Tape Project Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: MylesAstor on August 26, 2011, 06:07:53 PM
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Non-tape topic but wanted to congratulate Paul S. on getting back into the record cutting business with the impending release of two new LPs from RR!!! Sounds like you've done a lot of work on your lathe!
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Any links to info about those lp's Myles?
That's great to hear that Reference in getting back into vinyl and I'd love to hop into the the "back patting" line. But even "I" have standards.
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Any links to info about those lp's Myles?
That's great to hear that Reference in getting back into vinyl and I'd love to hop into the the "back patting" line. But even "I" have standards.
Reference Recordings LPs: The Reference Mastercuts Series
TWO NEW RELEASES September 2, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO - For many years, RR has been searching the world over for the best possibl-e vinyl mastering, plating and pressing facilities so we could re-enter the LP market. We now have a production chain that will allow us to produce LPs to meet our high standards and satisfy our demanding customers, who have been waiting for these LPs for a long time!
Assembling the Team
Disc mastering is done at half-speed to insure maximum accuracy. The lathe system has custom electronics by Nelson Pass. The simple signal path contains no compression, equalization or unnecessary circuitry. RR Chief Engineer and Technical Director, "Prof." Keith Johnson consulted on the design of the system and helped with the rebuilding of the lathe and electronics, which is owned and operated by long-time mastering expert Paul Stubblebine. "Prof." Johnson has pronounced it equal to the challenge of our master tapes!
Once we achieved successful results in disc mastering, we faced the difficult task of choosing the best plating and pressing facility to manufacture our discs. Fortunately, the new Quality Record Pressings plant in Salina, Kansas was coming on line, and we feel that waiting for this plant to open was well worth it. Chad Kassem assembled a crack team of experts to design and run his new plant, employing many unique techniques and features that clearly set QRP apart from all other pressing plants. We believe the 200-gram deluxe vinyl pressings from QRP are truly exceptional.
Multiple Configurations for New Reference Mastercuts
Depending on program lengths, some new releases will be cut at 45 rpm, some at 33-1/3 rpm. Some will be single discs, some double. All will feature deluxe gate-fold jackets crafted by Stoughton Printing . An unusual feature of new RR masterings is what we call the "FDS finish": the end of each side will have a 30-second band of silent grooves before the "pull-away." No one today uses a record changer, and the silent grooves allow time to lift the arm before the always-somewhat-noisy tie-off. (Some 1950s vintage Capitol Full Dimensional Sound pressings sported this feature.) RR founder, J. Tamblyn (Tam) Henderson deserves special recognition for identifying the value of this unique production feature and reintroducing it with the new Mastercuts.
The first two releases are Dick Hyman From the Age of Swing and Stravinsky Firebird and Song of the Nightingale Eiji Oue and Minnesota Orchestra.
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Where is the "like button"?
Congrats. !
It is on RR's website under "Press Room"
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Non-tape topic but wanted to congratulate Paul S. on getting back into the record cutting business with the impending release of two new LPs from RR!!! Sounds like you've done a lot of work on your lathe!
Thanks Myles.
I wouldn't exactly say I'm getting back into cutting, since I've been cutting all along. Probably most of the cutting I do has not made it to your radar, but some of it gets a little notice. Just did a 4-sided LP for Incubus's new album, and did the LP work (not the CD) for Los Lobos's last one. And I do a little for MoFi too: Dead Can Dance, Stevie Wonder, B-52's, John Lennon, even KC and the Sunshine Band.
However these RR releases are special, as they are the result of a couple of years worth of hard work. They've been talking about getting back into vinyl for a long time. Eventually we all committed, and once we started down that path it turned into a long saga. I already had the cutting rig, but I had Keith helping me get it dialed in for their type of recordings. It was actually pretty amazing for me to have someone as talented as Keith diving in to help. In the end we had lowered the noise floor of the system quite a bit. It was good to start with, but the amount we improved it was surprising. Not everyone knows, but in addition to Keith's many other talents he has a reputation for an unusual ability to sniff out sources of noise and interference.
The new pressing plant that Chad Kassem put together is also turning out some very quiet LP's.
