Gaucho 2003 SACD

The album is a full analog mix/master, copied to digital in 1982 or so, along with the other albums.

This digital copy is the source that was used for the 2003 SACD stereo mastering, both DSD and Redbook layers.

 

Their source is analogue. Pretzel sounds like a flat transfer of the tape. Countdown sounds like it was mastered.

 

I'm a huge 5.1 guy but I've never been a fan of the Gaucho mix. Too much dedicated rear info that pulls me out. (the horns and background vox solely in the rear channels during Babylon Sisters for example) I worked for DTS at the time and they had two unique objectives when doing 5.1. One was to put you in the 5th row of a concert venue so you get the band in your face & reverb of the hall all around you, the other was to put you on a stool in the middle of the stage surrounded by the band. Gaucho was a 'stool on the stage' mix.

I'll add however that this dedicated rear info can be great if you have a room that is setup exclusively for 5.1 music (not movies). Same exact speaks at all positions in a room that allows them to be equal distance and height. Most don't. I've heard demos with these conditions and it's amazing. Even the best room correction/calibration eq's can't match a perfect room/setup. My room is more traditional home theater style with rear and side channels up higher than the fronts, so the horns etc. up high without a blend to the front are a distraction.

 

I thought about what analog tape source they used for the SHM-SACDs for Pretzel and Countdown. Since the reason for all digital transfers in 1982 was supposed to be that the stereo masters was nearly shot caused by bad tape storage. This question and the question who did the tape transfers for the SHM-SACDs are not to be answered to this day.

Btw, I love both Countdown and Pretzel SHM-SACDs!

 

I don't have Countdown anymore but my Pretzel copy says "DSD flat transfered from US original analogue master tapes". There is a possibility the person who did the tape research (Andrew Watson at Universal Music Logistics) also did the flat tape transfer.

 

Countdown says the same as Pretzel.

 

Thanks.
Then if the flat transfer part is true, I guess I don't like the Dolby A decoding setting they used.