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Author Topic: Acetate Crazy!  (Read 7786 times)

Offline ironbut

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Acetate Crazy!
« on: November 07, 2008, 11:54:06 PM »
My name is ironbut and I'm an acetate addict! Along the road to collecting some jazz standards I began to notice the sound on many of the acetate tapes I was getting was more balanced and smoother. As far as I can tell, the switch from acetate happened in the mid 60's for the majors. Perhaps U47 can correct me on that. I've seen some very old tapes that he has in his collection (to die for I'm sure) so I'm sure he knows what I'm talking about here.
I'm not sure if I can attribute it to the tape stock itself since these tapes were made during the years when prerecorded tapes were something of an elite medium. Was the duping speed lower? Was the processing for these releases tape specific without some of the compression that was required for vinyl?  I don't have that many acetate classical issues and most of those are 1/2 track. Their sound can range from excellent to mediocre even within a label series (with the same catalog number prefix). But the jazz acetate tapes have all been very special.
These tapes used to scare me a little since they can be extremely fragile and sometimes you have to deal with multiple splices or even the first track being partially gone. But I've come to the conclusion that this is a small price to pay for the sound quality that a well cared for very early tape can contain.
Any opinions on this? Have I gone totally off the edge on this one?
steve koto
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Offline Ben

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Re: Acetate Crazy!
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2008, 07:06:00 AM »
Are you sure, you are not smokeing something around there?
My only guess, would be no tape stretch on the acetate. The other
types of tape might creap over time rather than stretch.
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Offline steveidosound

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Re: Acetate Crazy!
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2008, 05:06:20 PM »
I always have an opinion.
I would suggest that the duplication speeds back then were lower  and closer to 1:1 so even with the poorer tape, heads and electronics it still was a net gain.
I have also been told that modern machines will reveal more of what was on the tape than the  playback electronics and heads would reveal back then, so older tapes had in effect a better recording than they thought they put there.
Last, jazz is just a bit more simple and although it might have a lot of dynamics, the number of players is fewer and the environment is not really quite the same as a symphonic recording, so it is in a sense easier to get an excellent jazz recording than one of a large symphonic work for any given recording process.
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Offline ironbut

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Re: Acetate Crazy!
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2008, 07:23:18 PM »
Points well take Steve. I'll see if I can dig up any particulars regarding duplicating lines of that era but I'm sure you're right.
Did you ever have any luck with your Moody Blues tape?
steve koto
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Offline Ben

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Re: Acetate Crazy!
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2008, 07:42:36 PM »
One other factor to consider, mixing consoles did not use lots of
op amps as they do today, you may have got a better mix back then,
since you don't have transistor distortion.
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Offline ironbut

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Re: Acetate Crazy!
« Reply #5 on: November 08, 2008, 09:37:14 PM »
That sparks a memory Ben. Way back in the early days of this forum I suggested a great film with mixing consoles with great big knobs. " Tom Dowd and the Language of Music" follows the career of this recording legend and is very entertaining to boot. If you haven't seen it, I'm sure that the DVD is available online (or maybe even a download from iTunes).
http://www.thelanguageofmusic.com/
steve koto
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Offline Ben

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Re: Acetate Crazy!
« Reply #6 on: November 08, 2008, 10:19:33 PM »
Cough Cough ... Itunes :)
I'll keep it mind, some time in the new year when I order more CD's.
Right now I need to find some oops parts, for my Otari MX-5050.
I lost one of the tiny washer/spacers, on the pinch roller when I took
it off to oil the captson. So it is a opps part. :(.  They call it a polywasher.
F523-6 AND A NEW pinch roller cap KP0C020. The less noise my deck makes
more I can hear the music. In radio station, so what if the deck makes a little
noise, the audiance can't hear a thing. How ever at home one can.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2008, 11:45:32 PM by Ben »
Set 45,Open baffle speakers,Otari 5050,,Pioneer DV-79AVi DVD/CD/SCAD player