And there was, as always, a lot contributed by my regular technical engineer, Krieg Wunderlich. All together, the sytem is sounding pretty good. Put that together with Keith's recordings, and we're putting out an LP that I can feel proud of.
Here's the link to the press release:
http://www.referencerecordings.com/press.asp (http://www.referencerecordings.com/press.asp)
And a blog post from earlier:
http://referencerecordings.blogspot.com/2010/07/lp-report-featuring-paul-stubblebine.html (http://referencerecordings.blogspot.com/2010/07/lp-report-featuring-paul-stubblebine.html)
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Thanks guys.
That's exciting news!
Can't wait to hear 'em.
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Non-tape topic but wanted to congratulate Paul S. on getting back into the record cutting business with the impending release of two new LPs from RR!!! Sounds like you've done a lot of work on your lathe!
Thanks Myles.
I wouldn't exactly say I'm getting back into cutting, since I've been cutting all along. Probably most of the cutting I do has not made it to your radar, but some of it gets a little notice. Just did a 4-sided LP for Incubus's new album, and did the LP work (not the CD) for Los Lobos's last one. And I do a little for MoFi too: Dead Can Dance, Stevie Wonder, B-52's, John Lennon, even KC and the Sunshine Band.
However these RR releases are special, as they are the result of a couple of years worth of hard work. They've been talking about getting back into vinyl for a long time. Eventually we all committed, and once we started down that path it turned into a long saga. I already had the cutting rig, but I had Keith helping me get it dialed in for their type of recordings. It was actually pretty amazing for me to have someone as talented as Keith diving in to help. In the end we had lowered the noise floor of the system quite a bit. It was good to start with, but the amount we improved it was surprising. Not everyone knows, but in addition to Keith's many other talents he has a reputation for an unusual ability to sniff out sources of noise and interference.
The new pressing plant that Chad Kassem put together is also turning out some very quiet LP's.
And there was, as always, a lot contributed by my regular technical engineer, Krieg Wunderlich. All together, the sytem is sounding pretty good. Put that together with Keith's recordings, and we're putting out an LP that I can feel proud of.
Here's the link to the press release:
http://www.referencerecordings.com/press.asp (http://www.referencerecordings.com/press.asp)
And a blog post from earlier:
http://referencerecordings.blogspot.com/2010/07/lp-report-featuring-paul-stubblebine.html (http://referencerecordings.blogspot.com/2010/07/lp-report-featuring-paul-stubblebine.html)
Paul: Thanks for the correction and additional info! :)
Are the RR discs the first you've cut with the new lathe?
Also did you cut the Stevie Wonder Innervisions for MOFI? That was excellent and a lot better than I remember :)
Can't wait to hear the new RR discs you've cut and Chad's pressed. His new releases sound pretty special.
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Paul: Thanks for the correction and additional info! :)
Are the RR discs the first you've cut with the new lathe?
I'm not sure when to date the beginning of the "new" cutting system. I've had this lathe for about 20 years, I adapted the Neumann head to it and added the Pass electronics something like five years ago. Keith and Krieg and I did all the fine tuning over the last two years. A couple of other LP's have been cut with it in its current state--like the Incubus--but at real time. The RR LP's are the only ones I'm doing at half speed on this system.
Also did you cut the Stevie Wonder Innervisions for MOFI? That was excellent and a lot better than I remember :)
Can't wait to hear the new RR discs you've cut and Chad's pressed. His new releases sound pretty special.
I have cut four Stevie Wonder LPs' for MoFi. Two are out and two are still at the plant. "Innervisions" is not among them (yet.) The only LP reissue of that title that I'm aware of was put out by Motown and I don't know who cut the disks.
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Nice thread guys
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I have cut four Stevie Wonder LPs' for MoFi. Two are out and two are still at the plant. "Innervisions" is not among them (yet.) The only LP reissue of that title that I'm aware of was put out by Motown and I don't know who cut the disks.
Ooops it was Talking Book, not Innervisions, that is out on the MOFI, I think Silver series, label. I heard it and it was really good! Can't wait to hear your Stevie Wonder remasters!
