nytimes article: vinyl-lp-frenzy-brings-record-pressing-machines-back-to-life

Nice to see NYT talking about our beloved format still, too bad that they said nothing new.

All this pending doom about the current projected lifespan of the vinyl industry... Think I'll go out and buy a Swedish Analogue Technologies tonearm! When the compact disc was introduced, I bought a Sondek Lp12 instead of a CD deck. Still have the TT, would bet few have a digital deck of that day that was sonically worthy of saving from a land fill. I was right then, and I'll be right again... Whanna bet?

 

Different tapes have different hiss characteristics and the higher the quality, the less the hiss. Virgin recording tape starts out with less hiss compared to used tape which has been bulk erased. Especially in the 70's, the record companies, especially CBS group, cheaped out and made their new recordings on used tapes. There have been articles written about this practice. Each time you play a tape, oxide particles are lost and when they are bulk erased, even more is ripped of the tape. The process we used at the radio station is we would take each tape reel or cart and move it around on the top of the electro magnet. We would then flip them over and do the same. After awhile, the tapes would be unusual. Looking at the magnetic tape, it looked like the top of the Rocky mountains. At that point they went in the trash.

No. Never have heard that Van Halen album from DCC. Just the original LP.

There was NEVER a stereo mix of "Hot Fun..". The "stereo" mix that you heard on the CD's was actually the SQ encoded quadraphonic version. If you play this CD track through an SQ decoder, it splits up into the same mish-mash quad as the LP. The same goes for the other "new" stereo tracks you've heard on CD which previously had only been in mono or fake stereo. All these new mixes were made for "Sly And The Family Stone's Greatest Hits" quadraphonic versions on LP and 8-track.

The splice? It's so obvious that you would trip over it in the mono or quad versions. The fake stereo version kinda mulls it over. Well, it happens about :59 into the song when the woman sings "want".

 

All true, but it seems like you are conflating tape hiss with the quality of work.

Most engineers would blackout the gaps. Hoffman decided to leave them as they were on the tape. I don't recall why, but He has had no complaints that I know of. It gives you the complete master tape experience that the inhabitants this forum like.

That stereo mix (there are three, actually) was taken from the multitracks. They mimicked that SQ quad mix for whatever reason. None of them match that unique mono mix, though. One stereo mix, the one that shows up on Sony's "Pop Music: The Golden Era 1951-1975 comes the closest to the mono single, but the piano is still too loud.

OK, we have two opposing comments. There are industry people who read this forum, and one of them worked on a stereo mix of this song. Anyone care to jump in here?

That sounds like a tape dropout, not a splice.

 

I'm pretty sure those $10 Sun Ra records that I buy are digitally sourced but they are Sun Ra, gotta have the big sleeve and a lot of his stuff isn't audiophile anyway. I'm happy if they aren't off center or too warped.

 

No. Not a real dropout. It's a well-known splice in the tape and was done poorly, which would cause a dropout. It exists on the original multi-track and affects all mixes made from it. I just wonder how Steve Hoffman will handle it in the forthcoming 4.0 SACD.

 

That was part of the 100 year anniversary CD set, which I have. I will listen to it tonight.

 

He'd probably leave it in because it's part of history.

 

OK. I listened to "Hot Fun...." on both CD's "Pop Music The Golden Era 1951-1975" (J2K-65791) part of the "Soundtrack For A Century" boxed set and "Rock Artifacts Vol. 1"(CK-46160), both the same exact mix, which is the SQ quad mix and sounds the same as my quad LP "Greatest Hits"(EQ-30325). Now, on the "Anthology" CD(EGK-37071), that is the same re-channeled stereo version as on the stereo "Greatest Hits" LP(KE-30325). This is also the same fake stereo version re-issued in 1975 on EPIC 45rpm single (8-50119). This single was also released in a promotional version with the original mono mix on the flip side.
Steve Hoffman has been working on the SACD AF "Greatest Hits" album which will have the true 4.0 quad version, which is due next month. Hopefully he doesn't use the fake stereo versions and uses the original mono single mixes in place of these. I've already got my pre-order in.

 

Hoffman never uses rechannelled, or "fake" stereo for anything.

You haven't given me any evidence that those versions were not mixed from the multitracks.

 

Absolutely.

 

To be true to history, as fake stereo was used on some of the tracks in the original and subsequent re-issues of "Greatest Hits", he should. And on a dedicated thread for the forthcoming SACD, Steve was asking us if he should do it as-is or substitute mono versions.
If you have that first set of Beatles Capitol Albums, they used the fake stereo as was on the original Capitol LP's. But that is a different story.

All versions of "Hot Fun..." were mixed from multi-tracks, there were no fold-downs. As far as evidence, if you don't have a quadraphonic set-up similar to the one which I have that decodes most of the common matrix quad formats, you'll never be able to tell that the stereo one's are SQ quad. You could also research articles mentioning this stereo & quad relationship which came out when the first stereo version of "Hot Fun..." came out in the "Rock Artifacts" series. I think I read somewhere that Sony even admitted it.

 

Are records big? Round? Tactile? Do they have big covers and liner notes? Oh good, I thought something had changed to alter their distinguished hundred year history and remarkable / unheard of resurgence. I especially like digitally sourced vinyl because that chunk of diamond trawling through a groove creates a distinct warmth that none of the digital counterparts, such as CD, can report. Finally, a harsh digital sound can be enjoyed again, through the magic of vinyl. It's here to stay, as well it should be.

 

Apparently there is a NEW pressing plant due to start up in Canada:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...ilding-new-pressing-machines/article28507701/

 

They are making new record presses:
"Viryl Technologies has designed a modernized, fully automated record press that will hit factory floors later this year."

“We’re going to collect all this dark information that’s never been known in record pressing before,” Mr. Brown says. “Nozzle pressure, temperature, all this data that’s necessary to actually make a perfect record. In the fifties and sixties, they didn’t have this technology.”

"Viryl plans to sell its presses well beyond Canada’s borders."
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I hope this works out well.

 

Very curious to see how these new presses work out.

 

I just went to the Viryl Technology website and the new presses are impressive looking.

http://www.viryltech.com/

 

Hear hear.

I'm a big fan of digitally-sourced vinyl, regardless of how much it gets trashed by analog purists.