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On Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 8:35:58 AM UTC-4, wrote:
JJAck wrote: "You know what is interesting on early CDs? Generally,
no credits given who did the audio. It appears Columbia Records hired
their party people to do their audio work, since they probably lacked the
knowledge and equipment. "

Credits for engineering & mastering, for
the original vinyl album release are listed,
on the album cover shrunk down to fit
in the CD jewel case. Since those early
transfers were *largely* done flat, there
was no need for CD engineering or
mastering credits to be listed. As I
mentioned earlier, minor leveling or
pre-emphasis to existing masters was
just standard procedure at that time,
not worthy of mastering credit as is
the squash-boost-&-brickwall-limit
job done on MOST "remasters"
since 2000, and practically any new
artist work.

When issuing Sinatra for CD, EMI/Capitol hit a brickwall.
They had all the Mastering Notes, except the custom made audio equipment was gone or replaced, rendering Mastering notes useless.

From what I see of early CDs is lack of knowledge HOW the songs should sound.
About 2000, Sony issued some CD sets, various artists. Like you mentioned, the digital Y2k age was here, so they reworked their archives. Not that is happened often, but if you were looking for "hit" versions, what most people remember, you might be disappointed with CDs, where songs were remixed. No, not disappointed about the "audio", but content. Because people who remixed, accidentally left in sounds, like a sour drum riff, that never existed before!

I'm generally happy what audio man laid down on CD. If I feel it could sound better (see Mastering Notes above), I can always alter it.

Jack