WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1657 - Chad Kassem

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Chad Kassem was a Louisiana kid running afoul of the law, caught in a spiral of substance abuse and arrests. Thankfully, as he puts it, music is a hell of a natural drug. In his 20s, Chad became obsessed with audio and his new mission was to save the world from bad sounding records. Chad talks with Marc about how he started Acoustic Sounds, which serves as a mastering lab, a pressing plant, a record label and more, all in pursuit of making records that sound better than the originals. Chad explains his uncompromising process that turned his Kansas operation into one of the biggest players in the vinyl record business. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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This is my podcast WTF. Welcome to it. How's it going out there? What's happening today on the show? Interesting guest. I talked to this guy Chad Kassim You know, he came to our attention by way of a profile in the New York Times entitled, The Wizard of Vinyl is in Kansas. So, Chad is a guy who is obsessed with making the best sounding records possible. Now he's a leader in the vinyl records industry with his company Acoustic Sounds. He says he's on a mission

and he's saving the world from bad sounds. He does a lot of remastering of classic records. But he seemed like an interesting guy and a guy that I might have had some questions for, but I'm not full geek. I'm not full nerd. I don't go full nerd into much anything. Because to be full nerd, you've got to really put your whole life into it and you have a pursuit, a grail, a sense of perfection attainable, which Chad does does I'm just a guy that got into records

How long has it been you guys? When did I start doing that? Was it what 12 years ago? I don't remember it was part of this show where I started getting into vinyl like every other Guy my age or older usually again again. I'm the last year of boomer, so I don't suffer the full boomeritis. But I started getting into records and I started chasing the sound, doing the tube thing. Remember there was some trouble, I had a tube amp, wasn't working out, trying to get the right sound, spending some money, didn't spend a lot of money at that time,

but I decided to spend some money it all started with that Trip to a Jack White's office. Well, those Macintosh 275s in the wall But I worked around that I didn't get a 275 for a while But I got some tube amps and some speakers I try and get the right sound Spending that money and it was always frustrating at the beginning because it didn't it didn't sound as good as it should have for The price that I paid. Does anything? But then I kind of leveled off over the years and I kept amassing records. I was getting sent records. I was trading records in. I was buying new records. Now we've got like a few thousand fucking records in there.

I don't even know what I have anymore, but I know I have a lot of good shit, but then it gets to a point well, I don't want to diminish it. I'm happy about my records. Like yesterday, I was talking about Del Shannon. To Kit, Kit said I should cover Del Shannon's Runaway, which is a great song. And I started realizing that he did a later record that was kind of a kind of a special record, kind of a psych rock record that I knew I had, but I couldn't remember one song on it,

so I thought maybe I'd listen to that, and then that got away from me, but I did have the option. And some of you are thinking, I just get on Spotify, just get on the iTunes or whatever, but there is a difference in listening to records, and I still believe that, there is a difference. Chad and I talk about that. I know some analog nerds or some

Anti-vinyl guys are like you guys are out of your minds There's a reason we don't buy records anymore and that reason is eventually you're gonna need a new fucking house Just for your dumb records again not that much of a nerd some guys have tens of thousands of records Like I said, I probably got two three thousand And I don't know what I have But I know they're all in there. And I know I haven't listened to a lot of them more than once. Some not at all. So what is that about? Where am I at with it now?

Well, the one thing I start to realize about getting older is that if you have this type of obsessive personality that doesn't lock in for a lifetime, you're just looking for something to something to occupy your passion, your life and seek meaning. Seek some sort of not necessarily perfection, but close, right? Is that attainable? How long does it last?

Like I said, I don't know if I'm a lifelong obsessive because now I'm starting to think like, where are all these records going to go when I I'm gone and I willed them to somebody I willed them to the guy that got me most of the records my records collection has been curated by me By Dan cook over at gimme gimme records and Lance over at permanent a bit and then other record stores I go to I take suggestions. There's so many records I knew nothing about and I have them now and I still know very little about them. But the real question is, is that what is that about?

Because now I'm on the other side of it. Now I've got a lot of records, they still sound good, my system sounds good, but I just don't have the wherewithal to keep going with it because you get into this cycle where you like you go to the record store, you trade in a few records, you leave with five, maybe you listen to one, and then they're on the floor, and then you're like, I gotta fold those into the collection,

but shouldn't I listen to them first? And now you're just sitting in a room surrounded by hundreds of records, and then you go upstairs, and they're in your hallway, hundreds of records, and then you go into your office, and there, in the office, hundreds of records, and they're all there, and they make me feel happy.

I'm glad I possessed them. It's like many of my books. But what is it really doing for me? What does it make me feel? Who does it make me be? How is it helping the core project of being happy? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I just know that knowing me, because I don't have the courage or commitment to be an all-in nerd, you know, I end up with a lot of things that I was very passionate about. You know, from, you know, sanding wood boxes. That was a brief one. From finding the perfect pick for my guitar. That wasn't that long, but it was pretty intense and I think I landed somewhere. Certain plants around my house that I have a codependent relationship with, like why the fuck doesn't the lavender just grow straight up?

Why are these trees not growing at all? I think, sadly, as I move into my later years, that a lot of things that I do and put my whole heart into, I'm doing just to be disappointed eventually. Is that a thing? Is that possible? Where you just hit this wall, it's like, what am I doing? I got a lot of records I like, got a lot of records I don't know if I like, I got a

lot of records that are just cool records that I don't listen to, but like I'm never gonna have them all, I'm never gonna know what I have, I'm never gonna understand all this stuff, I'm glad I possess it. It's almost like you're curating a library that is just built on your tastes. And as that changes, or you become less interested in the curated collection, you're just sort of like, fuck, what is this library even for? I don't know. I don't know, I do enjoy it.

And I know people are like, well, you know, you should do what you enjoy. I enjoyed it for a while, but now there's no end to it. And the records coming in, I don't know how many I listen to. Sometimes I don't listen to records for weeks. But anyway, I am not too disappointed. I am a little overwhelmed.

But that's another thing that I think I crave. I crave not just disappointment, I crave know, I want to feel shitty about I crave things that make me hate myself because I think that sadly is That's the basket my being lives in and I got to change that now In changing that does that mean that I just let it all go and start smoking weed Does changing that means I clear the slate and just see who I am, alone in my living room with a lot of empty record shelves and just a place where my stereo system used to be?

Do I feng shui my fucking being on an existential level? What do I do? Well, that's all speculative and that's the way my brain works, but I imagine I'll probably just go in and listen to that Del Shannon record. I'm going to talk to Chad here about the nature of analog, the nature of remastering, what makes sounds great, what records are great, what his operation is. He's a guy like me. He's obsessed, but he's all in.

We're both recovering guys, and some of it is kind of druggy bullshit, just chasing something, chasing that perfect sound, chasing that perfect note, chasing that perfect woman, chasing that perfect high from getting on stage or gambling or whatever, when you got that bug, it's best you apply it to something that isn't dangerous. And I think the only way record collecting gets dangerous is if you get so many and one day there's an earthquake that your seven or eight foot record shelf with 10,000 records that spans the entire length of your wall

falls on you in a chair with your headphones on Crushing you that is the only way out of the deep nerd obsession is to be crushed under the weight of Thousands of records in the middle of listening to something that sounds perfect on your amazing system. Huh? Hey, I'm back at Largo for a comedy and music show on Wednesday, July 23rd. Tickets are at Largo-LA.com playing with a new set of characters, working on some songs, doing a Taylor Swift song, if that is compelling. So now, let's go ahead and do this. So, as I said, I read about Chad

Cassum in the New York Times and he sounded interesting. He built a little empire out there in Kansas where he remasters records, he records live acts, he makes his own art for his covers, well he has an operation there, a printing operation, he's got his own remastering studio. He does, he only remasters from the analog tape originals and he seemed like a pretty possessed dude and I thought well maybe he can speak to my obsession and again I am jealous of any true addictive nerds focus, passion and compulsion to chase this thing down. Whatever that thing is. And he's one of those guys. You can follow him on Instagram. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel Acoustic Sounds KS to get the latest on

their releases. And this is me hashing it out with Chad Kassim. Hey Canada, especially all you fans of thrillers, supernatural mysteries, and immersive storytelling, there's an all-new installment of the hit Oracle series, Oracle III, Murder at the Grand View, available now exclusively on Audible. Once again featuring Joshua Jackson as the narrator, the suspense-filled plot follows Agent Nate Russo as he investigates a deadly mystery in a haunting abandoned island hotel. And if you're new to the Oracle series, now's the perfect time to start. Binge all three parts back to back. If you're a fan of shows that give you chills and keep you guessing, this one's for you. Suspense, intrigue, thrills, all for your ears. Start listening to Oracle 3 now, only on Audible.

