[MLA] UMG: watermarking (excerpts from emails I've had about this horror + 3 short MUSIC clips

Sat Jul 22 21:03:36 CEST 2017

Hi Eelco,

I have intended to play some examples on my Platinum Mastering Panel this year. 

Attached are some excerpts of conversations I had with two classical producers of the biggest-name piano virtuosos on Philips, DG and Decca (Universal).  As you will read apparently some of the USA watermarking were done twice!  Is it easy to find examples on the European sites?

At the bottom of this email are 3 very short examples of the watermarking flutter in these recordings, way worse than any analogue recording.  Who the hell approved this and thought it was good?  These are not cherry picked, it’s all over almost any Universal release that isn’t very new.

All my best!
Bob L.

===========================
April 2017:
from Alfred Brendel’s producer:

Thank you Bob, it is indeed appalling.

I am now in communication with Universal in London, and I am showing them very clear examples of the most terrible results. Thanks, Bob for giving me concrete examples. I have been collecting other examples and passing them on to UMG. I am now involving the last remaining DG producer, as one of the most critical listeners of the organization, many of whose recordings are affected. 

The explanation given to me by the head of catalogue activities at Universal in London is that on some online releases, mistakenly, two different layers of watermarking have been applied. Those recordings sound the worst. But then there are others that sound a bit less extreme, and I suspect these may just be one single pass of watermarking. Not good either. Only the latest releases have been corrected by not applying any watermarking. They sound clean.

Thanks Bob.

===============================
April 2017:
Less good news was the topic of watermarking. We talked a long time about it. Barry Holden who is responsible for the catalogue activities of the three labels was aware of the difficulties. He said that the newer recordings are not being subjected to watermarking therefore they are clean. He was grateful I played for him many examples, so I could show the scope of the problem and to hear it in detail. 

What he says is that there were two supply chain providers for the digital versions. One for North America (USA Canada Mexico) and one for the rest of the world. That the company in the USA who was in charge of uploading the masters for online release received masters that had already watermarking on them. But unaware of that they applied a second layer of watermarking on the tracks. Evidently nobody checked the results, so in those extreme cases this is what one hears, the double process. 
=====================================
Barry Holden said that it should only be those recordings processed through the US supply chain that have these effects. But it does not seem like that to me…. But that the single watermarking is the one that we hear as a lighter effect on other recordings. Clear to you and me but perhaps less clear to a lay person. 

The question is how they deal with this and how they will start replacing the digital versions. I do not think they will redo all of them. But they need to start and possibly the worse cases should be done first. Certainly piano is the most noticeable, I have not checked other examples apart from some violin, some vocal and some orchestral. At least he is aware and he must react. I will supply information and offer collaboration if they need it.

I will start giving them this evaluation from my side, and I will send them very clear examples.
=========================================
Apr 2017:
From Bob L.:
When I spoke with Barak Moffatt at Capitol USA about this he said he thought they had stopped putting watermarking on new recordings, so I’m not surprised if this is true.
There is a huge catalog of older titles that have to be re-ingested at some point.
==========================================
****
Way back in Dec 2011:
An email I got from Andreas Meyer who produced the Hilary Hahn, Valentina Lisitsa Charles Ives Violin Sonatas for Deutsche Gramophon.
===============================================
Dec 2011:
Hello Bob,

I thank you (and Richard)[Richard King] for bringing this to my attention.  I purchased the commercial CD on the release date and heard everything was good, but I don't listen to iTunes except in emergency situations.  Obviously this will change in my QC protocols from this day forward.

The conversion supplied to the electronic distribution outlets is incorrect.  I have notified DG of this gross mistake and asked for immediate attention.  I apologize that you had to experience a defective purchase.  Let me know if I can send you a gratis copy to make it up to you.

All the best for the holidays.

Andreas

Meyer Media LLC
3801 23rd Ave B18
Studio 401
Long Island City NY 11105
studio:718 728 3235
cell: 646 522 1032
www.meyer-media.com <http://www.meyer-media.com/>

Charles Ives Violin Sonata
Elton John-from Too Low for Zero album
Elton John-One Night Only live

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