Thousands of master tapes lost in Universal fire

[soulster]

Richard Carpenter said that his masters are gone. All of Buddy Holly's masters are also gone. However, all of Holly's stuff has been remastered.

Richard Carpenter has digital backups of his multitracks, but the 2-track mixdowns are gone.

The remastered Buddy Holly material doesn't sound that great.

[funkcity]

I worked there for 13 years. There have ALWAYS been fires on that lot. By that time Universal Studios did NOT own the record division at that time, They still don't. It's the UMG behemoth now. Universal's film division had a " "Geographical Separation" Policy. Master films were in the Universal Studios vaults [[wood buildings) on the lot in North Hollywood/Universal City and in the salt mines in Kansas.
The record company management were highly and typically negligent. A roof fire occurred while workers were tarring it was all it took and spread when they went to lunch! When they came back all hell was breaking loose. The film folks were protected. The record masters were not.