The Ubu Projex Bug Report
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1975-2010: 35 years of error... and bravely beyond!
Last updated
1/4/10
What are bugs?
In this context "bugs" are usually errors in the post-studio mastering or manufacture of albums. You would be shocked at how weird it can all get once an album mix leaves the recording studio. At least we own up to it.
What is the mastering process?
In the days of vinyl production a mastering engineer would apply compression and equalization to a 2-track audio mix tape in an effort (1) to covercome the inadequacies and limitations of the vinyl medium, and (2) to do his best to insure that the producer/artist's intentions translated to the medium. In the early days of digital sound many thought that transfers to the cd medium could be flat, i.e. little or no compression/equalization applied. As time went on it became clear that flat transfers often did a disservice to audio produced for the vinyl medium. Vinyl required many compromises in audio production and these compromises were unnecessary for the cd medium. The mastering stage in the era of digital recording, as far as Ubu Projex is concerned, is the point at which the "real world" of consumer loudspeakers and hi fi systems is introduced. We make an effort to find a balance between the perfect state of the audio as heard in the studio Control Room and consumer listening situations.
What is involved in the transfer process?
It is the digitization of analog sound. CD audio is sampled at a frequency of 44.1khz with a bit rate of 16. As technology has improved it is common now to be able to sample analog audio at 192khz and 24 bits allowing for greater depth and detailing to survive the digitization process. For manufacture of a cd the audio must then be down-sampled to a 44.1khz / 16-bit file but the result is still superior.
Why does Ubu Projex "mess" with frequent re-mastering / re-transfering?
Technology improves. Why not take advantage of that? There is no such thing as a definitive master of a recording, especially one produced in the vinyl era. The only time a mix can be considered to be definitive is the point at which it goes to tape in the Control Room. That's the last time it sounds "good." Then it enters the real world of manufacture, and consumer electronics, and you can only hope that enough of it survives the battering that it will take from that point.
What is the "baking process"?
Certain brands of magnetic tape absorb moisture over years/decades of storage. The Suma solution is to bake them in an oven for a week at roughly 110° F.
Catalog of Error & Redemption
THE MODERN DANCE
We recommend the Cooking Vinyl 2005 Master of all the various cd audio releases. It went on sale in July 2008 and can be identified by the text "2005 Master" on the tray card. (NB. CV has some in distribution with the old artwork but there is a sticker on the front identifying it as the re-mastered version.) This master was generated during the Surround Sound mix described below in which the original 1977 2-track mix tape was re-digitized at 96khz/24 bit and mastered in the control room at Suma referencing to the speakers it was mixed on in 1977.
The closest thing to a "definitive" version is the Silverline double-sided release. One side of the disk is a DVD and the other side is a CD. The DVD side features a 5.1 surround sound remix which is the only accurate representation of what we were hearing in the studio in 1977. Do not be put off by the "remix" label. Every effort was made to duplicate the original Suma mixes. Two things were "fixed": (1) The tape splice click in "Chinese Radiation;" and (2) the end of "Sentimental Journey" was extended to get more of the sound of the broom dropping to the floor. Paul Hamann digitally transferred the 2-inch multi-track session tapes from 1976-77 at 192khz / 24 bit. Silverline engineer Chris Haynes slaved manfully to be faithful. It sounds exactly like we heard it in the studio in 1977. Far and away it is the best sounding and most accurate version of any Pere Ubu album ever released.
Also on the DVD side of the disc is a DVD audio 96khz/24 bit transfer and master of the 2-track analog mix tape from 1977. On the cd side of the disc is the cd audio "2005 Master" of the 2-track analog mix tape from 1977. It was produced from the re-digitization process described above.
Note: In April-ish 2008 a batch of defective Modern Dance cds (COOK CD 141) got past Cooking Vinyl quality control. They were recalled in June 2008. This turned out to be the last of the 1994 Master issues.
DUB HOUSING
Chrysalis Records CHR 1207 (UK) Nov 1978 lp.
Chrysalis Records CHR 1207 (US) April 1979 lp.
During the
1994 digital transfer & eq session at Suma, Paul Hamann discovered that the second side of the Chrysalis vinyl release was distorted. It is subtle. So much for the glories of vinyl... The Rough Trade and Cooking Vinyl cd releases are fine.
Cooking Vinyl released a re-mastered issue of Dub Housing on November 17 2008. The original 2-track quarter-inch analog mix tape was baked in an oven to dry it out and re-digitized at 192hz / 24 bit resolution, the best quality resolution currently available. The detailing is improved. The result was then mastered for cd audio in the control room in which it was recorded and mixed in 1978. The text "2008 Master" located on the tray card identifies the reissue.
NEW PICNIC TIME
Chrysalis Records CHR 1248 (UK) 9/79.
What happened to the mix of this record is a mystery. The control room speakers might have been oddly biased - Suma was still a new studio at the time of the session. On the other hand, we were going thru a break up and tensions in the control room likely didn't help our focus. During the 1994 digital transfer and eq we discovered that you could add or subtract 12db at any point and still not effectively change the sonic landscape. Very odd. Astonishing, in fact, and in itself quite an achievement. Paul remains to this day mystified as an engineer how it could have happened. The
Rough Trade cd release suffers as well. We recommend the Cooking Vinyl or Datapanik In The Year Zero issues.
