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Recording studio Christoph Stickel
Analog tape machines are indispensable tools here. LowBeats interviewed remaster specialist Christoph Stickel (Photo: C. Stickel)

Interview with sound engineer Christoph Stickel: “The magic is always there”

We have reported on this topic several times, because there is something brewing here: tape machines and master tapes. Five years ago, this was still a small presence at the High-End trade fair, but now it has become a forest – hardware and software providers are outbidding each other, and some prices are exorbitant. There must be a magic to it. Or a misunderstanding.

So we went to find out more. From someone who really should know – Christoph Stickel. He is modest, but we don’t need to be to claim that Stickel is one of the five people who have handled the most master tapes. We’re not talking about copies of the copies, but about the actual tapes that were used in the recording studios by Keith Jarrett, Oscar Peterson and Leonard Bernstein. And Stickel has made all these master tapes even better. He is a remasterer who has received many awards, including one for his work on Keith Jarrett’s legendary ‘Köln Concert’. So you can’t get much closer than that. We talked to Christoph Stickel about sound aesthetics and the magic of old tapes.

The interview with sound engineer Christoph Stickel

Christoph Stickel
Christoph Stickel is one of the world’s most renowned remaster specialists. The Viennese by choice gave us an insight into the world of great recordings – and how to preserve them (Photo: C. Stickel)

LowBeats: As an “old hand”, do you still get goosebumps when you touch a legendary master tape with your hands? Or are you a hardened professional?

Stickel: The magic is always there. But the practical considerations kick in quite quickly. How exactly could I play this tape, what specifications did the sound engineers of the past document?

“Studer – the gold standard for creative use”

LowBeats: In the audiophile sense – wouldn’t you also have to be supplied with the original tape machine, which was precisely adjusted for the tape in question?

Stickel: That’s a nice thought – and yes, of course I have many different tape machines here in the studio. But experience has shown me that the best tool is always the equipment that you know best and that allows the greatest variety of fine adjustments. I rely on a Studer A820 here. This is the latest large master model with the best electronics and mechanics from Studer. You can try out different settings very easily and directly. This is the gold standard that you can use creatively as a sound engineer and that simply produces the best results. Of course, the original tape machine of the recording would be very authentic with the same settings. But the parameters change. Above all, the tapes age, so a certain broad range of possibilities is required.

LowBeats: For our imagination – how do the tapes get to you? In an armored limousine with security guards?

Stickel: It’s not quite that violent. Boxes are sent from the archives by courier. They are of course comprehensively protected, I will have received between 600 and 1000 tapes in this way, and not once were there any magnetic influences during transportation that could have affected the sound. In addition, the boxes are of course protected against mechanical stress and moisture.

LowBeats: That sounds a bit boring, like a simple transportation of goods. We would have imagined an adventure like Indiana Jones in search of the forgotten treasure…

Stickel: I have to disappoint you. But sometimes I drive to the archives myself and stow the tapes in the trunk. That works very well as long as there’s no ocean in between. But I want to be part of a transfer in the USA one day; I still have that plan.

“Getting the best out of different generations”

LowBeats: How wide is the range of the source material, are there dramatic differences in quality?

Stickel: Of course. But we should get away from the idea that magical things are transported along. If a recording seems so legendary, so valuable to us today, then surely the technical effort involved must have been gigantic? That’s not always true. But the things I have in my hands are exceptionally good – and worth any further effort in today’s mastering. The tapes are documents of their time, and therefore also of their age, their wear and tear, their storage. That’s why I don’t usually receive the absolute, single master tape, but versions – the original, the edited version, the transfers as production masters. Part of my work here is always to pick out the best from different generations.

LowBeats: Not all artists have really taken care of their legacy. You also remastered the live recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Wilhelm Furtwängler from the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. An incredibly intense recording, the famous monolith in the discography. But Furtwängler didn’t really care about the recording, did he?

Stickel: Maybe so, probably even. If tapes like this recording are not of such good quality, then I opt for the cleanest possible. That borders on restoration. Then the analog options are nice, but the digital ones are highly potent. This is where the responsibility of today’s sound engineer comes into play. How to deal with background noise, hiss and distortion? A great deal could be achieved with today’s means. This raises ethical questions about authenticity. But we’re only talking about a small part of my work here – most of it is purist work, from analog to analog.

Recording studio Christoph Stickel
This is a great place to work: Stickel’s workplace, where there are always several tape recorders (Photo: C. Stickel)

LowBeats: Let’s take another look at the question of your professional ethos. Some of your colleagues have a huge technical – and digital – fleet of vehicles. What is allowed, what makes sense? Does the result justify all means?

Stickel: Good question and very important. When I think back to my work on the Furtwängler tapes, there is another important aspect: most of us were not able to experience Furtwängler live. Then the medium of the recording is also a contemporary document and, in the best sense, a journey through time. It is also part of my profession to immerse myself in the moment. How did all this come about? The ancestors among the sound engineers were also professionals of their time; it was all done with a great deal of technical effort.

Bernstein remastered
Great deed: Stickel has transferred Leonard Bernstein’s old CBS tapes into the modern age for Sony. An accolade. Silly question: couldn’t Sony/CBS have done it themselves? Sure, but Christoph Stickel’s reputation was the deciding factor (Cover: amazon)

LowBeats: But the journey through time often ends due to practical constraints. How stringent and helpful are the recordings for you, is the documentation you have of the creation the key to the audiophile sesame?

