Mastering Engineer and Audio Restoration Expert, Michael Graves, Discusses the Stax/Craft Recordings Boxset, "Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos"
Craft Recordings and Stax recently released "Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos" a sprawling box set produced by Cheryl Pawelski, featuring 7 CDs that hold 146 tracks of demo and songwriting recordings. Some of the music will be very familiar to Stax music lovers, and a few will have you scratching your head as you ask yourself how such a gem of a song could have been forgotten, left to attract only dust on publisher’s shelves. While there’s no debating the enjoyability and archival importance of this project, here, we take a closer look at the sound of the Stax songwriters and the process of getting all of those tapes together and creating something suitable for a listening session. Grammy award-winning mastering engineer and audio restoration expert, Michael Graves was tasked with making each of these recordings sound as good as possible without losing the raw charm inherent on a songwriter’s palette. He is kind enough to join me to discuss the tricks of the trade he employed to give you a front row seat to hear the things you didn’t think you’d ever have the opportunity to hear.
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