Rattlesnakes, The First Cassette
Feb 3, 2021 and March 7th 2025
Unfortunately I can't digitize this and share otherwise UMG would have their lawyers tear this page down. But I can share its significance.
When we finished mixing the album at Genetic Studios, this is what I got to take home. The album had been mixed to 1/2" tape. Another 1/2" (or maybe 1/4") safety copy was made and these were probably copied from the safety.
Making records was still a new thing for all of us and while we developed a little bit of understanding of recording and mixing equipment and techniques, it stopped there.
We were not consulted regarding the mastering. I didn't even know what mastering was. I imagine Paul Hardiman was invited to supervise. So when the album came out, I was a little disappointed with the sound. It was a little brighter and lacking to room sound and dynamics of my cassette. Obviously it wasn't terrible and I think I was probably told that these things HAD to be done to make the vinyl version playable (not skip).
It wasn't until Mainstream that we became involved with mastering, and obviously, I've been involved ever since. It can have a huge impact on the feel of the record. When we were mastering my first solo record I took 2 albums to the mastering engineer - Electric Warrior by T.Rex and Green by REM. I said I want to sound like this, not like that. I'm sure you can guess which was which. I can still remember Bob Ludwig on the phone asking 'Are you SURE you don't want a little high end adding?' (Bad Vibes).
When we were putting together the Complete Lloyd Cole and the Commotions CD box set a few years I worked closely with mastering engineer Ian Jones, at Abbey Road. We were able to access the original 1/2" mixes and these were digitized at the highest sample rate to make a pretty perfect facsimile. We then had all the usual mastering options. I spoke to the band and we all agreed that we preferred the sound of the original rattlesnakes mixes before the 1984 mastering, so that's what we went with. Many listeners insisted that some of the tracks must be remixes, but they aren't. That's just an example of how much impact mastering can have on the sound and feel of a recording.
That said, notice on the cassette it says no remixes. Did we record alternate mixes? I don't remember. Several tracks were remixed for the American release of the album, supervised by Rik Ocasek. I never liked the mixes and said we should reject them, but I was outvoted. When Capitol took over the catalogue, I had them revert to the original Hardiman mixes.