Short answer - definitely ! Australian maxicuts were cut from the original masters, not production masters, so as close to the original mix as possible. International acts were cut from production master copies - i.e. copies of copies. This is one area where the introduction of digital masters was a distinct advantage as it's far easier and more accurate to copy digital recordings. Back to Dire Straits - there are remastered Australian DMM versions of all albums up to 'Brothers in Arms' and some NZ cuts between these and the Maxicuts.
Don started at 301 at the end of 1980, Nov or Dec, I'm not sure exactly. The original Maxicut was still in use at this time.
Yes, I saw that earlier and found it curious. I left 301 in October and Don started shortly afterwards, when RCA Australia closed their factory. I don't remember Maxicut II at the time, but it was definitely in use when I rejoined EMI in 1988. My best guess is that it was introduced 1981 ~ 1982, but I could chase up the designer John Schell if it's really that important. One problem with the original Maxicut was that under certain conditions it would cut really deep, causing 'non-fill' problems in pressing if not detected. My colleague Richard Mott said he had hit the aluminum substrate a couple of times, breaking the cutting stylus.
Back to the drawing board is exaggerating, more like'improved'. Keep in mind, Maxicut is not an audio processor, it only controls groove depth. P.
Sure I'm exaggerating, but that absolute depth parameter in the Maxicut board desperately needed a little tweaking if the cutting stylus is going right through the lacquer and breaking on the aluminium plate! Separate question for you though, where did EMI's supply of lacquer blanks (coppper blanks too for that matter) come from?
To be fair, Maxicut was quite stable and not a problem unless you were really 'pushing it' or cutting hot, such as a 12'' single. Richard's disasters were due to electrical / non-musical faults, but impressive, nonetheless. Lacquers used while I was working there were predominately 'Transco', sometimes 'Capitol Audiodiscs' though in the late seventies these were problematic, and 'Pyral' for classical music. Late eighties, early nineties 'Audiodiscs' were much improved. All Music Manufacturing, Sydney used 'Transco' also. Copper blanks were manufactured in house from a supply of mirror finish stainless steel blanks, machined to size and copper plated in the Homebush matrix department. This particular form of amorphous copper hardened at room temperature and had to be stored in a freezer prior to use. Even so, they had to be used within a few days. Once cut, they had to be chemically treated within an hour to prevent tarnishing. The blanks could be stripped of copper and reused many times, similar to the glass master used for CDs and DVD. This is the principal reason for splitting 301's Mastering Dept - the DMM lathe had to be adjacent to matrix.
Forgive the ignorance but given "Deepest Purple" is a very long album, does 'Maxicut' help reduce IGD?
Short answer - in this example, no. IGD is a function of disc diameter, recorded wavelength, amplitude, groove velocity, stylus shape, and tonearm geometry. Neumann lathes had a processor called a 'Tracing Simulator' which 'compensated' for IGD by adding out-of-phase distortion. Neumann recommended using a conical/spherical stylus be used when calibrating, EMI Studios 301 chose to use an elliptical which meant less correction, so not quite enough for spherical stylii and a bit too much for exotics like Shibata/Hyper-elliptical. VMS70s used a crude sequence of micro switches which resulted in 'stepped' processing, VMS80/82s used a a more sophisticated system controlled by a linear potentiometer. Maxicut allows much finer basic pitch, so if program length is not a problem, then the inner diameter could be avoided resulting in better frequency response and less distortion. In practice Maxicut was used for louder, more dynamic cuts and using most of the disc surface. Interesting anecdote - Phonogram (later Polygram) sent a memo insisting that at least 80% of the playing surface be used regardless of program length, because "customers wouldn't be getting value for money" if the was too much unused vinyl.
If it hasn't been mentioned yet, it should be : many of The Angels (Angel City) LP's and EP's/singles were cut in Maxicut format. 'The Angels Greatest', for example, is an example of a great sounding Clive Lipman (Mastering Manager) cut. Go find it! and RIP Doc.
This thread is a fascinating read. I feel somewhat priviledged living in Australia, growing up in the 70's and 80's and having local access to Maxicut and DBB vinyl mastered by 301 Studios. I've just spent a couple of hours going through my record collection and found about 30 albums either marked Maxicut, inscribed DB or some of the other initials involved with EMI, some with Mastered on Copper, a couple of DMM's and half a dozen Beatles and Wings cuts with YEX markings. I even have one marked Maxicut II. I can only assume that albums I suspect to be made by EMI for themselves and other brands without markings are probaly Maxicut or DMM, just not marked accordingly. I always thought of those 'smash hits of (insert year)...'albums a bit below me and now see that a few I was recently given are all EMI Maxicuts. Shame they're all scratched and not worthy of playing. I'm going to play all of the ones I found over the next week or so but I do recall that a couple of the albums sounded pretty crappy. I assume that regardless of the care that went into Maxicut or DMM recordings if the original was not great it is never going to be any better. I noticed that some of the hand engraved markings are some special markings such as 'thanks to' and some with short witty lines.