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in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. to cart groceries that over deliver. What did your people say about the things we have in common? What did they say? Well, they said, you know, we both know Bill W. Yes, we definitely know Bill W.

And that you were really into the blues. Bill W? Yes, we definitely know Bill W. And that you were really into the blues. Yeah, yeah. I came up kind of a blues-minded dude, but I kind of expanded as time went on. Once I got into, it's interesting, because obviously the vinyl thing is what connects us. But, yeah, I had some records when I was in high school, a few hundred records, and I dug some shit.

And then, I don't know, I guess it's probably been 15 years, 20 years, I started getting back into the vinyl thing and then chasing that sound and getting pretty crazy about tubes and speakers and original pressings and which reissues sucked and which didn't which companies were doing bad shit pulling stuff off digital you know I kind of went down the rabbit hole with it but then what happens is you end up with a few thousand records and you don't even know what you fucking have

anymore dude I mean everything you say and I'm just laughing to myself inside, because everything you said, I mean, of course, that's my life, and so many of our customers, there's so many of us out there. When you said that I had, you know, like a couple hundred records when you were 15. Yeah. You know, I checked your Moran's 2270,

you have a 2275. Upstairs, yeah. I had the 2270 when I grew up. So I mean, I see that. I remember those days. Yeah. Those were days before the computer. I mean, all of us kind of had the same hobbies back then. You know, even if you were the jock at school or the nerd or the pothead or whatever, we

all had 100 records, two speakers. And we would go and you'd listen to the side of an album. Right, and you had the cassette deck in the car. Yeah, Alpine, Pioneer. That's right, Jensen, Jensen Speakers, Tri-Axel Speakers. Yeah, dude, and they were awesome, man. I'll bet you you pull that out right now, it'll blow you away. I'm sure, you know, like I remember it was a a big deal my buddy's dad owned a high-end stereo place

I grew up in Albuquerque. I was gonna yeah, and he you know then they it started getting really that the the car audio started getting Really high-end you know and then there was probably you know like power amps. They can you drill it into the floor? And it was just fucking crazy, dude How old are you you also gonna, we gotta be the same age. I'm 63. 63. 61. Okay, well.

So it's the same shit, man. And the fucking thing it was, like back then, everybody was sort of on the same page with rock music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Y'all getting the same stuff. It's like we just missed it like Led Zeppelin. We were in high school. I got to see him twice.

Really, would you have an older brother or something? No, well I had an older cousin. If you want, I can get into some of that. Yeah, what? Well, when I was 10 years old, he brought me to see Humble Pie was my first concert. With Steve Marriott? Yeah, and turned me on to Green Mesclun when I was 10.

Wow! So that was... So you just opened that young mind. Yeah, and turned me on to Green Mescaline when I was 10. Wow. So that was. So that's a, you just opened that young mind. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I was a little bit, we were around the same age. I was just old enough to see him twice. Wow. Where, where you grew up, where?

Yeah, I'm in from Lafayette, Louisiana, and that's where the Cajun area is. Yeah. And I saw him in Baton Rouge twice, man, it was awesome. So what tour would that have been? 75 and 77, something like that. So like physical graffiti around that time? Yeah, I think-

Into the Outdoor, I think, came out when I was in high school. This is a little bit before that. Oh, Presence. Maybe it might have been like physical and presence. Right, right, right. Holy shit, that must have been awesome. Yeah, it was.

And actually it was, seeing Zeppelin was one of the only few concerts where both of them actually were sober. You know, I mean, just maybe a little couple of joints or something. Yeah, yeah. But you know, I remember getting there. I remember, oh man, getting there was unbelievable. Where I look back, I was 13 years old.

We had bootleg tickets that were made, and they were back when Xerox machines were just coming out. So somebody went, it was sold out, somebody went and they made Xerox copies of the tickets, right? And they were bad. You needed to take a Sharpie to fill it in to make it look, you know.

Yeah, right, right, right. So Baton Rouge from Lafayette is about an hour. Yeah. And so we're like, okay, it was 6.30. The concert started at eight. Okay, it's an hour, right? Yeah. So we're like, we got bootleg tickets.

We're 13 years old. Are we gonna? You don't even know. No, we're gonna hitchhike. Yeah. And so we rolled up two Marlboro packs, cigarettes full of joints, and when we finished that last pack,

we go, are we going? Come on, one, two, three, yeah, let's go. So we had to walk all the way to the main street, hitchhike, we got a ride to Baton Rouge. The guy that picked us up was in a Volkswagen, little Beetle, and he's like, hey, I just saw Randy Newman in Lafayette, and I'm going back to Baton Rouge, the guy that picked us up was in a Volkswagen, a little Beetle, and he's like, hey, I just saw Randy Newman in Lafayette, and I'm going back to Baton Rouge. I said, good.

I said, well, where are we going? We're going to see Zeppelin at the LSU Assembly Center, whatever. He goes, well, I'm in college. I'll drop you off right in front. So he lit up a joint of some ragweed. We're like, put that shit out, man. And we blew him away.

By the time he's like, man, stop. You know, he dropped us off. And then on the way back, we had to, it's dark. How are we going to get home? So luckily, you know how the cars are going slow because all the traffic. We run into a guy I know that, you remember those big, you remember the biggest Lincoln Town cars?

Sure. Yeah, with the big, like, boxy front end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. My friend, there's somebody I knew had one of those and the whole back seat was empty so we got a limo ride back. Yeah, yeah, that's great. We were shitting bricks, you know, like how are we gonna get back?

But the concert was great? Yeah, yeah, it was good. But I remember the gong and then I remember they lit up Led Zeppelin and fire. And then they had the disco balls. Back then, that was the big up Led Zeppelin and fire. Sure. And then they had the disco balls. Back then, that was the big light show. Oh yeah, that was it. They had the disco balls and then the fire Led Zeppelin and the gong.

And you know, I remember it as best I can. Yeah, I remember we went up to Denver from Albuquerque. We drove whatever that is, like almost 10 hours for this Sunday jam to mile high stadium It was like Hart Ted Nugent the cars the Rockets and UFO Oh UFO man, I love me some UFO especially that old shit man. Yeah the 70s I didn't even know about that shit until recently cuz they're reissuing that stuff. Yeah, like the UFO from like 1971 72 Fucking great. It's great man. It's so much better than like 70s that stuff yeah like the UFO from like 1971 72 phenomena fucking crazy it's great man it's so much better than like 70s with UFO later 70s yeah you kind of

do the metal pop you know but the old stuff that's fucking great yeah I went when I went see UFO there was a band that they were opening for it was AC DC dude I saw AC DC open for Journey really huh crazy but I was going to see UFO and I'm like who are these guys me too I was going to see fucking Journey and I talked to him right now like I was in AC DC every week yeah I still listen to fucking AC DC yeah they're all the Bond stuff it was Bond it was seven when I seen him I think I saw him in 77 because they weren't still open and I think that was like their first US tour Okay, and I talked to the bass player of journey

He said that no we open for them and I'm like this that's not fucking possible because journey was fucking huge in 77, dude Well, I don't know it but but I guess I just didn't know who ACDC was. I mean, either. And it was like the best. Yeah, yeah. It was crazy. I remember, yeah. You know, a lot of these concerts, I remember going and getting there and in line more than or leaving.

