New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Marsh Mastering) Audio Fidelity, leader in audiophile remastering of classic rock and pop, has completed
James Taylor's "Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon" at Marsh Mastering in Hollywood. Working from the original 1971 analog master tapes, Audio Fidelity engineer Steve Hoffman joined mastering engineer Stephen Marsh for the critical remastering sessions in preparation for a limited edition of 5,000 numbered 24K Gold CDs.
"Our goal at Audio Fidelity is to deliver the optimum remastered Compact Disc from an analog recording that was done a long time ago," said Steve Hoffman, who has tens of thousands followers in his online audiophile forums. "We are maintaining all of the integrity of the original sound, while creating a recording that sounds exceptional on good listening systems."
"Mud Slide Slim" marks the fourth
James Taylor album remastered by Audio Fidelity at Mash Mastering. Other limited edition titles already available are "Sweet Baby James" (1970), "One Man Dog" (1972), and "Walking Man" (1974).
"We are trying to create today's definitive version of the record," explained mastering engineer Stephen Marsh, "to get as close as you could possibly get to the master tape and honestly capture the artist's original vision, using modern technology to present the music in an unadulterated fashion."
"It's a very delicate process," added Steve Hoffman. "In some cases we have to carefully dehydrate or 'bake' the analog tapes that are unplayable otherwise." Stephen Marsh adds, "Every particle of oxide that falls off is part of a song that you will never hear again."
"Luckily, all the
James Taylor analog master tapes have been in fantastic shape," says Hoffman, "well stored by the archival folks at Warner Bros. Audio Fidelity is in contact with
James Taylor before these reissues and he is very pleased with our work. That's the ultimate compliment -- if he's happy, we are happy."
"Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon" will be available as an Audio Fidelity 24K Gold CD in
Spring 2012.
Watch a 3-minute video of the session at:
http://youtu.be/7rKt4D9W1Wc
