Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has been cutting vinyl from digital since a long, long time ago...

Yeah, he's saying that all-analog would be ideal, but in the less-than-ideal circumstances that MFSL was faced with, they took the best course of action. A pretty uncontroversial take on it. Note that he uses the word "save" in the context of his approval of what MFSL has done.

 

On a case by case basis

 

The problem with the original statement is not whether is true or not - it is an opinion, as shown by the two replies. That problem is that thinking it is true does not justify mislabeling, hiding the digital STEP and in turn deceiving the customer. OTOH, remember folks, the MoFi are not digital sourced... they have a digital step.
v

 

Because as it has been mentioned MANY times (by me mostly! but this a pet peeve that peeps won't see this) - Vinyl colours the sound no matter the source. In other words, it would still sound like vinyl.

v

 

Nope. Digitally sourced. Transferring a master tape to DSD and using that in the mastering = digital source.

MFSL is still weaseling us with words by saying it's merely a digital step. It's much more significant than that.

 

It boggles the mind why people don’t seem to understand that.

 

Eh, potato, poTAHto - not defending MoFi here - but thinking digital sourced ( as in what you start with ) means things like MOV or actually most modern vinyl, that start digital from the master or at least from the master you get from the record company - hence my splitting hairs between digital step and digital sourced... but again, pls don't interpret this as defending MoFi.

v

 

Someone will say ‘oooh no the tapes are like dust, as soon as you pick them up they’ll disintegrate’

Will a million pounds do?

‘They’ll probably be okay after baking’

 

It's simple.
What makes the 1 steps special is the same thing that made 1/2 speed cutting and the Gain system special....marketing hype.

 

Hmm idk, some of them are the best I and many others have ever heard. Must be something other than hype. Maybe they just learned magical mastering techniques and the equipment has nothing to do with it. Yeah, who knows?

 

Could be because they chose to only use their engineers to master and they're not on the trusted list of record companies.
Only two options left...use a tape copy or transfer to digital.
Digital is much easier.

 

I'm not but we need to not mince words, here. It isn't "a digital step" but rather "a digital master" which is a whole other thing.

Part of the big reason why I and others are furious is specifically due to MFSL using vague language to imply certain things. I don't want to contribute to this by not replying to posts using vague language as well.

 

If you like them, I suggest it's the mastering choices...not the hype associated with it.

 

One agreement needs to be to not split hairs on what is digitally sourced.

Any digital step = digitally sourced. Because it is clearly not AAA. I would hope we'd be together on that.

 

Well, they have improved their mastering by quite a bit then.

 

Like I said, in principle I don't disagree, MoFi misled - PERIOD, you are 100% right. Just, in general seems to me that transferring from the master tape to DSD256 ( Assuming, of course, IT IS TRUE - haha - they might be lying on that too, and here I am, explaining, ah well) seems better than for example what MOV does - they cut from 96/24 they get from the company most of the time! It is a testament to the skills of the MOV engineers that those records come up sounding so good.

But again, not a defense of MoFi - I do hope they are not lying about that TOO!

v

 

While subjective... I might have to agree with you on that point.
But then... my opinion of them pre KW was not very high.

 

In their case, it's more like DDA. A digital source that is then mastered digitally.

 

Take a forum break to complete the work day, come back to more bombshell articles and announcements. I guess I DO love the smell of napalm in the morning.

 

IMO....

Chances that MOFI will get sued.....unlikely.
Chances that if they get sued that they will lose.....highly unlikely.
Chances they will got out of business....highly unlikely.

 

I'm going to be curious to see the sourcing for Weezer's Blue Album, I don't know off hand if it was recorded analog in the first place, at release was the first time I started to wonder if MOFI were truly all analog, but I didn't see a silver banner so assumed they must have all been recorded to tape at the time. It is by far the best I've heard it, some actual separation of instruments. I won't be too upset on this one due to the end result, I've paid far more for crappy digital cuts of records. Not saying if there are digital steps it's not deceitful but I won't be selling what I consider the best sounding version made so far either. This was a big nostalgia buy for me at the time it was one of my first cassettes I bought and later bought on cd and again on vinyl. I have heard an early copy, the mofi both blue and black and the later recut from the mofi. I like my original black mofi by a hair and it absolutely decimates the early pressing, the cd and obviously the tape

 

Some artists record to tape after digitally mixing.

 

What about Out of print titles?

 

Do you mean mixdown to master tape after mixing multitracks digitally? Lots of bands still record basic tracks on tape but mix in Pro tools. But I have to assume the Blue album was recorded and mixed to tape (or maybe DAT?) by Ric Okasek, since it was done in 1993. Pro Tools was still in its infancy at this point and not standard in studios yet. Especially not for fuzzy rock bands.

 

Awesome!!!! Love it!