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Does it come down to the mastering quality only??

Listing to some of the Rudy Van Gelder Blue Note reissues and some of the original Blue Note releases, i am beginning to wonder if the quality of the recording...and therefore the overall SQ that one is going to get through your system is more dependent on the quality of the mastering than any other aspect! If the mastering engineer nails the recording and is able to record onto the tape the most 'live' sounding instruments and voices, then you will get a superb recording that will do almost ANY system proud ( IMO Rudy's recordings onto the master tape are incredible ( most) ). OTOH, if the mastering engineer somehow screws up, then the result will be nothing special...regardless of how great the system playing it back is...or for that matter ALL future reissues and techniques of re-mastering the original tape..'One Step' Direct to Disc etc. 
To sum up, if the original master tape is recorded poorly, ( due to the electronics used, or to any number of other variables) then all subsequent releases will simply be a polishing of a turd!
Thoughts???
128x128daveyf

Showing 2 responses by folkfreak

folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
In my experience no.  The real test of a system is what it does with less than pristine recordings. Does the system convey the humanity and emotion in the recording irrespective of the technical media used to record it? Many of my favorites to listen to are sketchy live recordings from DAT or basic four tracks and as my system has progressed it’s astonishing how much more it is able to extract from what we’re never technically sophisticated recordings.  What many people assume to be “turds” may actually be “diamonds in the rough”

btw don’t confuse this with systems that impose their own “rose tinted spectacles” on poor recordings, this is about honesty to the original, warts and all
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
@daveyf the operative word is not good/bad but "honest" -- a lousy studio manipulated over processed recording can never sound anything other than fake but a "mediocre" honest recording of real musicians in real space can yield surprisingly evocative and attractive results -- I for one love to listen to 78 era recordings, and golden era mono -- no one is going to think that these are "state of the art" reproduction but a better system will dig out amazing amounts of real world performance information even from these limited sources.
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