Tape Project Forum
General Category => Prerecorded Tapes => Topic started by: TomR on August 22, 2011, 09:11:43 PM
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The Sonorus Audio web site (see thread below in the hardware section) mentions two producers of tapes - The Tape Project, of course, but also Yarlung records. I checked their web site and saw some vinyl for sale but no tape. Anyone with information?
Tom
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The Sonorus Audio web site (see thread below in the hardware section) mentions two producers of tapes - The Tape Project, of course, but also Yarlung records. I checked their web site and saw some vinyl for sale but no tape. Anyone with information?
Tom
Tom:
Yarlung Records' recordings are recorded by Bob Attiyeh on a modded Studer deck. The recordings are simple and basically he's chosen to record some promising young musicians.
At the moment, the recording are available on CD or LP, I think mastered by Steve Hoffman. I've gotten four of the tapes in from Greg Beron to listen to and will be commenting on them in PFO shortly. The best of the four is the award winning Antonio Lysy recording. As far as availability, the tapes will be out in Sept. on one reel containing selections from the CD/LP and will cost $125/reel. Right now there are four tapes and hopefully will be more given any interest.
Charlie and Rich heard them over here a couple of weeks ago and might add their comments!
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As far as availability, the tapes will be out in Sept. on one reel containing selections from the CD/LP and will cost $125/reel
Hi Myles...at this price point my guess would be 7 inch reels at 7 1/2 IPS? Hopefully they will be 2 track. Using some of my ancient 2 track tapes as a reference, 2-track at 7 1/2 IPS can certainly sound darned good.
cheers
Grant
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Grant, Those tapes will actually be 15ips/2track tapes on 10.5" reels with IEC EQ. However it is only a selection of the original album on one reel.
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I see there is general availablity of the first four Yarlung tapes -has anyone taken the plunge?
Tom
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I have the Dialoghi tape. It is a superb tape, well worth the expense. http://www.yarlungrecords.com/analog.html#a1 (http://www.yarlungrecords.com/analog.html#a1)
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Hey guys,
Thanks for keeping us updated on this exciting news!
I just ordered the 4 tapes. (I guess my new laptop will just have to wait!)
I'm happy to support new tape releases as well as Arian Jensen who I have great respect for (on top of being a super nice guy).
Here's hoping that they will have success with these tape releases and that others will follow.
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I just ordered the set of 4 tapes. Thanks for letting us know about these tapes. Coincidentally, I had just ordered two of the releases (Art of Violin and Argentine Music) on vinyl yesterday. Since they are both more comprehensive than the tapes, I will not cancel them. I'll let you know how they compare. Larry
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Man that's a great deal on 4 tapes! Sad/good I didn't click the link when I bought Dialoghi. I know, I know 'resistance is futile'
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Looking forward to your comments on these tapes. A little disappointed to find out they do not have the complete contents of the LPs - guess they would have been twice as expensive. However, I personally believe that the existence of others doing tape, using the same standards as The Tape Project, is likely a good thing.
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Steve/Larry - do either of you have your Yarlung tapes yet? If so, any comments?
Tom
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Hey Tom,
I should get them this week.
Hopefully the music is good and not your run of the mill audiophile ho hum performances.
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Hi Tom, I got the tapes today. They actually arrived on Saturday, but I have been out of town. I'll give a listen, particularly to the two which I also have in vinyl. Looks like the tapes have about 3/4 of the content of the vinyl. They are recorded on RGMI 468, about 30+ minutes, or one quite full 2400 foot tape - 15ips 2 track, tails out. Larry
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I listened to two of the tapes tonight( Janaki String Q. and Dialoghi) and they sound excellent.
The music on both of these is 2/3rds 20th century compositions while the remaining piece is more well known. Folks that know me won't be surprised that I'm happy with the selections since I just can't get enough "modern" music.
Many of the performers are young and/or up and coming and the venues sound to be on the smaller side. These two elements give these recordings a "recital" sound and feel. It really takes me back to the days when I was heavily involved in the classical music scene and makes me want to attend more of these "smaller" local events.
