Exclusive interview: Simon Heyworth

Simon Heyworth is the man responsible for the remastering of the current Depeche Mode album re-issues. We caught up with him to chat about the work involved.

As Depeche Mode continues to tour the world in support of their latest album, 2005’s Playing The Angel, their back catalog has been remastered and is about to be rereleased. Not only will the albums be remasterd, they will also come with surround sound 5.1 DVDs as well as bonus remixes and short films made specifically for these remasters. “Speak & Spell”, “Music For The Masses” and “Violator” are the first three that will be released. They will come out on April 3rd (April 25th in The US) with more albums to follow soon.

To document these highly anticipated releases, Empty World 3’s Pete got some time in with the man behind the remasters sound, Simon Heyworth. Simon gave Pete a lot of insightful information about doing the remasters, working in his studio, his background, and more! We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate these releases then hearing from the man behind the sound himself.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you originally got into the music business?

I originally got started by building The Manor Studios in Shipton-on-Cherwell Oxfordshire in 1970. This was a country house which Richard Branson owned and a friend of mine and myself convinced him to convert the Squash Court ,which was in a lovely old barn, into a Recording Studio. Richard agreed. It was the only one of it’s kind and a unique idea, away from the bustle of London but close enough to attract ‘the stars’ of the time. Whilst building the Studio, which we did mostly by ourselves, a young musician by the name of Mike Oldfield came down and while he was there played us some of his demos-the rest is history (I have a book which a friend of mine did called the ‘Making of Tubular Bells’-It’s available from me here at SAM or through the Mike Oldfield fan club I think. It’s not available in the shops)

Anyway I learnt about Acoustics by reading books and actually building the Manor Studio. I worked as a ‘tape operator’ at the Manor and learnt all about how to record, microphone technique, recording and mixing. To begin with we thought we would build an 8 track studio but then it became apparent that we had to be 16track but we could not afford a Studer machine so opted for a new 16 track Ampex 1000 from America. I think it was the only one in the UK at the time and it was huge. Eventually I took control of the recording and mixing and I worked there until 1976. At that point I had made a bit of a name for myself and decided to go ‘freelance’.

Over the next couple of years I worked in and all sorts of studios, even designing a studio in Stockholm. Eventually I landed in Russell Street in London and built Matrix Studios with a friend who had been chief engineer at Trident Studios. We had an amazing time there for about 3 years recording all sorts of interesting albums. I then went to Ridge Farm for a while and then traveled around Europe producing and engineering Eastern European Rock Bands. In about 1982 I decided to stop spending all my time in dark studios and set up a business producing music for film. This meant working with directors and film producers on the musical ideas for the film and then realising them. This was a fascinating period and I worked with Jerry Goldsmith, Merchant Ivory Films and many others. If we wanted a big orchestra and had no budget, we would go to Budapest, Prague, Ireland, anywhere where it was cheaper than London. During this period of the late 80’s there were great advances in technology and I realized that the world of recording and post production would one day go ‘non-linear’ and involve computers. Some friends of mine had set up the first copying and digital editing facility and I joined them-Chop Em Out was the name of the company. I had always been interested in Cutting for Vinyl and always went to the ‘cut’ whenever I finished mixing an album, so I knew and really appreciated the value and skill of that part of the process. They wanted to set up Mastering. I could always look at tape boxes and say, ‘Oh I know what that is’-meaning what kind of tape was in the box, the studio it was recorded at, the engineer and producer perhaps. I had no fear of tape and new a lot about tape machines and so on, and so set about ‘Mastering’. We bought 2 Sonic Solutions Editing and Mastering platforms the first ever Digital Audio Workstations. They also had ‘NoNoise’TM, which was the first ever Click, Crackle and Hiss/Noise removal software again by Sonic Solutions. This company was based in California and had grown out of Lucas Film where they were experimenting with something called Edit Droid which was a very early version of digital editing on film. The guys working on the ‘sound’ aspects of this then went on to form Sonic Solutions. They are still going and are probably better known now for providing Authoring tools for DVD, again the first company to do that too. The sound side of the company is now called Sonic Studio and we have 2 fully blown systems here at SAM.

