Culture Factory

What do you guys think of this process and their remastering efforts in general. I have 2 of their cd's one great, and one poor......would love to know what our host thinks of this process.

Culture Factory, uses professional, high-definition, digital audio equipment (see images below) in our meticulous remastering of the albums that we reissue.

Why do we remaster?
Our remastering process represents a virtual facelift of the music that enables you to experience true listening pleasure and where you can hear some frequencies that are absent or poorly captured on vinyl or other media. Remastering brings out the music’s true dynamics, clarity and pre-existing low levels of noise, not restored by using filters, unless it is absolutely necessary. HD remastering uses some signal compression in order to rediscover frequencies that were not or little heard in the original recordings.

How is this accomplished?
Record companies provide us with an audio transfer of the original, analog audio tracks on digital media (CDR - DVD audio, DAT or direct file online transfer). From this transferred audio our studio engineer creates a remastered set of tracks focusing their complete attention in the following areas:

- Sound level

- Frequencies (bass, midrange and treble)

- Hiss (if necessary, hiss is removed from older recordings using the de-noiser)

The steps in our remastering process:

- Transfer the audio tracks to a YAMAHA 03D digital mixing console
- If necessary the signal is passed through a noise reduction processer
- The audio tracks are saved in the format of 96Kz / 24-bit (the gold standard for optimal digital sound) using an Alesis Finalize 96K & 24-bit recorder.
- The tracks are then saved to the hard disk in 24-bit Alesis standard.
- Finally the master tracks are burned onto an audio CD in 16-bit format, the standard format that can be read by standard CD players, but the sound has lost none of its fidelity during the remastering process due to the use of the 96K/24bit format.

Tips for listening to our remastered CDs
There is no need to use a high level of amplification, the disc is already encoded at a robust level. In general, it is also not necessary to adjust the playback settings for bass, midrange and treble. Rather, leave your equalization set to flat settings and, in particular, refrain from using a loudness filter. Our CDs are already configured with all that is necessary for the optimal listening experience.

Of course, depending on your audio equipment, especially your speakers, and in order to please your own, audiophile ears, it is up to you to optimize your playback settings to suit your personal taste and sound perception, which varies among individuals.

We hope you enjoy listening to the high-quality, remastered HD audio that we take great pride to use for the CD vinyl replicas from Culture Factory USA.

 

I wonder why this label hasn't issued anything by either Culture Club or Fiction Factory? Seems like a missed opportunity, as neither group's catalog has yet been released in the super compressed format.

 

Hmmm...might be worth starting a label called Fiction Club then and getting the rights to those two bands.

 

I bought Hot Tuna's Yellow Fever. It is massively compressed/brick-walled.

 

One man's brickwall is another man's delightful robust level:

 

Sorry I can't resist again......

Tips for looking at our remastered CDs Mini Lp Sleeves
The simulated LP Covers of our Culture Factory reissues are printed with our own proprietary inks on our own proprietary paper. When photographed alone against a plain white background they will appear on your picture to be actual LP sized. However they are in fact miniaturized to a smaller size. The robust inks used in this process automatically interact with your own eyeballs cones and rods and will allow for the miniaturized typeface to actually be read by the naked eye. Magnification will not be necessary we have magnified them for you.

Of course depending on your actual eyes a magnifying device such as a magnifying lens may be required to further enhance the built in pleasure center of your brain which is directly fed from your personal cones and rods.

We hope you enjoy looking at the high-quality, miniature replica's that we take great pride to use for our BRICKWALLED CD's from Culture Factory USA.

 

Nice packaging and true-to-the-original record labels on the CDs' faces ... and LOUD music.

 

What a shame about the loud mastering because they have some really attractive titles.

 

I just bought the James Brown "It's A Mother" release.
If only the sound was as good as the packaging - the sound is very loud with zero texture.
I used the level meters on my EQ to check, (meters only EQ was off) every one was all the way to the top.
Back to the vinyl, this thing sounds atrocious.

