TOTO All In Box Set: Remastering and reliving this legendary audiophile catalog

© Kevin Albinder

Interviews by Paul Vnuk Jr.

Toto is a rock band formed in 1977, best known for the hits, ‘Hold The Line’, ‘Rosanna’, and of course, ‘Africa’. The eponymous debut album was released in 1978, and fourteen studio albums later, the band is still together, touring and making music. In addition to its chart-topping success as a band, many of the group’s thirteen members over the years form a who’s who of respected virtuoso studio musicians, including drummers Jeff Porcaro, Simon Phillips, Shannon Forrest, and Keith Carlock, bassist Mike Porcaro, keyboardists Steve Porcaro, David Paich, and Greg Phillinganes, and of course guitarist Steve Lukather. Outside of Toto, these musicians’ collective studio discography is staggering, including being the backing band on Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

In 2018, for the band’s 40th anniversary of their debut album, they got together with famed audio engineer Elliot Scheiner to oversee the remastering of a 13-album box set of the Columbia Records portion of the Toto catalogue. This includes iconic albums like Toto IV and The Seventh One, as well as a collection of redone, restored, unfinished, and new recordings, titled Old Is New.

Remastering was done at Lurssen Mastering by Gavin Lurssen and Reuben Cohen, with Elliot Scheiner and members of Toto in attendance. Titled All In 1978-2018, the original deluxe set, which collected the albums on CD and vinyl along with accoutrements and a surround mix of Toto IV, is now sold out, but luckily a smaller, CD-only collection hit the shelves last month. With that, let’s find out from founding guitarist Steve Lukather, the team at Lurssen, and reissue producer Elliot Scheiner, how it all came together.