the Hound Dog pop because I do not listen to that version. But an old release from Billboard you might have heard. Welcome again I would like to add that my theory of the mastering was to be able to compete with modern releases ? Where the mastering is very hot?

You know Ted and George at Sterling are real pros. I have deferred to their expertise for over 25 years. Mastering was a battle. The question was always will the kids like it? Will young people listen? Will Elvis get any new fans, or was this just another BMG hype job selling you guys the same old songs again.
It had to be competitive, it pissed me off to no end with that "brick wall" the nuances of our work dissapeared, it was sad. Every record made today is LOUD. Whose fault is that? the label, the fans? who knows, its a tragedy. I had no control over the mastering because I am not a mastering engineer. I am a mixer and a producer. Ted and George told me not to worry, they said it would balance out. 13 million people agreed. Would it have sold that many without them? who the hell knows. I think A little less conversation helped a little, NO KIDDING!! that was loud too. Never did anything in the USA though, that was sad too. I loved that mix JunkyXL did, and he wasnt even their first choice to mix it. Loud music is on ipods, its on car stereos, its in $5000 systems in Jeeps. Most people like to hear music loud. For the record, we mixed it very quietly. Som songs suffered worse than others, I always listen to the stereo track on the DVD, its not loud, its the real deal.

David

Welcome. Some have reported that BMG did a "stealth remastering" of the E1 tracks on the recently issued 3 CD comp "HitStory."

I haven't heard this new comp, but I'm wondering if you have.

Did BMG remaster all the E1 tracks, or only the handful of cuts that many objected to, such as the infamous pop (Hound Dog), alternate takes (Wonder of You) and flanging (Suspicious Minds)?

When BMG remastered the cuts for HitStory, did they use your remix of Burning Love, or Dennis Ferrante's mid 1990s remix?

And don't forget that david didnt use the original splice master of splice takes 3 and 4. of"Big Hunk O' Love' that's the version made the big hit for Elvis. and on the intro to "way down" sound kinda od odd to me.

Curtis, you can ask me personally, I wont take offence. As far as the other compilations I really know nothing. I have not listened to them and I dont know if they have beem tampered with. I would not be surprised. Its quite common for people to change something and resell it again isnt it?

I really dont know what they could do as we always had the original master tapes. You know, now that you mention it, and reading a few posts back about the DVD, to me that is the consumate way to listen, 96k straight off the master from the stereo tracks. They were not brick walled. Very lightly compressed. Most of the real "audiophiles" never commented on these mixes, I thought that was hilarious. I mean this was the first time anyone could listen to a true master recording. There were not many takers, thats about when I started to take nothing personally. Everyone had the oppurtunity, few really understood the technology.

As far as the "splice master" I mixed and mastered what I was given. The only time there were discussions were on suspicious minds (the horns) and the version of The wonder of you. We had six different versions of that song, none were marked master tape. I picked the best one, and we mixed it. When the band showed up they thought it was awesome and they had never heard it before. My instinct as a producer was to always go with what the artist likes, in this situation I ruffled many feathers, I know that now.
There were many experts that heard this record before it came out, maybe there was a hush agreement who knows. Oopps I forgot the piano was missing on Now or Never, flew that in too.
No one said anything to me before or after it was mastered. As far as Way Down goes Curtis, I have no clue what you mean? The Band heard it that played on it, the writer that wrote the song heard it and so did a pack of other people. You are the only one I know that has commented. I have the original demo with the dog barking at the end. Layng ended every demo he wrote with him barking.
Layng Martine Jr gave me the demo himself of his version and the Elvis demo. Elvis immitated the dog at the end of his track just like Layng.
There are tons of versions of out takes and mixes and mastering sessions. I dont know how you lot keep up!! Must be hard, like collecting coins.
If I regret anything I wish someone had been with me that knew more while I was doing this. My job was never to be a historian, it was to mix and produce.

Those were my exact thoughts when I first listened to the Dolby 2.0 stereo track on the E1 DVD-A, why the heck does it sound so much better than the E1 CD itself?! So are you saying the stereo track on the DVD-A contains the audio in the state after it was mixed and before it was mastered for CD at Sterling? Thanks for sharing your insights, really appreciate it.

David,

glad to have you on board. I really enjoyed both the cd and the dvd. To me In The Ghetto and Burning Love has never sounded better than on the dvd. Really beautiful work. My question concerns Return To Sender. That's the only track that I found to sound poor on both cd and dvd. If you have heard the version on The Great Performances cd years ago (which was done using Sonic Solution) it sounds a lot fuller than your version. I wonder why is that?

I am saying that those stereo versions were mastered, BUT for DVD..different compression and different eq. You have to be careful when doing a DVD, you cant do the same work as a CD. The DVD is pure, its still been worked on at Sterling but very lightly and more true to the master and the mixes we did. I have the CD of the mixes before they were mastered, when I listened to them at home they sounded very real and pure to me. The mastering process changes everything, sometimes it works sometimes it sucks. By the way I hate DSD, think its a joke, never comes back the same, gotta have the right D/A converters, always another headache.
My personal fave stiff is the surround In the Ghetto and Burning love from that period. I still think its some of the best work Ray and I did on the whole project.

That was a fun three track mix, we got to bring up the backgrounds and balance the music. Really sorry you dont like that, That version I think is very strong. I have not heard the great performance Cd version. Sonic solution is just a digital program for mastering, no biggie, I would have to hear it to see why you think it sounds better. BUT, just for fun play the E1 vinyl version of Return...no interferance..it rocks, get a good stylus!!