SH Spotlight What sounds just like the analog master tape: CD, Vinyl, SACD or a 1:1 analog Reel tape copy?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Steve Hoffman, Nov 30, 2007.

  1. So which one is closer to the master tape?
     
  2. duneman

    duneman Forum Resident


    According to our host, the SACD.

    Cheers,

    ~dm
     
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  3. Thanks!
     
  4. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Both!
     
  5. G E

    G E Senior Member

    I’ve never heard a master tape played in a production facility.

    I *have* heard lots of tape recordings great, good, and ‘you gotta be kidding”

    plenty of digital - CD from 1984 onward and the hi Rez formats since the beginning of the millennium

    and records! Lots of records since 1965!

    Tape is beguiling. It’s more hands on than even vinyl. Great tape is seductive. What I’ve experienced has a unique and slightly sweet presentation. But it’s been many years since my last sessions. Perhaps just a fond memory

    but digital and vinyl are current experience.

    Digital, can sound really good. I’ve been listening to CDs through Stax Sigmas and I’m stunned how good it can be

    but ultimately, my ears get tired after a couple hours and I want to move on to something else. Doesn’t matter if it’s the Stax or listening to my friends Esoterisc sacd/ CD player thru VAC and Focal system

    records/ vinyl/ analog - different matter all together. I can listen until the chickens wake up.

    Steve’s comments on reverb trails dead on… analog resolution and ability to reproduce even the most Minute signal is an uncanny miracle.

    Listen to those fade outs on the cuts from our premium reissues - and the originals- and hear the instruments as well as the room go to black. Pretty cool.

    so I’m 99% analog It rings my bell better.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2021
  6. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    I just spent about an hour reading all 34 pages.

    Great read! :edthumbs:
     
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  7. Bob Olhsson

    Bob Olhsson Motown Legend

    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    I just re-read it too.

    Something that concerns me is that I have acetates that sounded just like the tape in 1970 that now sound quite a bit better than playing the same tape. It makes me wonder if mastering digital from metal parts or pressings might be a more accurate approach.
     
  8. Espen R

    Espen R Senior Member

    Location:
    Norway
    If I retype the original question to:
    What sounds just like real live music in 2021: analog reel tape recording or digital recording (pcm/dsd). What is the answer?

    I don’t want to start a new thread just for this question, if that’s ok.:)
     
  9. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    It all can, depending on the quality of the recording, the mixing, the digital or disk mastering, the playback gear..
     
  10. Espen R

    Espen R Senior Member

    Location:
    Norway
    Agree. But digital recordings has reached a level of quality today that is very high, when done right.

    I have some of these Master Music Ltd SACD’s from Hong Kong. A variation of high quality digital recorded music, also norwegian artists. The last one I bought had a track with a tenor sax, and it was every bit as fleshed out and «full bodied» sounding as the famous Getz/Gilberto recording. And even more open and transparent.
     
  11. bgiliberti

    bgiliberti Will You Be My Neighbor?

    Location:
    USA
    Does anything other than live music sound "just like real live music?
     
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  12. Bob Olhsson

    Bob Olhsson Motown Legend

    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    I think that PA systems seriously damage the experience of live music.
     
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  13. junkculture

    junkculture Forum Resident

    I was at the symphony the other day at an outdoor venue. There's no way the orchestra could be heard without amplification. Every musician was mic'ed up, music was mixed and broadcast through massive loudspeaker arrays. I thought it sounded like my home stereo, just bigger, but not a great sense of spatial positioning (the venue and engineering actually sounded fine; I've heard much worse). Add to that crowd noise, noise from passing vehicles, etc. I don't need all that replicated.

    Maybe the question was more along the lines of what would get you closest to the sound of a mic'ed up instrument or amp in a controlled space...
     
  14. Espen R

    Espen R Senior Member

    Location:
    Norway
    Oki. I should replace the word «real» with «acoustic un-amplified music».
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2021
  15. Espen R

    Espen R Senior Member

    Location:
    Norway
    Yes, with «real» I meant the purest and best way you can hear music.
     
  16. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    And, without PA systems?
     
  17. Bob Olhsson

    Bob Olhsson Motown Legend

    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    Prior to the late '60s, PA was only used for vocals.
     
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  18. bgiliberti

    bgiliberti Will You Be My Neighbor?

    Location:
    USA
    I think that unless you have like the really big Wilsons with great amps etc, it’s not going to sound like Elvis and the boys are giving you a live performance. But when someone like Steve does the work, it can make you feel like they are. At least it does for me.
     
  19. C6H12O6

    C6H12O6 Senior Member

    Location:
    My lab
    Bob, how much louder are concerts today compared to those back in the '60s? Reading about later impressions of the Beatles' American tours and Dylan's 1966 tour, it sounds like levels that were considered "too loud" back then would be pretty tame by today's standards. (Also related, was it common for people to recommend ear plugs for shows back then? It certainly makes sense now when your ears would be ringing loudly without them.)
     
  20. Bob Olhsson

    Bob Olhsson Motown Legend

    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    They are way too loud! Not a problem for the artists and staff who all wear hearing protection but, to me, it's sick. It's just about excitement for the crowd and not music.
     
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  21. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    :agree: Makes me think of the poor Beatles trying to sing to 55,000 screaming girls and boys at SHEA Stadium... :whistle:
     
  22. Bob Olhsson

    Bob Olhsson Motown Legend

    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    Stage monitors were improvised during that concert. It's something that most people don't realize the Beatles pioneered.
     
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  23. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Pinned by request for a day..
     
  24. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Hi Steve,

    I recall that you have said that when you mastered for SACD for Audio Fidelity, rather than master for the DSD layer then convert to redbook, you mastered each layer separately. Please correct me if I am wrong on this.

    If I am right, is that because you found the sound of the redbook better when it was not converted from DSD?
     
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  25. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA

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