Analogplanet Visits Sterling Sound and Interviews Mastering Engineer Ryan K. Smith

[@tasteapiana]

Very standup thing to do, to tell Ryan to his face how appreciated his dedication and work are. So many people go about doing what they do and never really hear such feedback then they develop a kind of depression that results in it being a labor of not love but a, ummm, kind of a desk job - do it again, do it again, do it again thing. Great episode on a great subject, quite a treat.

[@DocJJohnson]

Came back one more time.....great overview ....thanks again..!!

[@MrCatalysis101]

Thanks Michael, a thoroughly absorbing half hour. it's so good to know that young engineers like Ryan are carrying the torch from the likes of George Marino.

[@richardadriver]

Thanks for this Michael, I always find these studio visits fascinating and informative. The future of our recorded material looks to be safe!

[@peace-yv4qd]

I really enjoyed this presentation. I learned a lot. I didn't realize the effort that went in to a good record pressing. Thank you.

[@kayokk-]

Great interview, good showing everyone, everything and your Q&A is well appreciated too. Thanks to all.

[@leon9021]

Really great interview Michael, lots of insight!

[@VinylRescue]

Great interview! Been seeing his name on some of the albums I'm putting on my wish I list to buy as I've been reading reviews of his mastering skills. It's also great to hear he learned from one of the great mastering engineers of our time, George Marino!

[@miguelbarrio]

Loved this interview! Ryan’s remaster of Little Girl Blue is amazing.

[@Grevlain]

Fantastic vid! Man...Ryan is a "youngster." He's got a long career ahead of him.

[@aomoon81]

And he has George Marino room！

[@Flatheadmedia1]

His cut of Jeff Beck "Blow By Blow" is insanely good. Great interview.

[@seansrecords]

is that the orange vinyl rsd one.? i have that one

[@Flatheadmedia1]

@@seansrecords it's actually the Analog Productions pressing that I'm referencing... but the RSD release could have been pressed from the same plates.

[@seansrecords]

@@Flatheadmedia1 i wouldnt be surprised its so good , off to check my deadwax now

[@audioisgood]

Thank you for this!

[@dirkworld]

this interviewer has a very bad habit of cutting Ryan off when he's answering​

[@analoguecity3454]

No way, Michael's great at his job!

[@atta1798]

Beautiful smooth machine!!!

[@derosa1989]

Thanks Mike, really great interview, it was a pleasure to hear from Ryan and see the studio.

[@BarakaPDub]

Score! Excellent interview and I am happy you managed to get the man (Ryan Smith) cornered. I really enjoy a lot of the work he has done for Chad Kassem. In particular, the Belafonte album your referenced in the video. Given all of his fantastic cuts, I can understand why Chad is using him so much. But will that change though now that Chad acquired the late Doug Sax's lathe? Did you manage to get some time with Shane? I would love to hear him interviewed in depth as to his own experience with audiophiles. I read somewhere, maybe it was your blog, that the guys at Music Matters mentored Shane. I really enjoyed the Stealers Wheel and Everclear reissues that he put out.

[@DocJJohnson]

Great video

[@johnroberts459]

really informative great work well done

[@davidjonathan3854]

nice! Thanks for sharing!

[@SpaghettiKillah]

Hey there's an Oppo Bdp-103 player remote control there at 2:39 :D Good to see even studios use the same universal player I have haha I keep telling people into hi-fi that the Oppo Bdp-103 and 105 are just top top notch stuff but they see Made in China and the price and they think they can't be that good. Also, I see some Pass-Labs monoblocks...that's reference stuff! Speakers are Sony maybe? Good video Mike! These guys know what they're doin'.

[@thechuckster6838]

Ryan's name is on The Beatles Capitol Albums box sets from 2004 and 2006. He's on there as assistant. I wonder how much input he had with those sets, which all things considered, sound excellent. They are full of punch and they don't have the murkiness as the Abbey Road mastered CD's. Those boxes were the only remasters of the Beatles which I was very pleased with considering that the tapes are quite possibly 3rd and 4th generation. Kudos on those sets!

[@BlueNeon81]

Last cutting lathe was Neumann VMS 82, there were about 36 made of them and SX 84 was last cutter head. But VMS 82 is DMM.