Rough Trade Records Rough 14 (UK) 6/80 lp.
Two versions of this record came out on vinyl. "Arabia" was originally recorded as an instrumental. After complaints from business-oriented people about too many instrumental tracks, David quickly improvised vocals and the track was renamed "Arabian Nights." "Tribute To Miles" was edited and re-named "Young Miles In The Basement" (or vice versa, who can remember?). A second master was cut. A mixup at the pressing plant meant that the first ("Original") master was used, after all, for the first production run. Some releases on vinyl were printed with yellow letters and yellow dancers. The corrected pressing followed, possibly in August.
The following releases are cut from the corrected, second master:
Rough Trade Records Rough US 4 (US) 1980 lp.
Rough Trade/Barclay Records 200171 (France) 1980 lp & mc.
Rough Trade Records Rough CD 14 (UK) 1989 cd.
Rough Trade Records Rough US 4 (US) 1989 cd.
The following releases are cut from the "original" master:
Base Records Rough 14 Y5 (Italy) 1980 lp.
The 1989
Rough Trade cd release still sold by Ubutique has the vocal "Arabian Nights," the shorter "Young Miles In The Basement" and the original release version of "Misery Goats."
The Datapanik In The Year Zero (1994 Master) box set restored the album to its "original" form, using the vocal-less "Arabia" and the longer, rambling "Tribute To Miles" (aka "Young Miles In The Basement"). During the reconstruction process a jew's harp version of "Misery Goats" was discovered and substituted.
The 1995 Cooking Vinyl cd release was identical to the DIYZ 1994 release (the 1994 Master) and included both "Arabia" and "Arabian Nights", and the longer, original "Tribute To Miles" (aka "Young Miles In The Basement").
The Datapanik In The Year Zero (2009) uses "Arabia," the shorter "Young Miles In The Basement," and the original "Misery Goats." It is the 2008 Master of the album. The 2-track quarter-inch analog mix tape was baked in an oven at Suma in 2008 to dry it out and then digitally transferred at 192hz / 24 bit resolution. It was re-mastered by Paul Hamann in the original control room, referencing with the speakers it was originally mixed on.
The Director's Cut includes everything. It is the 2008 Master except for "Tribute To Miles" which is the 1994 Master.
Rough Trade Records Rough 83 (UK) 1985 lp.
Twin/Tone Records TTR8561 (US)1985 lp.
Twin/Tone Records TTRCD8561 (US)1985 cd.
The left and right channels are reversed and the tape transfer left all songs running at a slower speed. All Rough Trade / Twin Tone cd and vinyl releases are affected. These faults were corrected by the
1994 digital transfer & eq. The
1998 Cooking Vinyl cd reissue is correct and features the Mayo Thompson / Geoff Travis mixes of Not Happy and Lonesome Cowboy Dave as released on the 1981 Rough Trade single. The 1985 Twin Tone / Rough Trade releases use the David Thomas mixes done at Suma. We recommend the Cooking Vinyl, Geffen or Datapanik In The Year Zero issues.
Terminal Tower was never released on cd by Rough Trade, evidently. There was certainly an intention to do so and the release as a cd is noted in the booklets that accompany other Ubu cd reissues on Rough Trade, but there is no evidence such a release ever occurred.
Rough Trade Records Rough 33 (UK) 1982 lp.
Rough Trade Records Rough US 21 (US) June 1982 lp.
This Rough Trade lp was probably the best vinyl sound we ever had. It was cut at 45 RPM by Nimbus. When it came out critics, retailers and fans, as with one voice, whined, "It's not an lp, it's a 45!" Like we were trying to pull a fast one. And we replied, patiently, "No, it's a full length record, an lp, a long-player, but you get better sound at 45. It's state of the art technology!" To which, inevitably, the reply came, "Yes, but it's not an lp, is it? It's a 45." The Rough Trade cd release
suffers. We recommend the Cooking Vinyl or Datapanik In The Year Zero issues.
We ran across this report of disk rot on the Fontana release on the internet:
I'm not sure whether the problem you describe is the same one that I've found because the sound quality is still fine. But, on Pere Ubu's Cloudland the label has become quite tacky and has started to stick inside the player.
THE ROUGH TRADE CD RELEASES OF THE 80s
These were flat transfers. When songs are mixed they reflect the bias of the speakers on which they're mixed and the technology of the time. Older material tends to suffer from a more severe bias. A flat transfer doesn't account for this bias and can, therefore, do a disservice to the music. Comments on
digital clarity and descriptions of the
1994 digital transfer & eq are informative.
Rhino Records R2 71818 (USA) cd & mc.
The entire right channel is missing. A fixed pressing should have been on sale by the summer of 1995. The chorus is misquoted in the liner notes. The chorus was "It feels like heaven. It's such a problem."
DATAPANIK IN THE YEAR ZERO
On the first run there is a dropout in the left channel of "Street Waves" on Disk 1 at approximately 1:27. It was spotted with headphones. It is corrected on subsequent pressings. The individual cd reissues are fine.
