New remastering of Steely Dan's Katy Lied review by Fremer

@hilde45

There is still some problematic aspects to the original recording...

A shame, indeed. KL is one of my favorite SD albums.

I mean, really, 1 in 100,000 people have a system like that, so it’s a terrible baseline for making a record.

Again, yes. And, hardly the sort of "ruthlessly revealing" gear typically employed in studios. In fact, I bought my Silverline monitors from a guy in NYC who had a recording studio and opted to sell them for this very reason -- he found them too colored. They'd seen very little use -- practically new. His loss was my gain. 

I doubt the Maggies were used to lay down all those multi “ tracks of whack “ ( as an aside a fantastic IMO Walter album )… My understanding is wonky DBX NR was the culprit… I was never a fan of anything they did…

i had briefly the newly remastered Geffen 33 of Katy and agree on most songs it represents improvement. I returned it due to scuffs… but i will certainly replace it…

To the OP and your general ranking of the various SD and DF solo work, i would tend to agree. I need to respin the expensive Gaucho with a very deep pour. Morph the cat has some killer bass….

Great songs that suffer from recording decisions at the time.  Once it’s on tape there’s only do much you can do.  One thing I like about SD reissues is that they are not as compressed as many other recent reissues.  I find I have to crank the volume so it’s loud enough for my old guy ears.  The songs hold up since their arrangements are so great.  I had a great time streaming the 10 songs again last night.  

Um, I quoted Donald Fagen using an expletive to describe his reaction to the great Denny Dias’s guitar solo. It’s an amazing solo and moment. It’s here.

Sorry for quoting the word Fagen used. That got my post deleted. 

Apparently, the "use/mention" distinction is irrelevant on this forum. I was not USING the expletive, I was MENTIONING it, because it was relevant to Fagen’s reaction.