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Paul:
One other question: were both LPs sourced from analog tapes run in parallel with Keith's digital recorder?
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I'll also mention that a few of those photos in the RR blog article were taken by Doc B.
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Hey Paul,
Just wondering what issues Keith and yourself addressed with your lathe? Not that I really know a damn thing about the inner workings of one. I'm just curious if it was something like the dynamic range of his session tapes etc?
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Steve,
As most people know, Keith captures a lot of dynamic range in his recordings (just listen to TP003.) This requires extreme dynamic range performance from every part of the chain. Generally we were finding and eliminating residual noise contributions that were already below what anyone could hear in most recordings--or on most pressings.
A cutting system is quite a bit more complicated than you might suspect. Besides the analog signal chain from the source through the processing to power amp outputs, there is a feedback signal generated from the cutter head, a turntable motor, groove spacing control circuitry, groove depth control circuitry, and suction for chip pickup and workholding. They are all connected together, so it took some effort to make sure all the grounding was optimized, then some more tricky stuff to make sure they weren't talking to each other in ways that weren't intended.
The Pass electronics were already designed for half speed cutting, so we didn't have much to do in that department. Primarily it was about lowering the noise floor.
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,.. and thus the need for lower surface noise on the lp.
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Is this accomplished in San Francisco?
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Here's a YouTube video that Acoustic Sounds made of the production chain for their Cat Stevens release.
Decent sound for a change!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uby5-HinbGU&feature=player_embedded
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Interesting that...thanks, Steve. :-)
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Is this accomplished in San Francisco?
Actually the lathe is set up in Pacifica, about 15 miles south. Right across the parking lot from RR World Headquarters.
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After reading about Quality Recordings setup in Stereophile this video is all icing. Thanks Steve, I will send this link to all my analog friends.
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Is this accomplished in San Francisco?
Actually the lathe is set up in Pacifica, about 15 miles south. Right across the parking lot from RR World Headquarters.
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Just did some listening to the Mobile Fidelity pressing of Alison Krauss and Union Station "So Long So Wrong".
I believe that Paul used the same lathe to do the half speed mastering of this 2 record set.
I can't imagine that vinyl could ever be any more resolving . There aren't the mad dynamics that are needed on a symphonic release but all the nuances that helps me get lost in this recording are there.
Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a performance which is as finely crafted as the songs on "So Long,.." That's one of the things I love about their records. Just zero rough edges from beginning to end.
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And I do a little for MoFi too: Dead Can Dance, Stevie Wonder, B-52's, John Lennon, even KC and the Sunshine Band.
How do MoFi LPs compare to the MoFis from 80's? I have collected quite a bit of selection of MoFi's, especially "Let's Dance" by David Bowie.
Btw. Is the 'Demo' version of MoFi better than regular MoFis?
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Btw. Is the 'Demo' version of MoFi better than regular MoFis?
What do you mean by 'Demo' version?
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This is probably opening a can of worms you don't want to open and I understand if you don't want to answer this directly, but I will ask anyway.
Now that you have mastered some of Keith's tapes to both the TP format and to vinyl, I am curious as to how you would compare the strengths and weaknesses of each format. Also, what about the intermediate phase like the running master dupe for the tape vs. a fresh cut lacquer from his master (as opposed to a vinyl pressing). Is his master tape from his analog machine patched into the lathe or is there another intermediate step in that process?
Reason I ask is that I have had a friend with an excellent lathe cut something right off of a safety copy of a tape (15 ips/ 2track) without alteration (real time @45), and that lacquer blows away most pressings I have heard. It pretty much sounds like the tape.
(BTW, I think Doc heard a 16/44.1 CD reduction of one cut from that lacquer that I brought to the show in the bay area recently in the room where he was playing TP tapes with Luke Manley's amps.)
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Btw. Is the 'Demo' version of MoFi better than regular MoFis?
What do you mean by 'Demo' version?
Sorry for the late reply, but I forgot where I had saved information, but while doing the 'house cleaning' today, I found the info.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/170702368458?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649