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Author Topic: The Reference Recording sources.  (Read 20736 times)

Romy the Cat

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The Reference Recording sources.
« on: November 15, 2007, 10:43:27 PM »
I was looking at your catalog and have seen a couple RR recordings? Perhaps I am wrong but did Mr. Johnson recorded then using 20Bit possessor with HDCD compression? Are you making your tapes from those raw files? If it is so then I do not think that it is very kosher, is it?

Rgs, Romy the caT

Offline docb

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Re: The Reference Recording sources.
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2007, 11:09:43 PM »
The titles we have released were recorded on Keith's analog tape machine. And the 1" running masters we use are straight transfers of the original session tapes played back from Keith's machine onto our 1" ATR.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Romy the Cat

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Re: The Reference Recording sources.
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2007, 06:15:35 AM »
Hm, I did not know that RR recorded on tape.

Now more about ?kosherness? as I had a dual ?hidden? meaning asking what I asked. If you Dan have an access to RR tapes then I presume that you might have access to RR?s master filled. I am not taking about the commercially available HDCD encoded 16/44 files that severely compromised by CD-stamping but the original raw 24/88 files that never saw any DSP possessing of any kind. If you know what I mean and if you are familiar with the quality the raw files might offer then did you consider using those files (or perhaps others) as the sources for your releases?

Another reason why I ask because the current ?a girl with banjo? repertoire of the Tape Project might have some room for improvement toward to real music?.

Rgs, The cat

Offline jdcolombo

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Re: The Reference Recording sources.
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2007, 06:54:19 AM »

Another reason why I ask because the current ?a girl with banjo? repertoire of the Tape Project might have some room for improvement toward to real music?.

Rgs, The cat


I don't understand that last sentence.  If you look at The Tape Project's album listing, there is everything I'd call "real music" - the last three releases are classic jazz collectors items that people have bar fights over; there is the Albeniz, Horenstein-Hindemith violin concertos.  I'm not sure what you are looking for, but calling the scheduled releases all "a girl with a banjo" is patently silly.

John C.
John Colombo
Savoy, IL

Offline docb

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Re: The Reference Recording sources.
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2007, 10:59:09 AM »
Hi John,

Romy is a guy who apparently feels he must be insulting to get people to pay attention to his opinion. He has a long track record of this kind of behavior and has been banned from other forums. I suspect Romy is a pretty intelligent guy who could offer constructive contributions if he could just master his demons and be civil enough that he doesn't piss off every person he talks to.
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline High and Outside

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Re: The Reference Recording sources.
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2007, 11:06:15 AM »
Hm, I did not know that RR recorded on tape.

Now more about ?kosherness? as I had a dual ?hidden? meaning asking what I asked. If you Dan have an access to RR tapes then I presume that you might have access to RR?s master filled. I am not taking about the commercially available HDCD encoded 16/44 files that severely compromised by CD-stamping but the original raw 24/88 files that never saw any DSP possessing of any kind. If you know what I mean and if you are familiar with the quality the raw files might offer then did you consider using those files (or perhaps others) as the sources for your releases?

Reference Recordings began before the digital era, and all their earlier recordings were done on Keith's custom built focused-gap analog recorder. Once they started recording digitally, they still ran the digital and analog recorders in parallel on sessions for several more years. The digital recorder was the source for the CD's, and the analog tape was used to cut the LP's. Once they stopped making LP's, they stopped recording to the analog machine.

I am very familiar with the higher resolution digital files, since I have been doing all their mastering for the last couple of decades. We edit the material at the higher resolution--sometimes 88/24, sometimes 176/24--and use that as the source for the CD master.

Keep your ear to the ground, there may be developments soon that will allow the home listener to hear those recordings at their native resolution, but those developments won't come from The Tape Project. The Tape Project will not be using the digital files as a source for our tapes. We work only from original analog sources.
Paul Stubblebine
Managing Director, The TapeProject

Offline xcortes

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Re: The Reference Recording sources.
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2007, 11:09:50 AM »
what do all those 88s, 24s 176s etc mean?
Xavier Cortes

Romy the Cat

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Re: The Reference Recording sources.
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2007, 12:50:27 PM »
Dan,

I have no idea where do you feel me insulting anymore, assure you it was your inflated imagination not my intentions. I also, as I hope you know, have no needs to attract attention to my options as I, in contrary to other people I know, do not capitalize in selling my opinions. It would be also nice is you do not spared bogus disinformation about me. (I was referring to banned from other forums)

John,
I hope that I am still with my birth-rights do not consider the ?classic jazz collectors items that people have bar fights over? as anything worth my interest, am I?

Rgs, Romy the Cat

Offline High and Outside

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Re: The Reference Recording sources.
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2007, 06:14:28 PM »
what do all those 88s, 24s 176s etc mean?

Xavier,

These are all measures of quality in digital recording. The 88 means a sample rate of 88KHz, double that of the CD. And 176 is twice as much again. 24 refers to 24 bit, compared to CD's 16 bit. Without going into a long treatise--books have been written on this--higher numbers reflect better sound quality. Many people, including Reference Recordings as well as many others, do their initial recordings at a higher quality than the CD will allow. Having heard the higher quality recordings many times over many years, I can testify that Hi-Res digital is capable of a much better sound than our old friend the CD.

Is it good enough? Well, the work we have taken on just in order to make an all-analog product must give you a hint about how we feel.
Paul Stubblebine
Managing Director, The TapeProject