SH Spotlight Hey gang, guess what? Some of your most favorite albums in the world use tape dubs as masters..

Are there ever cases where there are two 16-track or 24-track machines going at the same time so that the cross-fade is not another generation away? Might be a great way to do this if you are Pink Floyd or Supertramp and have the skills, forethought, and budget to do this for ultimate fidelity in the pre-digital era.

 

Learn something new every day!

 

So does that mean that "A Day In The Life" and "Back In The USSR" from the blue album on CD are from the masters not the dubs as neither is cross-faded?
Edit: "Back In The USSR" is also not cross-faded on the vinyl.

 

So, in principle, a better sounding master of "Back in the USSR" or "A Day in the Life" could be stored in the vaults of Abbey Road and could have been used in a compilation, such as "The Blue Album" (which has both songs as individual tracks)?

PS: Adam9 has basically asked the same question. Sorry.

 

Probably quite a few. IIRC the song "Lazy Day" opens with a fade out/in and tape hiss is clear and evident for that part only.

 

So...I assume Glad/Freedom Rider by Traffic is the same situation?

 

I don't think the original version of 67/70 Blue album had 'A Day In The Life' without the crossfade, the first clean 'A Day In The Life' appeared on the 'Imagine the movie' soundtrack in 88.

 

And what about most of side 2 of Abbey Road and a good chunk of Sgt. Pepper too? Arrgh! The mind boggles.

 

Well, most of the medley was recorded in blocks ("Sun King"/"Mean Mr. Mustard", "Polythene Pam"/"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight") so there's only two segues*; "You Never Give Me Your Money" into "Sun King" and "Carry That Weight" into "The End".

Also, one two segues on Pepper; "Sgt. Pepper" into "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Sgt. Pepper (Reprise)" into "A Day in the Life".

*okay, three; "Mean Mr. Mustard" into "Her Majesty"

 

"Good Morning Good Morning" into "Sgt. Pepper (Reprise)" too?

 

What Steve said is the only way (in the tape world) that it could be done outside of doing it on the fly (Like a DJ) or assembling on a multi-track which would then cause even another dub and downgrade onto the two track. I cant see "splicing in" the transitions being worth the effort. As good as Dark Side of The Moon Sounds, I wonder how much better the actual single track masters sound compared to the final album master?

 

It seems like the original masters (without cross fades) were saved for each or most of the individual songs since that compilation album has different sequencing and different crossfades.

 

The 'piano exit' on Layla?

 

I always thought that was a tight edit?

 

Hehehohohaha...talk about rabbit holes?!?!?!?!?

 

I remember reading the engineer saying that the ZZ Top was a too-tight edit that they ended up liking.

 

The Lewissohn Beatles sessions book mentioned the crossfade process they used for some White Album and Abbey Road cuts.

 

Does that mean that "The Dark Side of the Moon"?..........

 

I'm going to tag @AndyB here because he recently got criticised on the Bobby Gentry thread for using tracks from The Delta Sweete without the cross fades on the original LP.
It was obviously necessary (to some of us) for a best of set. But according to this thread also it allows an earlier generation master. Though Andy would have been working with digital transfersvofvthe earliest masters, since he says he recreated the fades for the disc in the box set and the two further mixes on the standalone Delta Sweete reissue.

 

So is the takeaway here that all-digital recording and album assembly is likely to provide a higher quality final product, since making multiple copies of digital recordings does not compromise quality?

 

What's Going On doesn't really use crossfades. David Van de Pitte arranged the segues, and the songs have hard cuts and splices without fades. For example, between "God Is Love" and "Mercy Mercy Me" you can hear the hard tape edit after "all he asks of us, I know..." followed by Van de Pitte's segue.

The Detroit Mix makes this editing strategy even more obvious.

It's quite different than the diagonal tape cut strategy used on things like Notorious Byrd Brothers.

 

What's the purpose of this post?

 

What ?!!
.. first it's not really the Beach Boys playing the instruments on Pet Sounds, and now this ?

 

How about an album like Dark Side of the Moon, are the songs tightly edited or segued?

 

..so technically, are the two “combined” songs considered “one track”?