Mitch Renault: Mastering the ‘Well Wishes’ Set

Wampus engineer Mitch Renault mastered the Wampeters Limited Edition CD Slipcase Set, Well Wishes.

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Old records are fun to master. They don’t sound as full or shimmering as new records, thanks to the gear they were recorded on, so improving them isn’t hard. What is a challenge is helping them shine while maintaining their character.

Most indie artists record at home these days, but 30 years ago you either booked time in a studio or made “demos” in your basement. Commercial studios tended to make everything sound like processed cheese, so you had little choice but to DIY. You snagged the best gear you could afford and figured it out. You fought noise and tape hiss. You cursed microphones that couldn’t reproduce the thump of a bass drum or the shimmer of a vocal or the range of an acoustic guitar.

None of that was optimal, and anyone who is nostalgic about it now has a selective memory, but there was a charm to aspiring to the pristine fidelity of, say, Robbie Robertson’s solo debut while trying to get the crickets in the room to be quiet while you tracked vocals.

You depended, while pushing the physical limits of consumer-grade analog tape, on rack units with reassuring names like BBE Sonic Maximizer and Aphex Aural Exciter Type C. You realized that while you would not replicate the sound of, say, Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy album, you would stumble on to another sound that was different from anything you had heard before.

Today that sound feels both exciting and a little alien. It was my job to bring clarity and presence to it. To refine it without misplacing it.

If you listen to Well Wishes, you still hear the ways in which Daniel Lanois or somebody might have elevated the sonics. You hear cranked Hiwatt amps pegging the meters, various objects taped to the beaters of bass drums, and vocals pleading for the silky high end of a modern mix. You hear the songs conveyed as intended within their moment, warts and all.

Those are my favorite parts.

Buy Well Wishes at Bandcamp | Amazon.

Mitch Renault is the proprietor (and tenant) of the Say Hello to the Crow recording studio.

About Mark Doyon

I run Wampus, a creative development agency and label for emerging artists and authors. I make records as Arms of Kismet (and sometimes Waterslide), and wrote the novel 'Deep Fried.'