And we were in Tennessee when we saw them and they were searching people and the guy just had bags of reefers and like you know that he'd be taken and he pulled out out of my cousin my cousin had a Coat on yeah, and he pulled out a half a quail you know and he goes what's that my cousin said? Oh, that's an aspirin he goes. Yeah sure pal. He threw it in the puddle of water. I Remember we snuck in we went to see see Jethro Tull at the Civic Center and my buddy Chris put a half pint of Southern in his sock

and we jumped over a wall and it broke and we had to go to the fucking medic, fucking mess. Oh man, dude. But that was- The shit we, hey, but it was fun though, right? I think it was fun, you know, it was so long ago now, it's so weird when you get to be this age. So what was the journey for fun, you know, it was so long ago now, it's so weird when you get to be this age. So what was the journey for you, you know,

from like having a couple of hundred records in a Marantz 2075 to being this, you know, this very specific and very revered maker of reissue vinyl? Well, that's an interesting, yes. The name of the company is Acoustic Sounds, right? Yeah, Acoustic Sounds, but we have about 10 companies under Acoustic Sounds, and I'll go through it. But yeah, so I mean basically, I'm from Louisiana.

How'd you get out of there? When did the shit hit the wall? Well, when I ended up getting in a lot of trouble and it was all over drugs and alcohol, you know, because if you know anything about southern Louisiana, I mean the bars didn't close when I grew up getting in a lot of trouble. It was all over drugs and alcohol, because if you know anything about southern Louisiana, I mean the bars didn't close when I grew up. There were 24 hours. The culture is just party, party, party, dance, have a good time, pass a good time. And I didn't know when to go home.

Like the bars didn't close. I'm not, you know. And you can drink when you're 12. Right, yeah, exactly. No, seriously, we could go to the store, these little mom and pop stores, you can just say, oh, that's for my daddy or whatever, and they didn't care.

In fact, I was just down there with my daughter and they still have drive-through daiquiris. Sure, just walk around with the daiquiris. So I got in trouble and the judge said either four years in jail or four years in supervised probation if you go to drug treatment. So they found this place in Salina, Kansas. This was my second halfway house.

This was about my fourth treatment. How old were you? I was about 21. Oh yeah. About 22. So I did it all between 10 and 21. Yeah. So I drank a lifetime worth, parted a lifetime worth in those years.

So I, I, they sent me there. I get there and, uh, I look around and three fourths of the people in the halfway house were from Louisiana. Yeah. I'd went to halfway house in Iowa before that three halfway house were from Louisiana. Yeah. I'd went to halfway house in Iowa before that, three-fourths were from Louisiana. And so the one in Kansas, I even saw people I knew.

And Louisiana is manufacturing the young drunks of the time. Yeah, yeah, they're good export business. So I got there, and I realized that I had to, I knew that if I didn't, I knew I had to stay sober. Basically, if I didn't stay sober, they were going to put me in jail for four years. So like you stay sober, you attend the meetings and you do everything and you won't have to go to jail, but if you don't, we'll put you in jail for four years. So I realized I really needed to stay sober and at least till I got out of the halfway house.

But then after I got out of the halfway house, I still had four years supervised probation. So then I realized this is, if I get high, I'm gonna end up being in trouble. I just can't control myself. I wasn't good at doing a little bit here and there. Clearly. Right.

It's hard to do. As you know. Yeah, I do. So anyway, I went to my parole officer and he said, listen, we have something in Kansas that's a little bit different than other states. If you do your two years well, we'll write a letter to the state of Louisiana, which doesn't have this law. You'll have to do the four in Louisiana no matter what, but we'll ask for forgiveness for the last two years.

I said, well shoot, that's nine months away. Might as well stay in Kansas. I need to stay sober. I can, so I stayed and I did well. And so we wrote the, the law, uh, the parole officer wrote somebody in Louisiana that letter. And then he got a letter back from Louisiana one day. He calls me, says, Chad, come in the office. He goes, uh, I read the response and he goes, I know how to read and I know what it says, but I can't believe this. I've been doing this for 40 years.

I've never had a response like this. Need to get down here right away. We'll call your lawyer." So I'm like, okay, okay. So I go over there, I read it. I said, well, it looks like, you know, it's a full pardon, you know? He goes, yeah, yeah, I know, but I've never,

let's call your lawyer. So we call my lawyer, you know, and he's- To see if the good news is real? Right, right, I guess, cause he didn't believe it, you know? So the lawyer, he's like, he just goes to laughing, you know what I mean? Like, you like that, boy?

I'm like, yeah. So I never asked any questions. You know, my father didn't have like mafia connections or anything, but I know a lot of people like my father. That might've helped, yeah. So he got off. Yeah, and so, but then at that point I'd been sober. The longer you stay sober, the clearer your mind gets.

And you realize that if you start getting high again, you're just gonna end up in the same situation. That is, like, it's when people don't get it. I mean, cause that is it. That's really just first step shit. And like, I had the woman who got me sober, you know, who got me in, she said that the first step is the only one you have to work perfectly.

And that's, and it's something you can't, you can only get to that point where you're like, I can't do any of it because there's, you know, I don't think, I don't ever think about having one drink. I don't ever thinking about just getting a buzz for the day. When you're thinking about it, it's like, well, that's gonna be my life. Right, right.

This is what any person that wants to know if they're an alcoholic or drug addict needs to know. If it's your priority, if it's like the main thing you think about, the first thing and the main thing, then dude, that tells you right there. Yeah, but just that knowledge, if I do any of it, one thing that it's just like it's all bets are off.

You know, it's just like you can't do it safely. Exactly. I mean, and that's the revelation. Thank fucking God you get that. Like you know that because that's going to keep you sober in the worst of times. Right. I mean, you know, listen, man, thank God to me, music is like a natural drug. Oh, totally.

Yeah. And you can get it at will. You can play it. Somebody said, well, that record's $100. I says, yeah, it's an original, dude, or it's a great reissue. You can play it over and over again, get a natural high over and over again at will when you want and still sell it if you ever have to.

Yeah, yeah, and get more. Get more, yeah, yeah. What, a gram of cocaine will last you what, a night? Yeah, yeah, and not even a good night. Come three or four in the morning, you're gonna need another gram. Right, or even if you wanted to try to sleep. It's the worst, too. Of all the drugs, cocaine, I don't know, it's miserable.

It really did you really? Other than the beginning, right? I know the beginning is it too. But that's a good point about music, because what I usually say about music outside of the other arts, you know, like I'm a comic and I play some music, but music's magic, man. Because, you know, and you know this, because you guys just reissued Steely Dan Asia, and is that you grow with the music, the magic never goes away.

Sometimes you get tired of it, or you know it too well, or it just drops into a groove in your brain that either you like it or you don't, but if it's great music, it'll grow with you, and you can always go back to it. Oh, for sure, for sure. So when did you shift your obsession from drugs to music? Well, that's pretty much exactly what happened.

And the person, the cousin that brought me to the concert definitely shouldn't have been giving me mescaline that tin. And I could be upset with him, but he's also the person that turned me on to music. So basically, I just switched addictions, you know? And I got there, I was cooking as a hobby. I'm not, excuse me, I'm not cooking as a, I was cooking to survive, barely making a living.

In Salinas? In Salinas, they call it Salina. Salina, I'm sorry, I'm thinking Salinas, California. Salina, yeah. No, no, no, I mean, everybody says Salina. Yeah. And so, and everybody asks me why Celina. No, no, why Selena.

But anyway, so I got there, I was cooking. I was taking the extra money I was saving and I was just trying to rebuild my collection. That's all. Oh, so you lost it. No, no, what happened is my dad said, Chad, I'm bringing your car from Louisiana. What do you want me to bring?

