Studio - 1. In the Court of the Crimson King 3. Production details,

Studio - 1. In the Court of the Crimson King

3. Production details.

Initial sessions for the album were held in early 1969 with producer Tony Clarke, most famous for his work with the Moody Blues. After those sessions failed to work out the group was allowed to produce themselves. However, unofficially it is thought by most fans that Greg Lake actually did most of the production work on the album by himself. The album was recorded on an 8-channel master tape recorder at Wessex Sound Studios in London. The engineer was Robin Thompson. It took many hours of overdubbing to build up the orchestral sound of multiple layers of Mellotron and woodwinds played by Ian McDonald. Robert Fripp has since claimed that at least some of the original 8-channel master multitrack tapes for the album have been lost.

Soon after the recording sessions were completed in 1969 it was discovered that a stereo tape recorder used to mix the album had recording heads that were mis-aligned. A loss of high-frequencies and undesired distortion affected some parts of the album, most apparently on "21st Century Schizoid Man." While preparing the first American release on Atlantic Records a stereo sub-master tape copy was created that attempted to correct some of the sound problems. The first-generation stereo master tapes were filed away and forgotten for many years.

4. CD editions.

The most recent CD version (described as the "Original Master Edition", DGM0501) was released in 2004 on Robert Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile label. This release has greatly improved sound over previous CD editions. LP and CD re-issues during the 1980s and 1990's by Polydor and EG Records were taken from tape copies several generations removed from the corrected stereo sub-master tape. This resulted in a lack of clarity and excessive tape hiss. Several different remastered CD versions were released in this period while attempting to make the best use of the tape recordings that were available. The first generation stereo master tapes for the album were finally rediscovered in the archives of Virgin Records in 2003 after being misplaced for many years. The latest digital technology was used to repair high frequency problems caused during the original mixing sessions. 24 bit mastering was also utilized to enhance the sound. This edition also has a twelve-page booklet that includes pictures and press clippings from the period.

With Fripp's collaboration Steven Wilson remixed the original master tapes into 5.1 Surround Sound, and a 40th Anniversary edition is scheduled to be released 12 October 2009.^[7][8 There are three different versions planned for release: a two-CD set, a CD+DVD set and a six-disc (5CD/1DVD) box.