Do you enjoy mastering both Stereo and Surround Sound or do you prefer one to the other?

I obviously enjoy both-Surround is a bit more complicated although it’s a little more forgiving sound-wise than stereo because there is more space for the music. But listening to a great performance or mix in surround can be a wonderful experience. It’s like having the artist actually there in the room especially with Super Audio CD as the digital resolution is so detailed and the sound so relaxed and pure-like good analogue recordings.

Mastering for Stereo is obviously more straight forward but can be very hard work too, but I don’t think I have a preference.

Can you walk us through the basics of what you do when you remaster an album?

First of all I listen to all the tracks, in order if possible. I need to do this to get a feel for the overall sound and discover any tracks that the artist might have had difficulty with, in the mix. Then I start at the beginning. I play the song quite a few times to understand the arrangement and really get into the whole vibe. I do various tests, doing the Mastering purely digitally and then going back into the analogue domain and using EQ and Dynamics processing if necessary to bring out detail in the sound picture. I listen to different Analogue to Digital converters and how they ‘express’ the music and then decide on the sound and make sure this is really an improvement. Sometimes the differences are very minimal, I leave things the way they are pretty much if they are beautifully mixed.
It’s like having a really well made piece of handcrafted furniture and polishing it. Sometimes it’s more than that.

Is there much difference in remastering a primarily electronic music album from a band who use traditional instrumentation?

Sometimes there is but not really, I suppose it’s just a matter of whether one decides to use a totally digital signal path; digital EQ, Dynamics etc. OR by going into the Analogue domain you can bring a more human element back into the music-it’s hard to explain really.

How long did it take you to remaster the Depeche Mode albums?

‘Speak and Spell’ (1/4inch 15ips) took a while about 2-3 days in all because I had a lot of tapes to listen to plus the original vinyl discs. We wanted to use the ‘Original Tapes’ but I needed to listen to all the EQ’d Production Masters used for the original vinyl, the existing CD, and various copy masters to see what had gone on at the time. The original tapes were of course pretty much all on different reels because that is how it evolved, and also at slightly different times. This means different line ups for the tape machine etc.

‘Music for the Masses’ (1/2inch tape 30ips) was a bit easier because there were ‘Masters’ all on 2 reels (A&B side) This is put together as it used to be i.e., ‘crafted’ as an album to play as an A Side and a B Side. All the gaps are done, the levels between tracks are set. It’s kind of mixed that way and in reality there’s not too much to do. But the more you listen the more you hear.

‘Violator’ (1/2inch tape 30ips) was on separate reels and so I had to Master from those tapes. That took about a day and a half.

Then I will leave it all for a few days and then spend sometime listening to each album all the way through making any necessary updates. Then we do CD Refs which go to the record label for approval.

What were the conditions of the original recordings when you got them? Were they well taken care of?

Yes, they were well taken care of.

What format did the original recordings exist on?

Analogue Tapes.

Is it daunting to have a piece of history in your care?

Yes, if I think about it, it is! But it’s my job. I always take extreme care with old tapes. My tape machines have a special very slow rewind and fast forward which if anything happens to the tape, like an edit comes apart, you don’t end up with tape flying off at high speed and wrapping itself around every moving part of the machine. A lot of the Ampex tape from the 70’s suffers from what we call ‘Sticky Shed Syndrome’. It was a manufacturing problem at the time which manifested itself later on, in this case many years. The glue which binds the oxide is unstable and becomes soft having absorbed moisture in the atmosphere. Tape libraries were not always temperature and humidity controlled like many are now. Anyway we have to treat the tape to remove the moisture but still one has to clean the tape heads quite a lot and listen out for drop outs and so on.
Some of the tapes can be so bad that if you don’t get the mastering done quickly after drying out the tape it all comes back again and it’s very time consuming and worrying.

