Interview with Robert Fripp in Stereo Review
Date Submitted: 16-Jun-1992
Submitted By: Jason Giles (mjgiles at ucdavis dot edu)
sorry this got chopped on the sides and moved down to the next line-- it
looked good on the word processor! Oh well, here it is anyways, read on!
The Fripp Side
Copied without permission from Stereo Review Magazine, June 1992
Written by Glenn Kenny
"None of the mechanics of reproducing music interest me at all," Robert
Fripp admits midway through a conversation on that very subject. "What
interests me are the rare moments when music leans over and takes you into
its confidence. But the composer/guitarist's altogether reasonable belief
that such moments as have been documented on vinyl should make the
transition to a new music-storage medium intact has forced him to take an
active interest in those mechanics.
For Fripp, a particularly pressing case in point- although not the
only one, since his work over the past two decades and more has generated a
wide range of reissued recordings- is the catalog of his band King Crimson,
one of the most controversial and influential of the so-called progressive
rock bands that began popping up in the late 1960's. As the compact disc
took off in the mid-1980's, record companies began reissuing their back
catalogs on CD. Since the new format boasted "perfect sound forever," and
since it could replicate highs and lows that were effectively
unreproducible on vinyl, many assumed that CD reissues would sound at least
as good as their vinyl forbears, if not better.
But, as a legion of professionals and consumers have learned, and
are still learning, it's not necessarily that simple. One early example of
that was the initial batch of King Crimson CD reissues. Fripp was not even
aware of what was happening to some of his most famous recordings until he
received a royalty statement from EG, which at the time was both his
management firm and his record company.
"When EG first released the Crimson catalog on CD," Fripp recalls,
"it was a straight transfer from copy masters in the 15-ips(inches per
second) quarter-inch format done by people I'd never met, probably
assistant engineers in various studios. In other words, it was done badly.
The [band] paid for the cost of that transfer. I remember quite well
receiving my royalty check and discovering 5000 pounds had been deducted
from my royalties for the CD transfer, although I hadn't been involved in
it at all."
Complaints about the noisy, muddy CD versions of such albums as
King Crimson's legendary 1969 debut, "In the Court of the Crimson King,"
began showing up in the press and at EG's offices- "sentiments with which I
heartily concurred," says Fripp. "My view was...if that material were to be
available on CD, it should be the best format and best condition reasonably
available." So Fripp took matters into his own hands- at his own expense-
and teamed up with renowned audio engineer Tony Arnold to remaster the King
Crimson catalog once again. The fruits of their efforts can be heard on a
dozen individual reissues of Crimson and Fripp albums and on the recently
released four-disc box set "Frame By Frame: The Essential King Crimson."
It wasn't easy. In most cases, particularly with the earliest of
King Crimson recordings, the original master tapes- that is, the tapes used
to create the first vinyl version- were unavailable. Fripp and Arnold had
only "copy masters" to work with, second or third generation masters
supplied to companies releasing the record outside of the country of
origin.
"When 'Court' was cut in America from the quarter-inch copy master,
there was a fault in the right channel. What we did to balance it at that
time was to add 10k [10,000Hz] and let the right side break up.... And when
we remastered it in 1989, instead of using a fixed-band EQ we used dynamic
equalization with an Aphex. The currently available remastered 'Court' has
things on it you can't hear even on the original vinyl. But the master [we
had to use] was flawed, probably because the original two-track machine at
Wessex Studio in 1969 that made it had either a worn or damaged head on the
right channel, or else there was dirt on the head which wasn't recognized
at the time. The original master- I have no idea where it is. I'm only
working from the best copy masters I can get. The eight-track of 21st
Century Schizoid Man was stolen from the Wessex tape stock, which in those
days was a cupboard that anyone could go into and lift a tape out of. You
see, [pop] recording in 1969 was by and large not a professional business."
The difficulties Fripp describes are not unusual ones. What is
shocking is the music industry's apparent tendency to overlook such
difficulties when preparing back-catalog recordings for CD reissue. A
recent Billboard article reported that Roger Nichols, the ace engineer
behind Steely Dan's sound, made digital transfers of the already
deteriorating masters of the Steely Dan album for MCA's use in the early
1980's, but MCA ran off only one pressing from those transfers and then
reverted to second or third generation masters for subsequent runs. Another
calamity revealed was the use of equalized masters for CD transfers. Such
masters are intended solely for use on vinyl, with equalization on cuts
near the end of a side to compensate for potential groove-tracing problems.
Under the microscope of digital recording and CD playback, such
equalization can sound gruesome.
Fripp is familiar with all these horror stories- he's been
embroiled with his former management firm over CD transfers and much, much
more for a good number of years (he does seem to enjoy friendly relations
with Virgin, which now owns EG's record catalog). Still, after detailing a
litany of fairly outrageous music-industry abuses, he says, "I'm not
cynical about it. What it comes down to is this: In a democratic society
the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. I've got to be eternally
vigilant about my catalog."
Although Fripp is far happier with his own King Crimson reissues
than with the initial batch, he insists that, given more time and money, he
could do better. Fripp and Arnold are continually looking at both analog
and digital equipment that will enable them to improve their efforts.
"Since we did those remasters, technology has moved on again. I'm
about to go into the studio with Tony Arnold again to experiment with the
very latest technology in noise reduction. This system is being pioneered
by a man who worked for the English Department of Defense, in radar. And
what's he's done is use that technology to hunt hiss. Arnold himself is now
off to check the latest on-the-market noise-reduction system- 1,000 pounds
a day to hire. His test for such systems is to put through them this old
tape he has of a drummer using brushes. And if the noise reduction removes
the brushes along with the hiss, the noise reduction is not effective. So
we may be able to move the format along a little further for future
releases."
Not that Fripp is completely pleased with the CD format to begin
with. IN the vinyl vs. CD debate, he falls into the vinyl camp, but only in
ideal terms: "I accept that people with real ears probably would prefer
vinyl to CD's. However, if you use vinyl, you've got to have a superb
pressing plant, you've got to have superb metal work. And you're not going
to get it."
All this might suggest that Robert Fripp is living in the past, but
that's far from the truth. He recently completed a mini tour of Japan with
musicians David Sylvian and Trey Gunn and performed in a Guitar Masters
series at New York City's World Financial Center, both solo and with
students of his own Guitar Craft school. And for this year's end he's
planning the next incarnation of, yes, King Crimson. "The players are in
place," he says, smiling a Cheshire Cat smile that means, no, I'm not going
to tell you their names, and, yes, it will be worth the wait to find out.