Is there anything you want me to bring to Kansas? I said, well, dad, bring my stereo stereo which was a Moran's 22 7. Yeah, bring my turntable bring my album Yeah, well when he got there, you know, I had the like the the hundred records that everybody had right? But you know, of course there were you know, I went through my party days So I wanted to replace them. So I just started by replace. They're all fucked up. Yeah, they all scratch You know how he's flipping that record over with food on your hands. Or using the thing as a tray. Yeah, to clean the pot.

Right, so I just started by trying to rebuild my collection and add to it. And then I went home to Louisiana and I went to see one of my old friends and he said, hey, look at my stereo, you know, and I'm like, wow, that's cool, that looks like nice. He said, yes, sit down and listen. And then he pulled out these, you know,

audiophile pressings. The mobile fidelity? Right, the original, the original mobile fidelity. Sure, sure. So, the early ones. So I'm like, Beatles and stuff. So I'm like, wow, those are cool. He said, I said, I bought some of those

and I couldn't ever hear the difference Yeah, he says alright chat sit down Right here, and I go okay, and I moved a little bit goes no I need you to sit in the center right in the center I said okay, and then I kept talking because you know I talk and He gets Chad if you don't be quiet. You're never gonna hear it He's all I'm asking you is to give me one song, keep your mouth shut, listen to one song and we'll talk after.

And he kinda guided me, he said, Chad, the difference is gonna be subtle. Subtle in our business is huge. I was expecting the band to jump out of the speakers and start playing for you, that's why. That can happen. Well, you know, yeah. But you you. That's why... That can happen. Well, you know, yeah.

That's why I wasn't really hearing the difference. I was expecting my expectations were too high. What song? You know what, man? I get asked that and I can't really remember, but it was an early Mo-Fi. It probably was Beatles. Maybe Little Feet? Oh, man.

I love me some Little Feet They took me they put out that first Little Feet record. Yeah, Moffi did in the yeah Yeah, they well they did the the live one the waiting for Columbus wait, which is the greatest grades Yeah, so a greatest live too, but he played something. Yeah, it blew me away Did he play the original to do you play both? No, no, he didn't a B Yeah, but he just explained to me what to listen for and I got it It blew me away. Did he play the original too? Did he play both versions? No, no, he didn't A, B. But he just explained to me what to listen for, and I got it, okay, I got it.

Like the light bulb just went off. It was like shining bright, you know? So when I got back to Kansas, I went to the store, and he also explained that most of them were very valuable, very hard to find, and so I get back to Kansas, they had a shitload. Of mobile fidelity? Yeah, you know how much a shitload is? Like 50, 60?

A small amount more than a buttload. Yeah. You know, about, a shitload of those would be about 100. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I called him and he's like, oh my God, you know, that one's going for 100, that one's going for 200.

They had all the UHQRs, the original UHQRs. You know what I mean? When did they go bad? When did they go bad? Yeah, when did Mobile Fidelity get? Oh, oh. So, later on, they went out of business and another company bought them.

And that's when they started using digital source? Yeah. Or digital process. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the way people ask me this a lot, and what I say is we just do things differently. You know, they- No, I just was wondering, because I got a bunch of those old ones.

They're probably about 15, 20 of the old ones. And then, you know, when I started talking about them a bit, I was getting some of the new ones. And that was before the controversy in the small world of people that give a shit But but I was just curious, you know when that happened, but we don't need to get into that So you get a hundred of these things? Yeah, I get a hundred of them and and and Well, I'm buying them. Of course. I'm still really like making barely over minimum and you're still dealing with the 2270

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so like it's still it's limited, but you know, it's not high-end. Right, right. It's fun stuff to have, you know, it's fun stuff to have and it's like a second home system or another bedroom system. But so I do the best I can. I buy as much as I can, you know, and so I just started buy, sell, and trade, and you. And buy, sell, trade. All our records. Yeah, yeah. Any records. Right, right. Basically, I mean, it's not that much different

than when you buy a pound of reefer. You know what I mean? No, I do it all the time, dude, because people send me shit. And sometimes I'm like, well, this isn't for me, but it's good shit. And I'll go down to my guy at the record store and I'll trade him for some OG shit.

And then you kind of build it out. It's all barter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically I just buy, sell, trade, buy, sell, trade. And the next thing you know, I have a little apartment and the whole thing is full of records. I mean, when I say even the bathroom, okay, even the bathroom. So in fact, one of my first employees, you're making me think about it,

I told her I was coming on your show and she's like, oh my God, she said, he's my favorite, I listen to him, and this girl's so cool, she goes to all concerts everywhere. And she did well in life as well. But she, anyway, she was my first employee. We were typing on a typewriter, okay? So like this, we're talking 1986.

Okay, so you go from buying and selling and listening to records. You never opened a record store. No. And did you ever get into seven inches or no? No. No, just vinyl LPs. LPs.

And you got a house full of records, and you're into it. And so what is the decision to take it to another level? Why did you decide to do that? Well, everything was the next natural step. It's just the next, to me it was the next natural step. Do what's in front of you. Right, and the next natural step was to reissue an album. These albums.

Through, you were gonna reissue on a label that you created, which I guess was Acoustic Sounds. Acoustic Sounds, our label is Analog Productions. Okay, Analog Productions, but that first record, you gotta go to another record press. We went to Vanguard Records. Now how that first record you got to go to another record press You got to go to got to go to we went to Vanguard records Yeah, now how that happens is I went record it was Virgil Thompson plow that broke the plains. Huh? It's a classical record Okay, so and of course, you know, I'm from the Swamps of Louisiana

I didn't grow up on why that record because it was highly recommended on the absolute sounds recommended list Yeah, and it recommended list. Yeah. And it sounded incredible. Yeah. But the reason how that happened is I went to buy a big record collection in New York. And it didn't work out. But I had a pile of cash on me, you know? So I go to the guy and the record collection didn't work out.

But I have a couple of days in New York. So I went to Vanguard Records, the famous Vanguard label, and I went to see Seymour Salomon and I said, hey, I'd like to license this record, and I had that cash on, I put the cash on the table, and he backed away like I'd put a gun on the table. It was so funny, you know? And he's like, okay, then he brought me in the other room

and he introduced me to David Baker, who ended up being a friend and great jazz engineer. And that was my first record. And what do you do? You do your second record, your third record. So, okay, so you go from, so you were a collector, you were deep in. So you're buying collections of records.

Yeah, collections, yeah. And then you go through them and you take the ones that were mint or the ones you knew were valuable and then you move the rest and trade them out. Well, you first keep the ones you want. That's right. So you're a full record nerd doing the collector thing. And so when you go to Vanguard and you license that record,

at that point you don't have equipment to press, right? No, no, no. So what do you do? So when you license it, you get the master tapes? Mm-hmm, yeah. And so that part of that license at that time was you get access to them? Right.

We make it clear, every time I license, I tell the company, I says, listen man, unless you're gonna give me the master tape, we don't have a deal. So if you're not gonna give me the master tape, we don't have a deal. So if you're not gonna give me the master tape, don't worry about the paperwork because we don't wanna waste your time. But how does that work?

Because I don't understand that. So are they on a loan, the master tape? Well, they'll send it to you. You tell them where you want it sent. So they make a copy? No, well, they make, no, I want the master. If they want a copy to make for them to keep for safekeeping And then do you keep the master you send it back?

You got to send the master back. Okay, so it's a it's a loan Yeah, oh, I think okay. You just say hey man. I want to do this doors album and then they say okay, and I say okay I want the master. This is where I want it sent Yeah, and you know you might ask them to send it to a place that they don't normally send it to. They go, no, maybe not there. We send to these mastering engineers. But if they won't give me the master tape, I won't do the deal.

Right. So that first thing, so the first thing, like I'm not totally clear on how it all works, because I'm kind of fascinated with it, and I know enough. So you do this album, and then you release that, and you see that there's a demand for it with record collectors. And how is it different than the original pressing?

