Anybody else got any AAD classical CDs '80's ?

At me it is a lot of acquaintances who listen to remasterings CD and they don't notice what difference in a sound between CD "the first press" and remasterings CD. Probably still all business in hearing? Probably all of us on a miscellaneous hear? On it round it so it is a lot of disputes!
As to DVD remasterings I with pleasure look old films, in it I am not choosy !

 

This orchestra was practically the house band for Naxos... many fine recordings. I was in Bratislava and wished to see them, but was unable to get tickets in time. Maybe next time.

 

Wrong.

 

I do not think DDD necessarily guarantees a better recording. DG may have done things digitally starting at the microphone but many audiophiles criticized the quantity of microphones. If the mikes are too many and too close, the benefits of pure digital signal path are undone by the harshness of being too close and phase issues. I'm sure this has been documented ad nauseum here and in audiophile journals. But, I think also that DG did genuinely try to purify their digital chain. The two are separate. Would Telarc qualify? How about Denon, who also were early adopters of microphone A-D conversion. I also was under the impression that the spars code referred to post-mixer A-D as still qualifying as DDD. That's one reason I really stopped paying attention to it as a buyer early. That and if I didn't make friends with AAD or ADD recordings I'd miss all the classic Living Stereo, Decca, EMI, Vox, Everest and Mercury recordings, almost all of the vintage classic performances audiophiles revere.

 

I'd thought it was confirmed (elsewhere on this site) that SPARS codes on 80's cd's were superfluous? ADD, AAD, and DAD discs were often incorrectly labeled.

 

No reason a Paco De Lucia record couldn't have been recorded digitally in 1978. I don't think that one was, though. I have the LP, which don't say anything about digital. In those days, in the 'classical' arena if something was digitally recorded, it was used as a big selling point on the packaging.

 

Hello Simon!
I to "see" very glad you here. I hope you can fill up our list?

 

As far as I know, the first digital records have appeared in 1979. Unless so?

 

What does it mean? " stereo new remixed master "

 

Thanks! And if original record has been made, for example, in 1973 and on a disk let out in 1987 is specified "DIGITALLY MASTERED" it can ADD? Or nevertheless it AAD?

 

Not classical. The common line for 1979 is Ry Cooder's Bop Till You Drop being the first pop record as digitally recorded.

 

I always wanted to find a CD whose SPARS code didn't end with D. I'll bet that would be quite a collectible, hehe.

 

Absolutely true, but I do remember clearly seeking out those DDDs in the late 80s/early 90s due to the perception that all digital was better. You could usually count on a very low noise floor as compared to stuff that was originally rushed to CD back when they'd use any 2nd gen vinyl EQ tapes just to get it on CD (which is one reason I'm not usually on the bandwagon for those sometimes coveted 1st release CDs that many here treasure). Of course, if you were just upgrading your 70s vinyl you were stuck with A in the first slot anyway (Brothers in Arms was the first DDD release I recall being impressed with as far as having a low noise floor and sounding nice and crispy).

Back to classical, the 3 CD Hindemith Conducts Hindemith series on Deutsche Grammaphon (as opposed to 1CD on EMI) is AAD and mono to boot. I'm no fan of mono, but these recordings and performances are so well done that the music just shines through.

 

Probably earliest record in DDD?

 

I believe Denon were making digital recordings in 1978. I have a 1983 Denon CD of 14 Scarlatti Sonatas recorded by a harpsicordist Huguette Dreyfus digitally in 1978 as per the CD booklet (this CD has pre-emphasised tracks, but no pre-emphasis flag in TOC).

 

How quickly we forget. I had it in my head that the SPARS code was for Recording, Mixing and Mastering, but the Wiki description you quoted made clear that editing was also involved, along with the need to go to 'tape' at each stage. I decided to check an old CD to make sure. Despite having hundreds, if not thousands, of discs in my collection with the old SPARS description, do you think I could immediately pull one out to check? I did eventually find one, and the description matched the Wiki entry. No idea how I convinced myself about the second code letter being only for mixing.

So, yes, the recording method I described would be DDD, but it would be indistinguishable from the DDD of a full digital mix according to SPARS.

I never got to go on a session with Eargle, but did numerous panels and demonstrations with him at AES and audio shows. A class act all the way. It was fun to get a bunch of tonmeisters together, have them listen to each others recordings, and then listen to them discuss the mics. used, placement, etc.

The most common analog board I have seen used in such recordings was the Studer. Polyhymnia uses a custom analog console, in fact, virtually everything they use is custom.

Somewhere in my collection I have some discs on a small independent label that ONLY used the first two letters of the SPARS code for this reason. I'll have to see if I can find which label.

Showing how stupid the SPARS code is, I pulled a Decca title (when searching for the SPARS code description) last night -- Ashkenazy's 70s recordings of Prokofiev's Piano Concertos -- and it contains the following:

ADD = ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL REMASTER

Here's the best overview I have found on this topic: http://www.aes.org/aeshc/pdf/fine_dawn-of-digital.pdf

 

^ the old Denon CD I have:

38C37 - 7095 Huguette Dreyfus (harpsicord) - D.Scarlatti: 14 Sonatas

was actually released in 1984 and recorded in PCM on July 1-3, 1978 by engineers Peter Willmoes & Takeaki Anazawa.

 

Yes, but it seems like they were still mastered to analog tape. The recordings were 'restored' via the Soundstream computer gear.

 

"The first commercial PCM/digital recording session was performed by DENON in 1972."

According to this page....

http://www.digital-recordings.com/publ/pubrec.html