 

Aural equivalent of cats getting murdered. And those are the good ones.

 

I bought three of the Jefferson Airplane titles: Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing at Baxter's, and Crown of Creation.

They are very loud. But I have to confess I think they sound great. On each of the cds there is one volume zone where it all coheres into a three dimensional warm and fuzzy mass of psychedelic goodness. If your system sounds really good in that volume zone, it's a great listen. It sounds the way I remember these LPs sounding in the 'seventies cranked up at parties, etc. Crown of Creation especially sounds like the reel to reel copy a then friend blasted on his tape deck centered system.

Sue me, I think these sound quite the way psychedelic rock should, I like them. I ordered the rest. They have that fat "too loud" tube amp sound.

As for their process: if they backed off the compression a little more would like them and they would have a broader "volume usage" range. Too bad, but I still like these plenty.

 

I picked up the Hot Tuna collection and yes...they are loud however I think they sound better than the flat sounding originals out there. The Real Gone issue of the S/T one that Vic A mastered blows the Culture Factory one away but aside from that one the rest of the catalog are my go to discs now.

 

Avoid!!!!

 

No disrespect, but this sounds like a bunch of qualifiers and disclaimers to justify even an OK sound. These discs are not great listens. In fact, those old tube-driven recordings should sound great on anything ... by design. I felt absolutely cheated when I heard them. I wasn't old enough to hear these at parties in the 70s but I was old enough to hock Culture Factory's Jefferson Airplane reissues at a local used record store. I can't get behind any label who shows respect to the artists and their music by selfishly going out of their way to mangle the sound and then pimp it out as an improvement.

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy them. My qualifiers are precise: there is a volume level these open up and sound great on my system and I enjoy them. If you didn't, fair enough. No disrespect, but your language "mangle the sound and then pimp it out as an improvement" is excessive in my opinion.

They're certainly not releases for purists. I gave up being one of those. I like these three and will continue to listen to them.

 

The Culture Factory CDs are loud but they aren't unlistenable at all.

 

John Cale's Helen of Troy is amplified to the max but i like it more than the Island Years or Island masters cd's.

 

I'm not a purist. Hardly. I like good sound, however. I've worked on music reissue projects for both big and microscopic labels and I believe there should be at least some standard -- some level of care toward the sonics and presentation -- when rendering what many consider to be "art" for mass consumption. Culture Factory mangles album sonics -- up one side and down the other in many cases -- and then passes them off as audiophile reissues. That's not hyperbole, that's fact. Somebody needs to hold them accountable. They already ripped me off.

 

I'll take your word for some releases, but in my opinion that is not the case with these three Jefferson Airplane titles I have purchased. I think that their works serves the material. Sorry, can't agree with your assessment here.

I like good sound too. I think this is good sound. I guess I may be more of an open minded person in these matters and feel that there is an art to these things, and wouldn't want hide-bound standards crippling expression in this field. We stand far apart here. That's cool. From my viewpoint, your words were hyperbole.

 

On the fence,have not heard any yet.

If so, has anyone heard the David Johansen titles on CF and care to comment?

 

I have the European-only Culture Factory releases of Rod Stewart's first two albums and they're not as loud as Culture Factory's usual levels are on other discs. Maybe they're listening.

 

Think I will take a chance on a couple...probably Quicksilver,since they are not around.
Thanks

 

Anyone took a chance and bought this and care to comment? Lonson? I really would like to pick it up but the negative reviews here keep me hesitating.

 

I have the 1st 2 Mink DeVille titles. I didn't think they sounded too bad. Maybe a little bass shy but they sound alright to me.

 

Just received the popmarket deal of the day that I ordered 2 months ago. It was back ordered. All eight Culture Factory Hot Tuna titles. I agree with Rock, that are certainly not audiophile as advertised but they aren't unlistenable by any stretch. The price was right and I didn't own any most of these previously. But it's too bad these eight titles weren't issued in Japan as SHM-SACD's or even MoFi. Great music.