Well, first of all, we went and got the original three track, which is like, is the master, but nobody cuts directly from three track because it's a little bit difficult. But my mastering engineer said, hey, I can do this directly from three tracks. So you bypassed one step because actually a two track is still a master, but he cut it from original three track. We pressed it on the best Virgin vinyl, clearest, quietest, flattest, and the best plating. Who pressed it for you?

RTI out here in Camarillo, California. Don McKinnis at RTI. And this was in 1990, 1991, first album. So we started in 86 basically. I mean I started collecting in 1984, that's the year CDs came out, so it's kind of significant that I've been going against the grain since day one.

But between that time and 90, we reissued our first album. And what was the reaction? I mean we sold it, we sold enough to make me want to do another one, and then we did another one. What was the reaction? I mean, we sold it. We sold enough to make me wanna do another one, and then we did another one, and you know. What was the second one? The next one was a classical,

Godshark Latin American symphonet, which is classical, and then another one called Songs of the Auvergne. Do you like classical? Not, not, I mean, I do, yeah, I do, but it's not my main thing. It's just, it's what I got started with. Why, Why that?

Because, you know, good question. I was reading the magazine The Absolute Sound. And The Absolute Sound, you know, was, if you were a real audiophile, like it was your Bible. Stereophile and The Absolute Sound was your Bible. And there was a guy there that would make his recommended record list. And he would pick his best sounding pop, best sounding classical, best sounding jazz. And if he picked a record, you could be assured it was gonna really be natural sounding, and

all of the people that read the magazine wanted these records. So that's how I got into classical. Of course, like I said, man, I'm a Cajun man. I didn't grow up. There's not a Claude Boudreau and the Opelousa Symphony, you know what I'm saying? In Louisiana, you know, we listen to Cajun, Zydeco, Blues. Oh man, now you talking. Yeah, now you talking. That's the best. You ever reissue any Clifton? No, but I recorded a couple of his guitar players. I mean recorded yeah, and I would love to do Clifton But I you know my customers they're really wanting jazz and classic. There was a Clifton box that was pretty good I think it only came out on CD, but it was great man. Yeah

Some of that stuff is and then there was buckwheat zydeco And that was pretty good, and then you got the Meters. Oh, the Meters. Yeah, dude. I grew up in all that. We thought a lot of the- Alan Toussaint. Oh, now you're talking, man.

Now, a lot of these bands were our bar bands. We just thought they were cover bands. We would go drinking and Clifton would be playing, or Buckwheat would be playing. Professor Longhair. Yeah, that was more like Alan Tosan and professor, that would be in New Orleans more. But we had our Swamp Pop and our blues

and our Cajun and our Zydeco and we just grew up, we thought that was everywhere. We didn't know that we grew up in one of the most unique places in the world and we took it for granted. I had to leave Louisiana to really learn about the culture and the music and how significant and how unique it is. And now I know more about all of it, Swamp Pop.

I mean, you know, Slim Harpo. Slim's the best. Yeah, yeah, and Lightning Slim. Lester was one of my personal friends. We recorded Lester many times. So now I know a good amount about it all, and I love it, and I would love to do Clifton. I don't know if you know this,

but it was his 100th birthday this year. Oh really? Yeah, and they just just on the Jazz Fest did a Sonny Landry, yeah, yeah, yeah David Hidalgo. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Marsha ball and CJ his son played and And they're coming out with an album and the Stones did a song one of the songs the Stones did a Clifton song Yeah, no shit. Yeah Yeah, so it's very exciting for me. Well, that's interesting. So, you know, you have done some recording like what was that? Now I'm spacing the name

Who's that dude in? Something mark records more keys knocks No, no the dude in Chicago that had the record store that recorded Buddy Guy and Junior Wells and he did those Who do man blue? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we reissued that for Delmarc Delmarc Yeah, yeah, cuz that guy was you know, he you know, he was a dude that wasn't necessarily a recording engineer But he was recording those guys Bob Kessler. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's actually originally from Kansas. Oh, yeah Yeah, it was amazing. You were you reissued who to man blue Yeah, yeah, that thing sounds pretty clean on the fucking oh on the original wait to I'm gonna send you

I'm gonna send you ours and I'm gonna send you something else. I'm gonna send you ours and a diaper Yeah, I mean like well, let's go. So you do the classical ones and, you know, you're basically following the lead of the magazine, so you know what people, what's in demand. Mm-hmm, yeah. But you're still pressing out here with your buddy out here, right? Right, yeah.

So when did you decide to, you know, take it into your own hands and get the equipment? Well, like I remember I was saying saying everything was the next natural step. So me and the guy at RTI Don we joined we partnered on a mastering facility. Yeah, so now we can cut our own records Yeah, so I'm like Don listen, we ought to buy Lave and start cutting our own records. Yeah, can we put it in RTI, you're pressing plant, he goes, sure. So we bought it from the guy that owns Wilson,

the speakers, Dave Wilson. He sold. In Utah, right? Yeah, we went to Utah and bought the lathe from him, moved it to Camerio. Why'd he have a lathe? He had, he reissued some albums and he recorded a lot of albums.

Before he just went with speakers? No, he was doing it at the same time. Okay. Yeah. And so, we bought it from Dave Wilson, who makes the greatest speakers, and we brought it to Camerio, and we cut for 14 years inside of RTI,

because it's nice to be able to- You just were in the building with your own equipment. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm still living in Kansas, but I'm half owner of the mastering facility inside of RTI. Okay. So that way you can master the record and plate it at the same place. So you can plate it right away, which is really important.

Oh, you didn't have that stuff. Right. They did. And so... Why is that so important? Because every... Like, when you cut a lacquer... So let's make sure that we... step by step.

So you get the master tapes. Yes. And then you re-engineer it. Which is... are you remixing it? No, no. Remixing would be if you have a multi-channel tape. You know, a bunch of tracks. So so that's already done the mix is done Yeah, you know what to track master. Okay, so what's the challenge for you?

Okay Now sometimes you get a to check just to start from the beginning and just to kind of help you explain what you're asking Sometimes you get a master to track analog master and it doesn't need any mastering. I get the recording is just so good Okay, don't touch it. You know what I mean? Like, you got- How do you know that? Well, your ears, it tells you.

You play it, it sounds really nice, really natural. And also it does take a good mastering engineer to know when not to touch it. What do you do when you master? Okay, so let's say you get a recording most of the time, it's a little bright, or it's a little dull. Yeah, so they might add a little treble, boost the high end, or if it's got too much high end,

they may roll off a little bit of the top. And you can do that. Right, and you can do that. And the mastering engineer is the last chance that anybody has to make it sound presentable to the finished listener, right? Because the recording engineer just recorded and he hands it off. Now the mastering engineer, he's a professional and he is an artist.

He's the last chance that you can make it sound as good as you can or as pleasing to the crowd. And now the only thing with me is I'm one more step. I'm like the mastering engineer because when in a way I hire the best but once they do it I have them send it to me and then I press it and I compare it to the original and then I call them hey man you did a great job or hey. Okay so you've got the original LP and then you take the plate or you take a you do a test press. Okay so well I skipped home.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so so what the guy the mastering engine does he puts the tape on the on the reel-to-reel player. Yeah, and then he cuts There's a cutter head that cuts into a lacquer. Yeah, you know it's like the instead of a cartridge removing the sound from the instead of a cartridge removing the sound from it it's cutting the sound into it right and that's a piece of metal it's a piece of metal with lacquer that's been slathered on that becomes your mold yeah for the vinyl yes okay so then you take that and then you played it like with silver and different and nickel you know you make you know so the lacquer is grooves you can play the lacquer

And then they spray like a silver Like they they they spray it like that and then then they pull those parts apart Yeah, and then now it's sticking out. It's a well. They'll call that a master or a father Yeah, because it's sticking out. You know mother father right right as opposed to in yeah, because it's sticking out you know mother father right as opposed to in yeah okay, and so then you you do a you played it again and Electro for electro plating and then you pull that apart again, and now you can play it that's called a mother Okay, so that's a it's a it's on metal. Yeah, so it you know it looks like a record it right like a right But on metal it's metal so but it looks like a record it right like a right but on metal. It's metal

So then now you pull us a stamper From that and you pull that apart now. It's sticking out again. So that that's what you can press with Yeah, then that presses into the vine. You can play the mother you can play the master's good. Yeah So that's when you do a comparison. No, no, no, I I wanted listen to the finish So you got to press a wreck, right? No, not hardly anybody does a test pressing. Yeah, hardly anybody does I mean they got to get the test pressing to make sure there's no flaws in yeah Yeah, but I use the test pressing as well to make sure that the mastering it beats the shit out of the original Yeah, you know, I want to cream the original. You know, I wanna cream the original, okay?

