On 07/10/05, Laurens van Graft <lvangraft@mac.com> wrote:
I would imagine that the masters were saved on DAT (for plane Jane folks, that's Digital Audio Tape). Something that was around then, but not affordable to the 'common man'. I would imagine that as the early work was created in part with a 'FAIRLIGHT' (model III i think), the additional expense of owning a DAT would be minimal, and yet necessary for archiving the creations. Thus, the originals were (probably) not converted to Analogue except to master the vinyl, or release the 'CASSETTE' tapes (anyone remember those?), rendering the original material as crisp and clean as possable, without any tape hiss
OK, well definitely in the UK today if you are to release vinyl or CD, then it must start to the record company on a DAT 44.1 (but 48k is acceptable to some companies) I know this, I do it.
(anyone listen to the original CD release of Pink Floyd's DARK SIDE OF THE MOON? OK, that was a cheep stab at connecting YELLO, to PINK FLOYD, but listening to that, even though it was on CD, the origial master was on Reel to Reel tape, and the tape hiss is deafining! It was so bad, that they had to re-record the album to allow it to be enjoyed on CD.
Subtle difference. Remaster generally infers that the started with the best copy, be this the original multitrack, requiring (effectively) a remix, or the final 2 track mixdown if this is of sufficient quality, but any remix from the multitracks may introduce errors from the original mix. Yes I know dark side, and I own an SQ quadraphonic version, and the kit to listen to it, and this is signicficantly different from the 5:1 DTS version which does not have discrete rear channels as the SQ system does. So which is the original mix? Pink Floyd only authorized the 1973 stereo mix by Alan Parsons, The same Alan went on to mix the quad version but without the Floyd involvement. If we are now listening to a 5:1 DTS or a remix from the multitrack by someone else, which is the original? Does it matter?
This might explane the great sound quality of the Remaster Series.
Led Zepplin remasters came from Jimmy Page, so are reasonably faithful. In this case Yello again have remastered, so I'd expect cosher mixes, but accept the possibility it isn't quite how I remember the vinyl hitting my stylus. And you can hear tape hiss on vinyl!
Trivia Question now, What was the first ever released DDD Rock n' Roll album released?
Um dunno, I know Dire Straits made a big thing of "Brothers In Arms", but we still ended up with an original DDD disk getting the remaster treatment, what's all that about then? (Yes I know it's HDCD). On the subject of tape hiss, as I said you generally can hear it on vinyl if you have a good enough and clean enough copy, but it can also serve as as useful dither for digital signals, improving the rendition of the audio. In some cases it is also somewhat "romantic" in the way you remember a sound, even down to the pop or click of a record, and filtering that out from a digital transfer does sometimes feel like you've lost the spirit of that sound, and it's been said to me by others. My copy of blue-green has tracking distortion on the vinyl. This was the track that started me on my Yello odyssey. I have the original CD release, and, it just doesn't sound the same to me, I wonder how the remaster will leave me feeling? Nic.
Laurens van Graft The Grip Guy (thegripguy@rogers.com) All your gymnastics grip needs right here!
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