Korgscrew
Group: Super Admins
Posts: 3511
Joined: Dec. 1999 |
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Posted: April 24 2008, 18:28 |
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Ah yes, I'd read that before, but my interpretation of 'erased' had been 'removed from the new mix' rather than 'removed from the master tape'. It had really never occurred to me that it might mean anything else - probably because I thought that anything else would really be a very silly thing to do! My feeling is that it was just another case of Mike picking the wrong word, but as he never spoke about it anywhere else, I suppose that's hard to prove.
It would be an odd thing to do, though - all removing parts from the multitrack would do would be to prevent someone else from using them in a later remix. If he was really that hell bent on stopping someone from remixing the album in a way he wasn't happy with in the future, I'd say the only way to ensure that would have been to burn the whole thing! He'd really have needed to have been sure that he didn't want those parts, too - it's much easier to disengage a channel mute than it is to replace parts on a tape you've just erased! Someone like Phil Newell would probably know what happened, though...
The multitrack master isn't what's used when albums are reissued 'from the original master tape', unless the album is remixed for the re-release.
The 'master tape' they use for that is the tape made when the album is mixed, which contains the final mix - in the case of Hergest Ridge, it would be 1/2" stereo, but it could equally be a four track tape (as is the case with the remixed Hergest Ridge) or indeed all sorts of other things, depending on the time the mix was done and the format it was intended for. Mike wouldn't have been working with that when he did the remix, so my assumption is that it probably stayed intact somewhere, unless he ordered it destroyed.
Tubular Bells is a good case in point - bits of the multitrack master have been missing since shortly after the album was recorded (which is why the reed and pipe organ and tubular bells at the end of part one are different on Boxed - they had to be replaced because they'd gone missing, and apparently the Sailor's Hornpipe has also gone walkies). That hasn't stopped them from releasing countless remasters of the original mix from the original master tapes, though! It did make things difficult when they came to want to remix it for Boxed, though...
He did mix some of his later albums down to a stereo pair on his Sony 3348 digital multitracker, but I imagine he'd have then transferred it to another format to deliver to the mastering studio (I imagine his reasoning was that it didn't matter that he'd have to make a copy before delivering it - it wouldn't be losing any quality).
If I can find a spare moment, I'll start putting out feelers about the back catalogue thing. Mike clearly has the rights to Tubular Bells now, even if he doesn't have the rights for the rest of them (it could be that Virgin has the rights to each album for 35 years from its release), which means he's free to sell them to Universal if he wants (whether his contract would prevent him from selling them to anyone else, I don't know).
It's difficult to know how any transfer of the album to a new label should be handled, really. People are rather fed up of re-releases of Tubular Bells, and I can imagine there being a fair number of complaints if the album's re-released with interesting bonus material (of the "they're making us buy an album we've already got 600 copies of, just so we can hear a few rare tracks...moneygrabbing rascals!" kind), but I equally can't see a straight reissue going down too well!
I actually think just a decent quality, cheaply priced reissue would be a good way to go, with some nice sleeve notes. Then as a special release for fans, they could do more of a Tubular Bells companion - kind of like a two disc edition, just without the disc that has all the stuff which fans already own  . Perhaps a documentary DVD, plus a collection of less common tracks which are related to Tubular Bells. They could include things like Mike Oldfield's Single, as well as things like the Alan Parsons Quadrafile mixes (those would almost be begging to be put on in surround...) and the BBC Radio One session version of Tubular Bells with John Peel as MC. I bet some racking of brains and scouring of archives could reveal a whole album's worth of rare and interesting Tubular Bells related material (hey...my two disc set with one disc has turned into a two disc set with two discs! ). That could turn out to be a really fun project to work on...
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OOOWWW !!!! They could release a series of these Deluxe Editions