Now, you know, sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's very hard, and sometimes it's in the middle, right? Like, it's easy to beat a bad job. It's not hard to beat a pretty good job. Sometimes it's hard to beat a really good job, because sometimes we're competing with the same guy. It's Bernie Grundman competing with himself. Like for instance, the Asia record we did.

Bernie did the original. Oh yeah. And then I had him do the reissue. And what did he say when he heard the master, like with his ears now? And without having Fagan and Becker in his head. Yeah, yeah. He's such a good guy, man.

He listened to the original and he said, hey man, I think I can do some things better. Our equipment's a little different, a little bit better now. And he did. And you know, we got it better. I mean, we did. And the original's still good.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that the original... And Mo-Fi did that too, I think. They did a version, didn't they tell you that the original. And MoFi did that too, I think, they did a version, didn't they? Yeah, the original MoFi. But that one, they didn't do a particular good job on. I'll be honest with you, with the MoFi records, the ones I have, the original ones,

they sound a little compressed to me. The older ones are the, well, you know, they do something, the original MoFi, I'm not talking about the current MoFi, and I don't really wanna talk, I mean mean listen, the Mobile Fidelity is a company that I looked up to that really got me started in all this,

so I owe a great deal of gratitude to the original label. But now that I know more and I listen more and I compare more, they're not as good as I thought they were. I don't think so. I mean I'm talking about the old ones as good as I thought they were. I don't think so. Yeah. I mean, I'm talking about the old ones. No, I know.

Just so I don't. Yeah, yeah. And so what they do is there's what's called a smiley face EQ. And it's a way to kind of trick people into thinking it sounds better. They boost the highs and the lows, and they kind of suck out the midrange,

and it makes like a curve, like a smiley face curve. And it's a way of making something seem better to people. But it's missing the mids. I guess that's it, yeah. And didn't they do a half speed recording? What does that mean? Yeah, half speed means like the, it's cutting at half speed, like they can't even listen

to the music because it's playing at half speed. Why do they do that? What's the benefit of that? Well, because I think they think the longer the stylist maybe is cutting the lacquer, it's transferring more information. I think that's what they, but it's really not just the half speed that's good or bad, it's more of the... The smiley face.

Right, or what the mastering engineer chooses to do. Interesting, because like I've done side by sides, and you know with the original MOFIs and with the record, and I find that at worst the record, not the original pressing, sometimes a little high-endy, but it still fills out better. You like the originals? Well, I mean, I can see how they take off the high-end.

I mean, that seems to be a bigger problem is that you get, it's a little shrill sometimes on the good equipment. Well, what you gotta always remember is every case is different. Sure, and your original record might be worn out even if it looks like it's not. Right, so every case is different.

But sometimes you'll start to develop a pattern or something you think. If you play 10 originals in a row, and every time you compare it, you like the original, well, you're gonna like the originals. know that's it I always say that it's like no matter how much equipment you get it's all relative to your old ears mm-hmm that you know like you can keep chasing whatever you want but your ears are just your ears dude and they're not getting any better well they're not

that's certainly for sure but But you know, you, I do a lot of A-B-N. You know, I mean, that's my job. Basically, like, if you said, well, what do you do the most of now? And it's like, I make sure our records sound better than the original. Now, sometimes I really think, just because I think they sound better than the original,

sometimes people like the original, but sometimes too, they have an emotional attachment or they paid a than the original. Sometimes people like the original, but sometimes too, they have an emotional attachment or they paid a lot for it. You know what I mean? Sure. Yeah. There's a lot of things. Changes the way you hear it. Yeah, exactly. Your mind plays with you. You know what I mean? And sometimes that original, like, you know, I talked to Fogarty once about how he mixes,

how he was producing. And a lot of times these older records were really made for people to listen to in their cars. They weren't really thinking about, you know, how to do the master or whatever. They're like, I asked John, you know, how does he produce? He says, well, when the singer's singing, you put that up front. And when the guitar player's playing, you put that up front.

It's all about that AM speaker in the middle of a dashboard but those records those fantasy records hold up dude oh my god I love the credence I mean but they're so clean man oh they awesome man they awesome how's that like I didn't know if it was the vinyl or what but you could play some of those old credence that shit's like a jazz record and how he separated shit oh dude like the first album when he plays Susie Q yeah it's like the guitar amp is your speaker is the guitar amp. Yeah, it's crazy, man. Oh yeah, no, I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

We just reissued like 24 of their songs cut at 45 RPM box set. Yeah. We just did that, yeah. Was that for the DVD reissue? No, no. So you just did it. Well, we released this in, I think, 2002.

And we had it available for years, but we ran out of it. We asked the label, hey, can you let us press it one more time? And they were like, sure. Well, yeah, now John gets most of the money, I think. Good for him. Yeah, yeah. So when you, in your experience, because you've done a lot of records, so if people want to look at the records, they go to Acoustic Sounds? Yeah, acoustics you you know in your experience because you've done a lot of records So if people want to look at the records they go to acoustic sounds Yeah

Acoustic sounds calm and that's but that's an umbrella company of umbrella because we have our own pressing company called quality record pressing Yeah, so our reissue labels analog productions. Okay, so the The main companies acoustic sounds that the reissue labels analog productions Are pressing plants quality record pressings. We have our own printing facility. We can do everything from the microphone to the mastering. You have a studio as well? Yeah, yeah. I bought a church in 1997. It's Old Vintage Church. Who have you recorded in there?

I've recorded Gate Mouth Brown, Tony Joe White. We've recorded, we had 21 blues concerts. We had it 21 years in a row where we have blues concerts, where we'd have CJ Chenier, we'd have Gate Mouth. All in the church. Yeah. And you record them. Tab and wah, all the... Mostly live recordings.

Oh yeah. And we're just going to start relisting them now. The first one we're going to do is Tony Joe White, who's absolutely one of my favorites. That's great. And so when you started doing this stuff, like you can, it's all, you've got control of all of it now. You can do whatever you want. But do you do any, are you sought after for the sound?

Like do you do any new guys? I will record, I mean, I'm into the blues, so you do any new guys? I will record I mean I'm into the blues so I'll record like the latest guy we record his name is Marquis Knox Yeah, and he's a young kid from st. Louis. He makes up the song on the spot. Okay, when we start recording He'll just come up with a whole Song that makes sense like you know what I'm saying like and he's great. He's, I introduced him to Billy Gibbons. Billy. And he took him on tour with him.

Oh yeah. Right. Yeah. So yeah. Have you seen Jack White's operation? Yeah, I have, I have. You know, we reissued the Elephant album. They called us.

Jack White's. Oh really? People call me, they go, man. Did you remaster it? Yep. What do you think of it? I thought it came out good, you know, and I think they did too What what we did is we got the original master tape. We had Ryan Smith at sterling master It we played it we pressed it we put it in, you know, we did pressed it as a UHQ or yeah

It's done well with the UHQ are well, it's called stands for ultra high quality record Yeah, it's what we consider the highest quality record no expense spared. We there's no Spare no expense and make yeah everything I could ever think of of making the absolute best record ever made Goes into this thing and we're we're also doing we got the rights We're doing the morally catalog and we're doing UHQRs on the Marley. Oh really? Yeah, it's his 80th birthday. The release date for the first two was like yesterday.