There's some really nice sounding Dire Straits MAXICUTS. I've got a white label test pressing of Communique that sounds amazing. Has the usual Studio 301 and Maxicut in the deadwax. That one I found in a $1 bin would you believe? Also Making Movies is another good one to look out for too. But the Dire Straits debut I have is an NZ pressing, that although is no slouch it isn't MAXICUT so I don't have the perfect trifecta!
I've got both of those albums but I think they are US imports. One interesting one I found was The Tubes 'Completion Backward Principle' which is an EMI Maxicut. For all you cricket loving Aussies, Billy Birmingham's Last Man Standing - Maxicut. I'm not going to play it to see if it has any hifi qualities!
I have only one Aussie 'maxicut' LP - it's a UK version Rarities with an Orange Parlophone label, I can't remember the deadwax info (I'm not at home) but it sounds great, and actually slightly better than my UK copy.
Here's another, David Bowie Let's Dance which I only just found out features Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar.
I used to have a few different pressings of Communique, but dumped the American one as it didn't sound quite as good as my Oz Maxicut IMO (of course lol!) I've got the Tubes record you mention too, so I'll have to check if that's Maxicut as I have no idea ...
A quick get together from another forum of confirmed and sighted pressings: AC/DC - (quote from same engineer: " 'Maxicut' was only indicated on EMI releases when actually almost all cuts were done using this system. Some discs worth looking for - first release ACDC 'Back in Black", "For Those About to Rock" and a DMM reissue of "Let There be Rock" cut from the original analogue master tape. There are many others, all with no scribing to identify that they are Maxicuts. As for DMM, EMI wasn't licensed to use the trademark so the discs didn't have the sticker, however the cuts initially had a 'Mastered on Copper' stamp and then later simply scribed Emidisc DMM. The most prolific mastering engineers were Don Bartley and Leon Zervos at Studios 301, and Alan Parsons who started at 301, then moved across to EMI Maufacturing's DMM aka Emidisc. Otto deserves a special mention - one of his cuts for CBS prompted 301 to poach him for their mastering rooms.") Air Supply - Air Supply's Greatest Hits The Angels: Face To Face The Angels - Greatest (and should be others?) Australian Crawl - Crawl File ('AP' - 'A' Smart) Australian Crawl - Sons of Beaches (Don Bartley) Australian Crawl - Sirocco David Bowie - Let's Dance David Bowie - Tonight The Beatles - The Beatles Ballads (mine is marked 'DB' Don Bartley on Side 1, 'OR' Otto Ruiter on Side 2) The Beatles - Sgt Peppers - 20th anniversary red vinyl The Beatles - Hard Day's Night U.S. Original Motion Picture Soundtrack The Beatles - Rarites PSLP 261 The Beatles - Rarites PCS0 7581 Kate Bush - Hounds of Love The Church releases up to and including Heyday The Church - (From one of the Maxicut EMI engineers: "You can reasonably assume all EMI Australia cuts after 1977 ~ 78 are 'Maxicuts'. we were supposed to switch it off but it gave such good results we mostly left it on. One memorable exception was a Wire 154 album where I couldn't match the volume of the Abbey Road sample with 'Maxicut' switched on, so this album was cut without.") Joe Cocker - Greatest Hits (HIFLY101) Dire Straits - Communique ('Maxicut By Studios 301' - no initials) Dire Straits - Making Movies Dire Straits - Love Over Gold, 'Maxicut II' process (etched both sides). Initials very hard to read - just 'A' (Smart?). Duran Duran - Self Titled Duran Duran - Rio Sheena Easton - You Could Have Been With Me Sheena Easton - Best Kept Secret Sheena Easton - A Private Heaven John Farnham...whispering jack...db on dead wax John Farnham..age of reason (1988) deadwax emidisc dmm Flash and thepan...lights in the night...maxicut on deadwax Mark Gillespie - Nothing Special Mark Gillespie-Only Human The Knack - Get The Knack Little River Band Best of (It's a Long Way There) Little River Band - Back Stage Pass Paul McCartney - Pipes Of Peace Paul McCartney - Give My Regards To Broad Street Anne Murray - Anne Murray's Greatest Hits Juice Newton - Juice Pink Floyd - Works (SHVL.107738) Andrew Powell & The Philharmonic Orchestra - Play The Best Of Alan Parsons Pseudo Echo - Love an Adventure Queen - The Works (P240014) Cliif Richard - Green Light Cliif Richard - Rock n Roll Juvenile Cliif Richard - Love Songs Cliif Richard - Wired For Sound Cliif Richard - Dressed For The Ocassion Cliif Richard - The Rock Connection Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue Rolling Stones - Rewind 1971->1984 Rolling Stones - Tattoo You Frank Sinatra - The Rare Sinatra - Volume One and Volume Two from EMI/Australia, circa 1982/83 Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring Talk Talk - It's My Life Peter Tosh - Mama Africa Wings - Wings Greatest Hits Wings - Back To The Egg Foul Play - Original Soundtrack Keeping On Dancing - Various Artists
Stereonet should drop that one from the list as it was cut at Festival Records by Warren Barnett (EMI Australia didn't press coloured vinyl) The "AMX-67841/2" in the dead wax doesn't denote a maxicut; it's an in-house Festival matrix.