Stickel: No, not always. The situation is sometimes perfect, sometimes inexplicable. Of course there are the notes on the cardboard box of the original tapes. But I am in the fortunate position of also being in good contact with my mentors – who you can call. For example, there was a faulty connection during a recording, a technical sound trick – which we could only solve together and across generations. Over the years, I’ve come to a certain purism. Decades ago, for example, we restored the “Comedian Harmonist” – what we didn’t do to get them to sing. I wouldn’t do that today. Mono is mono – I rarely find artificial stereo useful from my ethical point of view. You can also transfer that to multi-channel – in most cases it’s a gimmick. Look and listen to “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis. There are a thousand versions, many entertaining, but certainly not authentic.

LowBeats: And with the advent of digitalization in the mid-1980s, not everything that shone on a silver disc was gold…

Stickel: That’s right – although you shouldn’t hold a grudge. Don’t forget how sad the digital transformation was at the beginning of the 90s, no comparison to today. The means have improved, clearly in favor of sound quality.

“Plastic surgeon? That’s definitely not my job”

LowBeats: How do you see yourself in this context? As a sound engineer, are you more of a craftsman or an artist?

Stickel: Craftsmen, of course – but you have to have a sense of artistic intentions. I appreciate Manfred Eicher, have often exchanged ideas with him and also had conversations with Carlos Kleiber. That was always helpful and enlightening. I still remember a mastering of a recording by Friedrich Gulda, the great pianist. The tapes of Beethoven’s “Diabelli Variations” rattled like a typewriter, it was extremely hard. Was that a matter of taste on the part of the sound engineer at the time? I then sought contact with the heir to Gulda’s artistic legacy. His statement surprised me in its clarity: “I think Friedrich deliberately wanted it to clang like that.” One must not underestimate the creative will of the artist in front of the microphones. Above all, you shouldn’t elevate yourself to the role of plastic surgeon. That’s definitely not my job.

LowBeats: That sounds resolute – but surely there are limits?

Stickel: Of course. Not every tape today still has the information content that it once had when it was recorded. If a tape has treble loss – of course, then I have to readjust it. There are also major problems with hydrogenation: Tapes draw moisture, the layers peel off. Don’t laugh now – but over the years a process has become established here: baking tapes…

LowBeats: Oha, right now I see you in the kitchen at the oven…

Stickel (laughs): No, no – that would be a cliché. But damp tapes “smear” over the sound head. That’s why we sound engineers put them in a dehydrator for a few days. This is a more professional set-up than drying fruit. Everything is regulated at the finest level, something an oven cannot do. But this preliminary work is required for every third tape.

“Tapes don’t have the charm of mature red wine in old age”

LowBeats: Are there any other problems you encounter? Do belts seem to age anything but nobly?

Stickel: That’s right, old tapes don’t have the charm of maturing red wine. Surprisingly often, you also have to ask yourself the question of the right pitch. Many tape machines took their pitch from the mains. It wasn’t exact back then. If I play it back today with a calibrated tape machine, there are fluctuations. Only digital pitch analysis can help me here. But this is only a tool for visualization – the audio re-mastering is of course purely analogue. Older colleagues used the tuning fork for this.

LowBeats: I also interviewed some of your colleagues in the big recording studios – and I always sensed a certain mourning: the old tapes will disappear, the path of everything earthly. Is your current work therefore also a cultural rescue operation before fading away?

Stickel: I wouldn’t see it that dramatically. Moreover, the archivists are not passive. They regularly make analog copies of the large photographs. This doesn’t improve the result – but it is an important archival act and, above all, in the same medium. I am far less certain about the durability and playability of digital data sets.

LowBeats: A subtle question and a question of faith at the same time – when you create a digital data set, do you favor PCM or DSD when it comes to the format?

Stickel: Basically, I think purely analog. But my clients have special requirements. I consider all PCM resolutions above 192 kilohertz with a tape as the source medium to be pointless. Tower Records once commissioned me to remaster the great Eterna recordings from the GDR for an SACD release. Yes, I like DSD very much, but that’s a rather emotional decision, especially since it’s very difficult for professionals to get good DSD converters.

LowBeats: Is there a kind of favorite project?

Stickel: Of course. When it comes to remastering, I’m particularly proud to have held the majority of the Pat Metheny tapes that were released by ECM in my hands. And then there’s the project involving Bruckner’s 8th Symphony with Sergiu Celibidache. Celibidache hated recordings. On the one hand, because it made his intimate opponent Karajan so rich – but above all, it contradicted the conductor’s idea of transcendence. For him, music could only be possible in a room, at the same time, in a community of listeners. I was faced with an ethical dilemma, but nevertheless decided to accept the commission from the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The artistic, documentary exception is too great…

Bruckner remastered
Freshly released: Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, live from the Herkulessaal in April 1985 (Cover: amazon)

LowBeats: Mr. Stickel, thank you for the interview. But the story doesn’t end there. Because soon we want to take a look over Christoph Stickel’s shoulder in his Vienna studio and ask the question: How much effort does a modern sound engineer have to put into transferring analog tapes? Exciting.

Autor: Andreas Günther

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Der begeisterte Operngänger und Vinyl-Hörer ist so etwas wie die Allzweckwaffe von LowBeats. Er widmet sich allen Gerätearten, recherchiert aber fast noch lieber im Bereich hochwertiger Musikaufnahmen.