[@SamuelRivera_DAMN]

Just bought a reissue of Pixies Dolittle... Sounded amazing so I checked the record, saw RKS Sterling Sound. Now I'm here.

[@festersuncle6298]

RKS in the deadwax. I have B.A.D. on Intervention Records. Sounds outstanding!! Now Shane, hurry up with The Church and Billy Squire!!!! B.A.D. was phenomenal live too.

[@blashuvec]

remastered the 10th anniv reissue of Brothers by The Black Keys!!!

[@Davethreshold]

Can somebody point me to the West Side Story Remix? I am a bit confused when trying to find it on vinyl, for me, and on CD for a friend of mine. Like Michael, I had that album as a kid and wore it OUT! This was the red album with the film soundtrack on it. Maybe tell me the number on the album etc. Thank you!

[@vintagestereocollector4159]

Insane 👍

[@ClevelandEscape]

its amazing how much shit goes into making a song nuts !

[@bluegrassbarry]

I have the re-issue of Graceland but his name does not appear on the credits. it just says, Originally mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling. that was a terrific interview. I guess I'm going to watch West Side Story now:)

[@bluegrassbarry]

ya there is R.K.S. next to the Sterling stamp, thanks. very nicely made record. funny, I looked at that before, but the initials did not register in my mind. I also looked at all the fine print on my new copy of Dave Brubeck's Time Out album for Bernie Grundman's name but there is no credit and the run-out groove only has machine stamped numbers. Regardless, I am having a lot of respect lately for the work of the mastering engineers.

[@davidmthekidd]

so, when they re-issue the vinyl its all done in the analog realm or digital?

[@MattRichardsonX]

Nice interview. Can someone tell me what brand of monitors are those in the background?

[@leonhermans3861]

Energy veritas v2.8

[@analoguecity3454]

I must be the biggest nerd! Cause I've watched this quite a few times! Love this stuff, maybe a little "too" much 😬

[@clanspen]

Great interview

[@neilbarbu]

I want a lathing and pressing of our new coming recording

[@MrGoochos]

6:05 a spec of dust. How is that going to work out?

[@davedavis9693]

when I ask my people , they tell me nobody Master's VINYL from tape anymore . either they don't know any better , or just don't want me to jump ship . how much for me to bring my tape over n put on vinyl ?

[@Fontsman]

Not having the cutting lathe in a clean air environment?

[@miguelbarrio]

I became a RKS fan when I listened to his Nina Simone Little Girl Blue.

[@suryamoorthy4924]

ANALOGUE RULES!

[@mynet1982]

384 interupts 692 words in mouth

[@vinylcity1599]

1:14 Hopefully the signal stays analog, there's a lot of claims of full analog record's, when the signal is routed to a digital converter before being cut! And worse yet almost all of those converters are low res 44.1k/16bit!

[@1337murk]

Really? most mastering places I've seen are using very good converters

[@PeterMacPL]

Give Us a bit better dynamic range on CD's ! I'm listenig AC/DC - Pwr Up on CD's, and DR is only 6-8. I know that is standard these day's and are much worses CD's, but why not back to old good times and set DR to 12 and above.

[@Mr._1987]

Not to tell anyone how to do there job, but the SME 3009 Series III is better suited to the Shure V-15 Type VxMR than the Series II Improved removable head shell.

[@wawztzta8296]

i hate stereo microphone on cameras :-/

[@tangofizz77]

Lots of snobbery in the comments.

[@jessefillmore]

00:33 HAHA .

[@genuineuni]

I played the 2016 Hybrid SACD of a Eddie Money album. Sorry, Ryan, displeased with your audio work. But, who knows what Sony supplied.

[@shechshire]

lol these people must be like "man, this guy is soooo annoying, just tell him analogue is better and get it over with".

[@TheEricSweetscent]

What's the point in visiting experts if you talk yourself all the time?