Oh wow. Yeah, and so we're doing those on UHQR. Have you seen Kate Simon's book, The Photographer? I'll show it to you in the house. Okay, yeah. She just put out a whole book of Marley photographs and of that time and all those musicians, beautiful. Oh yeah, yeah man.

Yeah, maybe you can like hook that up on the site. But with Jack, he's got a full pressing operation too, doesn't he? Yeah, when he first opened his pressing plant, I think it was in 2017, he invited all the other pressing plants to go and have a party, which was cool. So all the pressing plant, it was almost like a convention for the us pressing people. Yeah. So we went up there and he has a nice pressing plan and now we yeah we know them and he does

he loves blues and we work with Ben. His guy? Yeah his guy. Yeah I know that guy. Yeah he's cool. And then what was that old like I took a tour of a record pressing plan, I think in Nashville. What's that old one, that's UPEI? URP. URP. United Record Pressing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was kinda cool. Yeah, yeah, they, one of the oldest and one of the best. Yeah, I got this, that's a chunk of vinyl before it got pressed. Oh, yeah, yeah. A super chunk. Oh, yeah, yeah. What title is this? It's, I think it's a chunk of vinyl before it got pressed. It's a super chunk. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. What title is this?

I think it's a super chunk record. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. I always liked that thing. Yeah, yeah, the... The glob. Yeah, we call it a puck. Yeah, the puck before it goes. I watched them do that stuff.

Now, the colored vinyl, where do you stand on that? I really feel that the color is, color's got a bad rap. Basically, in the old days, it was bad. Black was always, but you know, black is a color. Yeah, right. But I mean, it comes clear, a milky, natural state of the vinyl,

and that's why we use that in our UHQR. Our UHQR's- Clear? Yeah, it's a clear, milkyky white because that's the natural state. Black is actually carbon that's put in it. So why put an additive in it? That's what we feel. But colors is, they're better. I don't talk shit on it anymore because it deserves, it's better, they've gotten better and everybody's using it. We get our vinyl from Thailand and we have a guy, he's out here, he does a great job and really cares about the quality.

Yeah, there's a guy, I can't remember his name, I'll show you when we go back in the house, it does very specific pressings and I feel like he's down south where, you know, he's pulling from blues artists down there, but I can't remember the label, but he creates boxes. But it's like once a year kind of thing. I don't remember his name.

I'll have to show it to you. But in your experience, have there been records that you, you know, outside of knowing what records are in demand that you wanted to save? Oh yeah, yeah. Like I gotta redo you wanted to save. Oh yeah, yeah. Like I gotta redo that record, man. Oh yeah, there's a lot of times I'll do records that I know I'm not gonna make money on,

but they're important to me. Like I'm gonna be doing, I'm trying to get the rights to do a Bobby Charles. And you know about Bobby Charles? Bobby Charles wrote See You Later Alligator. Oh yeah, sure, yeah. And he wrote Walking to New, Alligator, and he wrote Walkin' to New Orleans and a song called But I Do.

He's kind of like our Tony Joe White or our JJ Kale down in the swamp. Like he, you know, he performed on the last waltz actually, like, I mean, like not, not, you know. They didn't record him? Yeah, he was, he was great. So it's a great album. It's the band that backs him on this album.

It's the band. Back in the day? Yeah, back in the day. Like when they were back in John Hammond and stuff? Well, when they were in Woodstock. When they were in Woodstock, yeah. So I love this album. I'm gonna do it, man.

If I lose, I lose. Bobby Charles? Yeah, Bobby Charles. I think you'd love it I mean you listen to you know Davis Jesse a David Jeffie Jesse a David. Yeah. Yeah, I mean you it's it's the real stuff man. It's it's like laid-back Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I'll do records that I think that Deserve to be done and deserve to get the best treatment. What about some major popular records

where you're like, I could do that better? Oh, I think we can do most any record better. What was the story with the Doors record? What'd you do, the first Doors record? We did a box that we did them all. We did them all. And you were able to get the Masters? Yeah, yeah.

Oh, that was kind of a funny story. We love Jeff Jampol. He's the manager of the doors and he loves, a lot of these guys are our customers. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Sure. Like a lot of these guys,

what helps us get the rights to this is they know our work. And in fact, the White Stripes called us. Yeah. They go, we would like, cause you know, our UHQRs are the top records. We only want like the most, the top 25 Classic Rock or whatever. And so they wanted their records sitting next to mine, sitting next to the other one.

So yeah, so here's a funny story. So I called Jeff and I said, hey, Jeff, we want to do The Doors. He goes, yeah, okay. He says, you know, we love what you do. And I said, well, just Jeff, you know, remember we only use the original masters, you know, and he's like, yeah, okay, we'll make it happen. So we make a deal and it gets to the end

and they're like, well, they don't want to send the master. And I'm like, well, you know, you remember our conversation. He goes, yeah, I sure do. He says, you know, I'm on your, you know, he goes, I sure do. I said, well, he said, but it's gonna be trouble. And I said, well, then just forget it. And he's like, really?

You're gonna walk away? I says, yeah. And he goes, huh. And then I said, Jeff, you know, remember, and he's the one reminded me, I forgot I said this but I like the line, he goes, Jeff, remember the name of my label is Analog Productions. You know what I mean? So we need the analog. So we got the deal done and now we've great friends and we license other.

What they couldn't find the Masters or they what was the problem? Well, you know people would rather not send the masses for obvious reasons, you know, I don't want to get lost Yeah, don't get lost. They don't want to get destroyed. I I I understand I mean I But you know, we work real closely with these people and we have a lot of respect for them They're they're doing a good job for their artists. Yeah. But I'm thinking that if I release some great sounding doors,

it's gonna be good for everybody. Yeah, yeah. And so that's a funny story on how, and it happens often, you know, and... People are cagey or they're reluctant to send the master. Right, they're reluctant to send the master. And when you get a master, I mean, how many of them are deteriorating? I mean, it seems like some send the master. And when you get a master,

I mean, how many of them are deteriorating? I mean, it seems like some of them, doesn't that deteriorate those tapes? Some of them do, some of them have been played to death. Some of them, like the 70s tapes, like the late 70s have what they call sticky shit. Yeah. And they stick together.

And you have to bake them. The tapes from the early 50s are unbelievably good. And the tapes, they changed the formula. I think I've heard this story, it might not be, I mean if it's wrong, I'm just passing on information I heard, but like they banned whale oil and now they use whale oil in the process. In the 50s?

Yeah, well no, probably the 70s because the tape of the 50s and 60s is perfect. Now again, you could probably pull one up that somebody didn't treat right, or didn't store right, or plate it to death, but for the most part, so a lot of the tapes in the 70s, late 70s, has that sticky shit, so you have to bake it, and it's it's not

they're not in good shape. Oh and what do you do with that then? Well it's it's like sticky you can't play it it'll ruin it'll even make it worse if you play it. But how do you use it? So you bake it. Okay. And when you bake it it goes back to the way it was and then you have like a couple of weeks to use it. Yeah. And then maybe a month later if you wanted to use it again you have to bake it. Yeah. And then maybe a month later, if you wanted to use it again, you have to bake it. No shit. But the sound is usually okay? Yeah, yeah, it's usually okay.

I mean, it's, I mean, but you know, like I said, everything usually is the right, correct word. Yeah. It's not always. Sure. And like, in terms of like what, because I've I've you know, I in my limited record collecting Have grown to understand that some companies, you know do reissues that really aren't that good and And the reason generally that I've been told is that the either they don't take from the Masters

they'll either take from a digital source, maybe even a CD, or another record. And then you lose, you know, you're kind of, you lose two or three steps there. Of course, so you start right there. You've already, you've already lost a step right there. Yeah. To me, you wanna do everything, like there might be 20 steps you can take.