I always think the tape boxes are so fascinating especially the writing on them. Some of the seminal albums of our time have very little written on the boxes – it’s all not very professional because the first album was often ‘the one’ and was made in non professional circumstances-but that makes its’ history even more special. So those are the ones which leave me amazed-they don’t exactly glow or levitate but they might as well.

Did their conditions have any effect on the range you could take the sound?

Not really, my Ampex ATR102 with Aria Electronics and Hi Flux heads enables one to hear more detail which is on the tape. I also use a Studer A820 and A80 as well and always listen through on the different machines. If I know where they were originally done and can figure out what machine was originally used I tend to go for that. It just depends.

How much freedom do you have, are there guidelines provided by the artist/label?

A lot of freedom really, but I do like to have someone to talk to and bounce off. The Mute guys are great and Daniel Miller has an amazing set of ears.

Do you find it interesting working with “old” music as opposed to working with new music?

I do find it interesting because I was around and doing it at the time myself, so I know the craft that went into making albums at the time. But I am constantly blown away at the inventiveness of the craft nowadays. The sounds are just amazing and the work that can go into making things feel and sound right is astonishing. Digital just does sound really good these days.

Who decided on the extra tracks that were added to each album?

I’m not sure, I guess the band, producer and label A&R. You had better ask someone else that one. We just do what we are told!

How much were the original albums producers involved in the remastering process?

They were involved in the Remix for 5.1 Surround, but not so much the stereo re-masters.

Which record was the most difficult for you to remaster? Also, was there ever a specific challenge that you weren’t sure you could fix?

‘Speak and Spell’ the most difficult. No particular challenge I could not fix.

What’s the hardest part of remastering an album?

Trying to remain faithful to the original and not get too carried away.

There are certain fans that feel that re-releasing remasterd albums are just a money making scheme that the record labels come up with to repackage an old product. There have even been a number of re-releases within the Depeche Mode catalogue since Mute was taken over, so do you feel that remastered albums are really another essential item for fans to buy?

These days the packaging can be really quite terrific and in some cases is just as important and revealing. New pictures and a history. It’s great to have it all there. Mute are being very brave and imaginative in adding in the DVD and Surround sound-the fans are being educated about the different formats and getting to hear something they know well, presented in a different light. It’s great.

You also remastered their live album “101” a while back. Is remastering a live album the same as remastering a regular album? Is the recording of the audience just another layer or is there anything you have to do specific with it?

It’s pretty much the same thing. The audience is all part of the 2 channel stereo mix in live recordings. I found it quite hard doing ‘101’. I did it several times. It’s quite a hard sound to start with and it needed warmth and so on-the vibe is quite something on that album.

Do you think that future Depeche Mode releases will have 5.1 sound versions released (as Playing The Angel did), is this going to become a standard thing?

Well these three albums do have surround and they are continuing with the same plan for the next 3 releases I believe. ‘Playing the Angel’ is brilliant in Surround too. The Acoustic/Electric production is just excellent and it does the songs a huge favour giving them space to breath.

You’re known for paying meticulous attention to detail, so are you pleased with the over all sound of the records now that they are finished?

Yes, I think so. I’m always asking those involved if they are happy too.

Is there a particular album by any artist that you personally would like to remaster?

‘Music from Big Pink’ The Band
‘Rocky Mountain Way’ Joe Walsh
Any and all the Singles by ‘The Beatles’! (And in Mono too)

What future projects do you have lined up?

Well I’ve been doing a lot of new albums recently by new artists, which is really nice, and I hope I will do more. There are some re-mastering projects in the wind but I can’t reveal what they are until confirmed. Nevertheless I think there is more Depeche Mode and I look forward to that.

For more information on Simon Heyworth please visit: www.superaudiomastering.com

Interview by Pete. (C) Empty World 3. Do not steal this article without giving full credit and a link! Photo appears courtesy of Simon Heyworth.