Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Southern Accents [HDTracks] (2015)

This album is the Heartbreakers'€™ sixth and featured multiple producers on various tracks including Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, Jimmy Iovine, Dave Stewart, and Robbie Robertson. It was recorded at Gone Gator One Studios, Sound City, Village Recorder, Sunset Sound, and Church Studio, London. Southern Accents made it to number 7 on the US Billboard 200 after its release in 1985. Singles from this album include "Make It Better (Forget About Me)", "Rebels" and "Don'€™t Come Around Here No More", which peaked at number 13 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Producer’s Note: Tom Petty Hi-Res Remastering
The Hi-Res (24bit 96K) remastering of the Tom Petty catalog reveals a level of detail that was only previously heard by a select group of musicians, producers and engineers in the studio. It’s as close to the sound of original stereo master as you can get. We’re very happy with the way it came out, and believe it’s an important way to preserve the legacy of this great body of work.

If hearing the highest possible sound quality is important to you, then this is where you’ll get it.

The remastering was done in the fall of 2014 by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. I supervised it and Tom approved it. Great care was taken to find the original first-generation masters and transfer them with minimal eq and little or no dynamic range compression. In cases where the first-generation masters were unusable, we used the best sounding second-generation masters.*

To allow for full dynamic range, and to let the music “breathe” the Hi-Res versions have about 6-8db less digital level than a typical “loud” peak-limited CD or mp3. To enjoy these albums to their fullest extent, play them back though a good system and turn up the volume.

With this increased level of detail and sonic impact, we hope you'll enjoy rediscovering these great albums as much as we did!

—Ryan Ulyate, April 2014

* Everything in the catalog was generated from the original first-generation masters except: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, You’re Gonna Get It, Pack Up The Plantation (reels 1-3) and Southern Accents. These were mastered in Hi-Res from second-generation “EQ Copies”, as the original masters were unplayable. These source tapes include any EQ, level and dynamic processing added (with the approval of the album’s producers) during the original mastering sessions. Aside from the original vinyl pressings all subsequent releases used these tapes as the source.