Like I call it my recipe. I'll give anybody my recipe, but nobody ever follows it. It's only like, not even 20, maybe five, 10 things, but they'll always forget one or two or cheap out. Or they won't do a test press. Yeah, or they won't compare it like that. They'll do a test pressing normally, but even that's. So what happens is, this is what I say,

every step might be a small improvement, right? Every step is a small, but you add 20 small improvements that makes a good one, good improvement, right? So they might be small each step But so they started with a copy. Yeah, and they started with digital. Yeah, right of course cheaper. It's easier. It's faster Okay, they don't really understand what me and I understand they don't really care They don't understand you could play them the two albums and they might not hear the difference themselves But also they just might be in it for the cash grab.

Well, hell, yeah. You know, I mean, all of a sudden people are buying records and it's hard to find like Iggy Pop, the Idiot, you know, the original or not the Idiot or Lust for Life or whatever, because I remember that was a record that I owned. I didn't have the original and I bought a reissue and then when I got the original, I did an A-B, I was like, holy fuck. You know, they just wanted the record out there. Because a lot of people who are buying records now

are not discerning people. They're just people who want to get records. Right, right, a lot of people, they buy it, they play it, they might not even open it, some of them are buying it to put on the wall, you know. But someone like you, it sounds like you would be one of our typical customers. I can tell from everything you've told me.

Some people care and the difference, the difference is important to a lot of us. But a lot of people it's not. And then you're right, some of the people that are making it, they don't really either get it, they're trying to save money, they're wanting to get it out fast. And then there's people, you know, you could look

at anything like a fast food restaurant versus a high end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And do you, now like, you know, a lot of people, they'll get some science going about the lack of difference between, you know, digital and vinyl. And I believe when I listen to it, like I have a lot of records and a lot of them are pretty shitty in terms of sound,

but that's what they were dealing with. It's just the nature of the game. But if I listen to digital versus vinyl, I still believe that there is a bigger sort of separation and shaping of sounds. And I do think it has a different tone to me. For sure. OK, just how do you feel?

Yeah. Forget like the, don't show me specs and stuff. How do you feel? Yeah. What happens is I say you put on a CD and even dogs leave the room. You know what I mean? Because subconsciously, it's an irritating,

it's a bright, clinical, sterile, a computery, it's not, it's pushing you out of the room. It's not drawing you in the room. The record will draw you in. I've never cried listening to a CD. If you put on a good record, my hair on my arms will stand up, I'll maybe shed a tear. Because there's more emotion.

But you know, that brings up another subject, man, and all the new recordings, they're all compressed, man. I know. I don't know who can do anything about it, but it's baked in. They're recording it and mastering this way. And it just, you turn it up to one and it's too loud already.

It's the loudness. It hurts your ears a little bit. It's the loudness wars. Yeah, and also like you can't, but there's also different intentions, you know, with pop music now, you know, I don't, I think it's done for effect, you know, they're making, you know, crack as opposed to Coke.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll get what you're saying. I hope the audience does, but they probably do. You know what I mean? If you if you cook it down to it's just it's most kind of almost violent effect You know for to have a sensory experience. So the sensory experience is different. It's not necessarily nuanced You know, it might be heavy on the base. They're they really wanting to to give you that crack eye Yeah, as opposed to you know as opposed to kind of easing

in with something more pure. Also the ritual that you have, whether it's five or 20 steps, and also I think another element of vinyl is that it is a ritualized behavior. Even when we did drugs, you got your little box, you got your stuff. Oh, I love it. And it's the same with records. You're right, you're right.

Some people say it's an old guy thing or what, but I think that if you're into the sort of pastime of vinyl, that there's a ritual to it. For sure there is, man, for sure. And then you want to play with your needles and tubes and whatever, that you're going to shape your sound how you're going to shape it. It's all relative to your ears again. Like I got those two systems in there. Yeah, yeah, they both good. It's I like having it all. I like the vintage, I like quad electrostatics, I've liked, you know, dynamic speakers,

I mean, I like tubes, I like, you know, you're right about the ritual. To me, an album is about 20 minutes, usually 20, 22 minutes a side. To me, that's the perfect amount of time. Like, let's say, you know, me and you, hey, you wanna listen to a side of a record? Well, you know, we'll get our drink or whatever

and we'll sit down and we'll listen and our attention span is fine for 22 minutes. Now, have you ever listened to, have you ever sat and listened to a whole CD? It's like an hour and a half. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm sorry, I've never done that. And then you don't feel like the last 10 songs really need to be there.

Right. Yeah. Dude, you said it. To me, you know why a lot of the albums that came out when vinyl was king or more classic albums that came out? Because those only could put six or seven songs. They only put the best.

Then once they started CDs, they would put extra songs because they could, but that weakened your experience on thinking this is a classic album. What I'm saying is, the side, one side of a record is the perfect amount of time to just give yourself. It's almost like accepting religion or something. It's like meditation. Yeah. And you can give yourself to that record for 22 minutes. And then afterwards we go, wow, man, that was good.

You wanna hear the other side or you wanna hear something else? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the CD, it's the ritual, man. It is, it is. And the timing of it just happened to work out. Right now we're doing the Marley stuff. We're really good friends and work on Miles Davis.

We just did Kind of Blue. Now we're doing the Birth of the Blue, which was the four other songs that were recorded at the same time. In the same session. Not, okay, the same band. When Kind of Blue, which was the best selling jazz album of all time, was recorded like in 59.

And they recorded five songs for Kind of Blue. There was four other songs that were recorded by the same band in the same studio about eight months before. So those songs have always been released as like an add on to a compilation. They do three songs in mono. They were never released with the, I don't know, the word integrity that it should be. You know, together.

So we're like, we want to master off the original master tape. Of course, they didn't really want that. Sony doesn't let their masters out anymore, but they had a three track. So I convinced them, if you use the three track and make me a two track master, which is a master, you still have your master.

And they go, oh, okay, yeah, that makes sense, we'll do it. So we made the jacket look like if it had came out 1959. We had Ashley Kahn, the guy that wrote the book on Kind of Blue, write the liner. And we mastered it. I bought Doug's sax mastering facility that was here in LA. He did like the wall and all the biggest records. Doug did his all custom tube electronics.

We cut it on our system off the original master, played it in press, the QRP and Salina. And we've sold over 13,000 of them already, man. So it's, yeah. So yeah, we do The Doors, Credence, Marley, Steely Dan. We did the pretty much a complete Beach Boys. How was that? How was listening to those masters?

Oh, they were great. The one that will blow you away is the album Surfer Girl. Oh, yeah? Oh, the song In My Room. Yeah, oh yeah. That will knock your dick in the dirt. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. I mean, that is unbelievable. Oh, man. I gotta get some. You gotta give me those records. Oh, no, man, for sure. We gotta hook you up, man. Well, thanks, buddy. It's good talking to you, man, for sure. We gotta hook you up, man. Thanks, buddy. It's good talking to you, man. Oh, for sure, man. I tell you what, you know, I was a little nervous. I said, I don't know how this is gonna go,

but we have so much in common that... Worked out. Yeah, one day at a time, buddy. Yeah, you know, that's right, man. ["Sweet Home Alone"] There you go. He's sending me some records. I'm going to listen to him.

Gotta take that time too. Gotta take that time to sit and listen. He came in, he listened to my system. I don't know if he was being nice about it, but he said it sounded pretty damn good. I'll take his word on that. I don't know what he would have said. I feel like he's an honest guy. I think it is pretty good.

But yeah, so I'm back in. I'm fully back in. You can follow the Acoustic Sounds KS YouTube channel and read that profile in the New York Times titled, The Wizard of Vinyl is in Kansas. Hang out for a minute, folks. Looking for a community that has it all? Welcome to Crossings, the urban hub of West Lethbridge.

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Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Hey, speaking of vinyl albums, back in 2019, we did a special album for Record Store Day featuring some of the best live performances from the podcast. Full Marin listeners can now hear the compilation for the first time with songs by Amy Mann, Jason Isbell, Nick Lowe, J Mascis, Melissa Etheridge, and more. Do you mind if I sit down next to you? I remember you from school. You seem to have a real good heart.

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