Dark Side of the Moon master tapes use.

Ok so my friend is telling me that the Imersion box set is the first time the DSOTM master tapes were used. This he says, is according to David Gimour. I had always thought the Mobile Fidelity issues used them as well as the SACD release. Of course there is the story that Mobile Fidelity erases a portion of the tape, which was replaced with a splice from the safety copy. So what is the truth on master tape use as well as the 5.1 version which I am guessing was mixed down from the original multitrack tapes.

 

You might ask their asst recording engineer.........

 

I'm sure that there was an interview at the time of the 30th Anniversary SACD release which states that all the releases previous were 2nd or 3rd generation tapes. The SACD was the first time that they had gone back to the original 16-track studio masters (obviously for the remix of the 5.1).

 

The 1992 Sax CD remaster used the original master tape. Vernon Fitch has confirmed this.

 

Is Dark Side of the Moon the name of the band

Tim

 

Yeah. The lead singer's name is Pink.

 

Which one is he?

 

This one...

 

I think the OP's friend was referring to the master tapes for this album, that weren't used for anything, except for being immersed in a dumpster in Esher

 

Ok, so is the UK 1A/1B, 2A/2B, 3A/3B pressings all from 2nd or 3rd generation tapes???
I don't think so.

 

Floyd. (Not to be confused with the barber)

 

When the first 5.1 mix came out I did an interview with one of the engineers, who let me use his personal photos of the unearthing of the original master multitracks. So yes, as our host noted, they've been used from the start.

 

I think people are a little confused. There's a big difference between original multitrack tape and original master tape.

 

Daphne Oram?

 

Thankfully it wasn't Rosemary Woods. Othewise, The Dark Side Of The Moon would be missing 18 minutes of music.

 

He's the one on the dark side. He's so pink because he never tans.

 

Les Nessmans award?

 

The coveted Silver Sow award.

 

Lots of confusion in the distinction made between the terms MASTER TAPE and TAPE GENERATION. The 1st-generation stereo master tape was used in production of the original stereo vinyl issue, and only some of the later reissues. This tape source is NOT exclusive to the Immersion box set, so your friend is somewhat confused by that.

Pink Floyd produced this record by recording their rhythm bed tracks to 16 channels of 2" tape. To leave enough room for overdubs, most songs were then bounced down to a second generation of 2" multi-track, overdubbed, and edited together into album sequence for the final mix-down. And so there are some parts of this multi-track (primarily drums and bass guitar) that contain second-generation tape recordings, but some were at this point still first-generation. All of these elements were combined (along with more external tape sources, like echo returns, effects loops, the voice comments, and so on) to make the album master: the first generation where 1/4" stereo tape was produced. That is the tape which MFSL apparently buggered up when they used it for one of their reissues, and it had to be partly repaired by splicing in a second-generation safety to cover the damaged portion.

To sum up: the master for this album was actually produced from several tape sources. When it comes to rhythm components, at least two generations of tape separate this master from the original multi-tracks. This is what Gilmour was talking about in the video interview included with the Immersion box set (which actually refers only to the 5.1 mix, which was done for the digital SACD release in 2003 by synchronizing all 1st generation multi-track tapes together, rather than just using the multi-track that had been bounced down for overdubbing).

Everybody clear on that?

 

Sounds legit.

 

Or, in other words, the MFSL, and presumably other releases, were mastered using the original 1/4" stereo mixdown master recording, which is what almost anyone would consider the "original master recording" for a stereo release.