Folly of Youth seedee +
We had a report of the FOY seedee + causing crashes on Macs running System 8.5. There's a
workaround. The B each B oys seedee + runs fine under 8.5 and there's no problem with System 8.1.
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Notes on vinyl pressings
Pere Ubu doesn't care about sounding good.
Stop. Wait. Read that again. Let it sink in.
Music is a language - it has a vocabulary, a syntax, and a grammar. Musical activity provides the grammar and syntax of the language - melody, rhythm, harmony, etc. The sound of musical activity, however, supplies the vocabulary - and that is where meaning resides. I can jumble vocabulary willy-nilly and meaning will survive. These words ordered in any syntax, in any tense, according to any grammar, will still have meaning: "Dog," "Street," "Walk," "I," "To," "Go." You can, conversely, repeat "Noun," "Verb," "Subject" all day long and not be able to communicate a thing.
What is the value of finely crafted musical syntax if the meaning encoded by the sound is bankrupt? Which is not to say that every song, every book, must be serious. Simple thoughts expressed well can also be a joy. But the first obligation of sound is to convey meaning, to pursue truth and to be honorable - not to serve as a consumerist narcotic.
Pere Ubu is a product of the window allowed to stereo sound. Between the mid-60s and the mid-70s, stereo flourished briefly before being choked out by the monophonism demanded by FM radio and tv. Stereo and its stillborn brother, quadraphonics, emphasized that sound is a voicing of space distinguishable from the musical activity encoded by it, and that the scale of the sound of the musical activity can be manipulated, enhanced or fractured, with powerful poetic consequences. It is our misfortune to be an irredeemable product of those times, and it is our misfortune that we were schooled in the art of sound by Ken Hamann, an engineer who stressed, above all other qualities, performance, passion and vision - a sufi teacher who believed that the making of music should be a pursuit of truth.
Stereo was a technology crippled fatally by the vinyl medium. We, therefore, resented vinyl. We had two ratings for the quality of vinyl pressings:
-
Terrible
-
Okay, I suppose, but why bother?
Phasing
Discreet use of phasing enhances the spatial image of a recording. Phasing is transparent with digital technology. Not so with vinyl. Phasing is a definite Bad Thing on vinyl pressings.
Stereo Imaging
On a vinyl pressing there can never be more than a 36db spread between left and right channels. The stereo image or breadth of a vinyl pressing will always be narrower than what can be achieved with a digital medium. Bass guitar and the bass drum must always be placed close to center pan, to do otherwise is to risk bouncing the needle out of the groove... which is fun but a Bad Thing commercially.
Silence
With digital technology silence becomes a powerful tool. The dynamic range is extended not only in terms of technical spec but also in dramatic possibilities.
Detail
With digital technology you can hear a sound fade nearer to zero. On vinyl it disappears in a murk of surface noise. The detailing lost is significant. Compare the 1994 digital transfer & eq to any vinyl pressing. There is significant synthesizer detailing that the vinyl simply wiped away.
Warmth
The one thing apologists for vinyl hang onto with bleeding fingernails is its putative "warmth." There is actually a technical audio term for it - "distortion." What a vinyl-phile describes as "warmth" is nothing more mystical than distortion in low frequencies caused by the limitations of the vinyl medium and lathe technology. Now, there's nothing wrong with distortion - Pere Ubu depends on its expressive qualities - but unwanted / undesirable distortion is not a Good Thing.
DJs
DJs love vinyl like vampire bats love mammals.
Vinyl as a medium is flawed. The digital cd as a medium is also flawed but has strengths that, on balance, make it a better choice. Much of the nostalgia for vinyl has more to do with the fragile nature of the medium. Because it can be so easily damaged, both the vinyl and the cardboard sleeve, it must be cared for more intensely. The medium must be treasured therefore that which is encoded in the medium comes to have more value.
So, what of the recent Get Back vinyl release of The Modern Dance? Rhodri, musician and Ubu Projex admin assistant, thinks it sounds good. Rhodri has, therefore, been placed in charge of okaying any future pressings on the basis that I hate them and can't be bothered to replace the stylus on my turntable. Why did we okay the pressings? We didn't. Cooking Vinyl didn't tell us they were doing it. We thought it was a bootleg. Lawyers and a phalanx of international copyright agencies were already on alert before we found out.
Bob Harding makes a good point about the process of listening.
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Footnotes
In re consumerist narcotic
Following a brief conversation with our grocery police liaison officer, Johnny Dromette, we would like the make the following clarifications:
(1) As has been noted in various articles and openly confessed by us, we have a deep affection for the consumerist society. We are proud to say that More Is Always Better. There is a difference, however, in liking a beer from time to time and being an alcoholic.
(2) America as a consumerist society is a recent transformation. Social engineers would have us believe otherwise. They are liars. As young men we had known the last days of the golden age firsthand. No amount of Orwellian history modification can alter that. As recently as the early 70s the middle class of America was routinely raised & encouraged to pursue spiritual and artistic goals ahead of other considerations.
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