You won't hear any polishing by editing or overdubs, nor will you hear any massaging of the sound.
What you will hear is everything that you would have if you'd been at the actual event. No more and no less.
These are very "fresh" sounding recordings and if you like the music, I think you'll love these tapes.
I'm not sure if these guys will be releasing more tapes (and neither do they at this point), but I'm happy to have these and I hope they'll release more.
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I got a chance to listen to the four tapes today as well as compare the Music from Argentina tape with the Yarlung record. To cut to the chase, the tapes all are quite excellent in sound quality. The Argentina tape is a big step better than the vinyl, which is quite fine. As is typical, the tape gets you closer to what I think is the sound of the master tape. Bob Attiyeh dubs each tape to order, 15ips 2 track, CCIR EQ, tails out on RMGI SM468 2500' 1/4 inch reels. He emailed me after my order that it would take him about a week to do the tapes, since he had a recording session to do. All the artists are new or relatively unknown and Bob has recorded them in different LA area venues. Steve Hoffman and Bob were the mastering engineers and in one album Kevin Gray as was a mastering engineer. As mentioned earlier, the tapes have between 28 and 32 minutes of content each, about 2/3 of the content of the corresponding albums. It appears that Bob uses a very simple recording system - all analogue. The packaging is much simpler and less elegant than the TP. He reuses the RMGI boxes, with printed labels on the cover, spine and reel. A copy of the album artwork is enclosed as well as liner notes, modified for the shortened content. The reels are also the original RMGI SM468 metal NAB hubs. There are no spliced leaders and the tapes are loose on the reels.
A few specific comments: Aside from the Argentina tape, the other three titles are all classical, with each one having at least one piece that is being debuted or was written for the performers. There are also other 20th century pieces on all of the albums. There are two earlier pieces - the Bach Cello Suite 1 on one album, and the Beethoven String Trio Op9No3 on another. The classical artists were supported by the Yarlung Artists Foundation which is a non-profit 501(c)(3) funded by contributions. Interestingly, the production of one of the tape releases, the Janaki String Trio album, was underwritten by Arian and Sophia Jansen.
An interesting coincidence. The violist of the Janaki String Trio is Katie Kadarauch, who at 32, is my daughter's age. They played in the Oakland Youth Orchestra at the same time in the early '90's. I used to carpool to drive my daughter and Katie to the orchestra practice, since their family lives in the same town as we do. Her dad, David, is the long time principal cellist of the San Francisco Opera and Ballet orchestras. Katie was quite a prodigy. She was principal cellist of the orchestra in her first year (as a fifth grader when most of the orchestra members were in high school or even in college). When the conductor needed a strong leader for the second violin section her second year, he asked her to switch to principal second violin. Her third year, she transferred over to the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, and played the viola. Since 2007, Katie has been assistant principal violist for the San Francisco Symphony.
I would recommend buying the tapes as an adjunct to the TP tapes. The artists and repertoire are very different, and they very much complement the releases of the TP at a reasonable price for what you get. They also add more classical music, mostly modern classical, to the 15ips, 2 tr CCIR, tails out catalog.
Thanks, Larry
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Steve and Larry - thanks for the comments on these tapes. I hope to soon join you as owners of all four.
Tom
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As I mentioned in my review, the Janaki was my favorite from a musical and sonic perspective. It will be interesting to hear Bob's newer recordings that will be done on Arian's Sonorus deck! I posit they will be even better :)
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Myles, I finally got a chance to read your PFO (I had to scratch my brain to remember what PFO stood for) review of the Yarlung tape releases. You did a fine job of describing these tapes as well as some background of Yarlung. I assume the shot of the Technics R2R was yours. It will be interesting to hear what Bob is getting from Arian's SonoruS machine. I heard one of his first PR99's that he did that Philip O'Hanlon had two or three years ago and was very impressed.
Thanks, Larry