When does vinyl really sound better than CDs? Bernie Grundman on mastering Craft’s Small Batch jazz series, working with Barbra Streisand, and why most modern LPs aren’t worth buying

Nov 5 , 2023

Legendary audio engineer Bernie Grundman at work in his mastering studio in Los Angeles. Photos: Handout

The vinyl revival shows no sign of abating, but do LPs really sound better than CDs? The Grammy-winning engineer, who’s worked with Michael Jackson, Prince and Tupac Shakur, has the answer

Bernie Grundman went back to Contemporary Records’ OG session tapes for new ‘one-step’ masters of classic Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk albums for Craft’s Small Batch series

“Is this an American story or what?” muses Bernie Grundman, a half-hour into unspooling the opening chapters of his life story – a tale that ended up with the 82-year-old becoming arguably the most in-demand mastering engineer in the world.

Here’s the short version: a plucky US Air Force vet from Arizona rocked up in Hollywood in 1966 at the beginning of the home stereo boom, and – with next to zero experience – landed a job at the West Coast’s hottest jazz label, Contemporary Records. Two years later, he was poached to be A&M’s mastering engineer, and in the 80s he went on to become an in-demand engineer working with everyone from Michael Jackson and Prince to Tupac Shakur, Beck and Barbra Streisand.

“Barbra Streisand has really good ears, engineers are always surprised,” he quips. “She’s a little bit temperamental – and she should be. It’s all backed up with her being a great artist, because she really knows when it’s not right – and she will tell you.”

Legendary audio engineer Bernie Grundman at work in his mastering studio in Los Angeles

We’re talking on Zoom from his Los Angeles studio because one of his latest projects sees the triple-Grammy-winner revisiting some of his former employer’s most storied recordings for Craft Recordings’ Small Batch series, a ridiculously nerdy audiophile reissue programme presenting classic Contemporary titles in lush vinyl remasters.

Each individually numbered record comes with an acrylic print, housed in linen-wrapped cases that are even opened with a ribbon. And limited to 4,000 copies, you can bet the US$110 price tag will be a fine investment on the resale market in no time – the definition of audio luxury, in short. “I knew Craft were going to do this so I went to them and said, I worked at Contemporary, I know how it’s done. This kind of music, I’ve been living with for a long time and I would like to have a chance at remastering these,” explains Grundman, “and they decided to let me do it.”

Since launching in 2020, the range has yielded just six releases, including the 1958 classic Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet, John Coltrane’s Lush Life (recorded in 57 and 58) and, most recently, Thelonious Monk’s masterpiece, Brilliant Corners (1957). In each case, Grundman has had the chance to go back to the original session tapes – rather than an archived digital copy – and cut fresh “one-step” lacquers for maximum fidelity, instead of the standard three-step process.

Thelonious Monk’s Brilliant Corners is among the Craft Small Batch Series offerings

“It’s only about the music and making a faithful reproduction of those delicate acoustic instruments,” says Grundman. “You can’t do a lot of manipulations and plug-ins and computer stuff; you start doing that and you’re going to destroy all the subtleties, the overtones and resonances of the music. You want it really pure.”

All this attention to detail is intended to arrive at a product that many hope sounds better even than the original vintage LPs – which often command hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Grudman isn’t convinced: “I don’t know that it’s necessarily that much of an improvement – back then, the way they were made direct [to] the tape, so there’s less manipulation. The cleaner a recording is, the less you need to do to make it sound real. It’s just the way the music sounded.”