DCC Archive tubes vs solidstate in a mastering chain?

Steve... what are the advantages of tubes in a mastering chain???
Nearly all mastering studio use solidstate gear, maybe Steve can give us details...

 

The most mastering studios use digital workstations... and I think it's a good tool for storage mastertapes, which are in bad conditions. The questions is: how long the tapes will survive... or how long is the life cycle of a digital medium?

 

Well, I'm not involved with this case... but Steve what happened with the Steely Dan mastertapes? I've heard the mastertapes were in very bad condition, and Roger Nichols copied them on a digital tape a loooong time ago!
Do you think they would be playable today??? I have heard the latest remasters and I like them.

 

I agree that the original tapes should be left alone and not dubbed to digital only to throw the analog originals away in the trash.

 

I understand that Roger Nichols went back to those original analog tapes for the latest remasters where he could. At least he was smart enough to not toss them.

I understand the formerly Polygram, which includes A&M and Motown, backed up their catalog to 30 ips 1" analog for safety, while Sony tried to transfer everything to DSD.

Rhino makes 30ips copies whenever they can.

 

Steve H said
>> One famous artist who has control of his (or her) own stuff is right now is in the process of dubbing everything to 24/96 and tossing the analog originals. I've tried to talk them out of it many times, but they believes the hype, and considers the originals useless after redubbing. <<

AAAArrrrggh. This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. Couldn't they at least have transferred it to DSD or sent you the tapes--you know, as useless momentos?

[ December 16, 2001: Message edited by: GregM ]

 

Hi,

This situation puzzles me the most bout musicians & studios. Why is it that some musicians do the transfer & trash analog masters while others (such as Petty) almost go into on-going depression when there masters are destroyed. Some musicians have killer vaults (such as the Dead) while others have no idea where all the studio stuff is anymore. My buddy has hundreds of master studio reels that he was given that nobody even bothered to label. Some well known musicians have no idea that my buddy has hours of their masters (for free). The most pathetic part of this situtation is that he recently sold some of it back to record companys that released it on various different box sets. He asked them what format they wanted it in and they demanded digital. He said he didn't have a burner so they gave him one. The burner they sent is inferior to the one I have and now Luke's mom (no offense, just remember your example) is in line at Best Buy buying these box sets of copies of digital copies made on a cheap burner from analog masters played on my buddies ragged out reel-to-reel. Gonna stop the story now before I really tell ya what I'm thinkin'.

Not Fadeaway,
Jeffrey

 

I think it has yet to be grasped that original master tapes and other original recording media are an authentic work of art. Noone would scan or photograph a "van Gogh" painting, then burn it, because the scan is more durable.
BTW does anybody have the recent CD release of "Louis Armstromg Plays W.C. Handy" ? The original tapes are lost, so they synchronized a copy master and a mint LP from the first pressing and mixed that to get closer to the original sound. What an effort, just to restore the sound of a tape that shouldn´t have been lost in the first place.

 

Neil Young transferring to digital and tossing the masters - never - the man is about as anti-digital as can possibly be! He'd have to be dead and buried for his analog stuff to disappear... Gotta love Mr. Young - he's a part owner of Lionel trains and is one of the folks who designs their equipment and electronics. He's an old fashioned kinda guy...

 

Good point Mike. Neil always was very outspoken in his hatred of CD and actually ICE newsletter reported that he wanted to release his entire Reprise catalog on SACD. Too bad he's currently signed to Warner and they of course nixed that idea. That's the one and only reason he's big on DVD-A. . .'cause it's a step up from CD, not because he prefers it to SACD.

 

That an artist's tapes are in good care come down to several things, among them are if an artist owns his tapes, if they were stolen and are in somebody's bedroom closet or doghouse, if a company let them languish in some warehouse, or the studio let everybody play with them. Some artists don't look back and don't care about anything they did in the past since they probably recorded them under the influence of masssive drugs, or the songs remind them of sadder times, never mind that it was at the height of their carreer. Some are soooo posessive that they won't give them up, or, at least want Fort Knox for the licencing alone. Then there's Allen Klein...

[ December 17, 2001: Message edited by: Grant T. ]

 

Dave Clark too. The human licencing corkscrew.

 

True...but he was at least smart enough to keep control of his own tapes. There are many artists who see CDs come out of their stuff- even after they have changed record labels- because they don't own or have control of their own recordings. So while I don't like how he does it, at least it is Dave and his OWN tapes rather than having a committee of lawyers or Michael Jackson owning the catalog.