Paranoid: Remixed (A Prof. Stoned Project)

Complete info text file by Prof. Stoned:

Black Sabbath - Paranoid: Remixed [Prof. Stoned 2023]
16bit/44.1kHz CD Quality FLAC

01. War Pigs
02. Paranoid
03. Planet Caravan
04. Iron Man
05. Electric Funeral
06. Hand of Doom
07. Rat Salad
08. Fairies Wear Boots

Total time: 41m48s

Demix/Mastering: Prof. Stoned (Nov 2022/Mar 2023)

v1.0: 15-03-2023

Original credits:

Black Sabbath:

Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
Tony Iommi – guitar, flute on "Planet Caravan"
Geezer Butler – bass guitar
Bill Ward – drums, bongo's on "Planet Caravan"

Additional personnel:

Rodger Bain – production
Tom Allom – engineering, mixing
Brian Humphries – engineering
Marcus Keef – graphic design, photography,
Basic tracks recorded at Regent Sound Studio, London 16-18 June 1970 on 4-track
Overdubbed at Island Studios June/July 1970 on 16-Track
Mixed at Trident Studios, 8 July 1970 (as per the mastertape box and Trident did have a 16-track machine at the time, though it is also possible the 1st generation master was only assembled there.)

Tech. note:

Countless different digital masterings of this album exists, starting in 1986 when the album was first reissued on compact disc.* The earliest 1986 CD's were mastered from a digital transfer of the 1st generation mastertapes. However, only the Intercord, Castle CLACD from 1986 and Creative Sounds from 1987 are faithful to the original UK Vertigo pressing and therefore the only CDs in existence with the correct sound.^ However, it must be said that the "correct" sound leaves something to be desired; it is a bass-heavy, dark sounding recording. All CD remasters tried to correct this one way or another with varying but never truly satisfactory results. The album was remastered from the original 1st generation tapes in 1996, 2009 & 2016. The 1996 and 2009 suffer from a similar heavy-handed treatment: the guitars sound thin with a piercing upper mid-range boost and the high-end sounds unnatural and pinched. The 2016 maintains some of the dynamic range of the original but this too has been brightened up at the expensive of the guitar tone and drum sound.

The 16-track Island studio masters have gone missing after the 1973 Quad remix and all that remains are the Regent Sound 4-track tapes which only capture the foundation of bass, guitar and drums. This is why the album never received a proper stereo remix, which it could use. By remastering using spectral extraction, I was able to bring more clarity and depth while staying closer to the original sound of the instruments than the official remasters. I have added some new ambiance to the drums, guitar and vocals for a slightly more 'wet' sound, having the production of the debut album in mind. Purists should stay away and find a copy of one of the aforementioned CDs. Some audible tape damage exists on the mastertape around the first minute of Iron Man which can be heard clearly on the old CDs. It's also noticeable on the later remasters, although less obviously it was cleaned up. The dropouts are not present on the original UK pressing, so I used two small fragments recorded from the LP and patched those in.

[* See complete list here: https://www.discogs.com/master/302-Black-Sabbath-Paranoid?format=CD ]
[^ The 1986 Castle CDs with catalog number NELCD have pre-emphasis which means they are overly bright. All the other CD's that came out in the 80s (on Vertigo and Warners) are mastered from inferior sources, notable the Warner Bros 1970's copy tape which has tape flaws and loss of fidelity and which was inexplicably used again for the fully band-authorized 2004 Black Box.]

Sources:

- Intercord – INT 830.108 CD, Album, Reissue, Country: Germany, Released:1986
- Vertigo – 6360 011 Vinyl, Album, Gatefold, With Management Credits, Country: UK, Released: Sep 22, 1970

I have used the following digital studio gear and monitoring in the making of this:

- DeMix Pro 3.0.1
- Cubase
- Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite Quad-Core (incl. various extra plugins I purchased over the years)
- PMC IB2s & iLoud Micro monitors
- Adobe Audition
- Izotope RX9