[@ropeswingify]

Analog Planet It never ceases to amaze me how many people are seemingly chomping at the bit to spew conjured negative bullshit at people taking time to provide content.. no you didn't talk over the guy.. there is a certain degree of energy necessary to keep the content stimulating.. a rhythm.. as a host your well aware and very good at not letting things bog down.. much appreciated from my perspective. I had no idea before tuning in that you'd be pressing one of my favorite albums and artist' Mick Jones' Big Audio.. I will have to track down one of these special pressings if available to public.. Boy I would love to see Joe Strummer' Mescalero album cut by this guy.. good stuff.. much appreciated.. best to you in 2017.

[@helthuismartin]

You hit a nerve pearl hahahhahahahaah

[@chenguefer156]

Come on, it is a great video that AnalogPlanet share with us: content it is amazing, cooking vinyl in front of us, top quality, nothing to complain from me, only thanking for sharing.

[@jaapaap5]

no dust cover needed while cutting? pretty amazing. thanks for uploading. ps try let the people talk...not you. ;-)

[@bellisariosonic]

Great interview. I do however disagree that 5.1 is a joke. While the majority of my home listening is analog records, there are some great 5.1 studio albums that sound great. The PInk Floyd, Steven Wilson, and Jethro Tull albums are just a few examples. If you have a 24 bit 192k blu-ray audio done well it's amazing.

[@lucalone]

Sterling Sound had some really bad cd mastering (loudness war) in the late nineties and through the 2000s. early vinyl pressing from the 70s by STERLING sounded light years better. no comparison. those with the stamp in the run out grooves.

[@SuperGeorge2112]

hate the distortion on the left channel in this interview

[@timjarvis8462]

I'm really surprised Ryan going along with your crap that vinyl have a higher frequency response you have to mono the bottom end at about 80hrz down fact and cut top's off even kevin gray say's vinyl has a max of 25khz yes more than cd but not by much watch this video for the facts kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zp6bequKlJtle80 www.recordtech.com/prodsounds.htm

[@wertor666]

Say the same thing about inner groove on vinyl and high frequency responce. Frequences above 20 khz doesn't matter for human ear. It's a marketing thign to sell more vinyls. It always depends on a mastering of particular record to sound good. And show some f*cking respect for people who write comments on your channel.

[@ReferenceFidelityComponents]

Dynamic range comment was just WRONG! I'm a but vinyl fan but know that it has less dynamic range than digital. This range has nothing to do with sample rate or brick wall filters. It refers purely to S/N and frequency response. Digital is capable of more range and brick wall filters and Nyquist mainly refer to Red Book. 90dB for Red Book on S/N compared with 60dB for vinyl. The issues are really more to do with audio compression of peak signals on cd...aka the "loudness wars". Poorly mastered recordings. Red Book is capable of stunning playback quality if done right. Lp playback will always be limited to 60dB due to limitations on bass cuts and hf limitations of carts and phonostages/some suts. Wider range would make wall thickness too small and perhaps also lead to tracking issues...look at lp set up lps where +15dB tracks are used for tracking...some carts wont track these. Mr fremer needs to brush up on his theory a bit. I like his vids but sometimes cringe a bit at what is said.

[@guitarfoundry]

the music is absolutely infantile..

[@ssnoc]

The ability to send as much data as possible only exists in a MP3 file .... Before you go crazy, just listen ..... The reason MP3’s sound crappy is due to over processing. Too many filters, limiters, EQ, etc. all destroy the original intent. So the MP3 sucks even before you send it to Vinyl - I agree. But what if we created a Raw-MP3 ? Just like Raw in Photoshop. Then the amount of naked data far exceeds any other method .. As a result the Vinyl cutting device (lathe) can process all this naked data as it sees fit - they can custom fit it to the potential of the Vinyl .... and sound engineer. And BTW I realize an MP3 is compressed by definition, so let’s call it a NKD Naked File with uncompressed raw data.

[@lucalone]

George Marinos mastering of Hendrix sounds like Shit ! I am sorry to say that, but it's true!! LOUDNESS WAR mastering at its worst! the 1997 remaster are total crap !

[@lucalone]

Ryan really knows what he is doing, but george marino is way to overrated!

[@MrCatalysis101]

Thanks Michael, a thoroughly absorbing half hour. it's so good to know that young engineers like Ryan are carrying the torch from the likes of George Marino.