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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Ben Adams, Jul 14, 2022.

  1. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    We have no way of knowing “
    That’s the essence right there.
    I believe they will survive, you beg to differ.
     
  2. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    P
    I agree. I guess some will want the inherited sound characteristics that vinyl provides. However, if you want to be closest to the master tape, the SACD would be the way to go. $100 for premium vinyl of a digital file just does not make sense. $50...press away....just not $100 - $125 for a big box full of foam inserts and cardboard.
     
    the nightfly and alek2702 like this.
  3. JCRW

    JCRW Forum Resident

  4. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    Its ok, Im a big boy, I can take criticism. Plus like I said earlier we are all just spitballing mostly. Sometimes more spit than balls :).

    Do you know what the poll was reading when I posted what you are quoting from me?

    It actually was closer than it is now. So no I wasnt backpeddling as you imply or actually conclude. Rather I was simply trying to be balanced to the other fellow I was engaging.

    In all honesty I dont think the poll is very accurate for the main reason I stated. Hopefully you saw that reason. Im an honest guy, or try to be, so there was no waffling or changing my stance due to a poll change at the time.

    I simply was replying to a statement made by another poster who seemingly was taking the poll as absolute evidence. Also if you will recall I gave a big grin intially when I mentioned the 50/50 thing. Which means I was kind of half joking that it really matters. But thats sometimes hard to read in forums when tone is difficult to read.

    I hope that made sense. And l promise if I demand a recount I will definitely have and independent source tally the votes!
     
    mikedifr0923 and MonkeyTennis like this.
  5. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    As mentioned earlier, the poll currently allows for multiple votes. IMHO, that should be changed.
     
    bbanderic, Revolver and MonkeyTennis like this.
  6. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    Interesting Comment over at Steve Guttenberg's Youtube comment section for his MoFi reaction:

    [​IMG]
     
    MrRom92, elvisizer, OldSoul and 17 others like this.
  7. Kassonica

    Kassonica Forum Resident

    o_O
     
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  8. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    Ha! Doesnt even own a TT or vinyl. The irony if true. Im just imagining some dude with several hundred test pressings hanging over them greedily saying "Miiiine all miiiiine". Oh boy, this hobby.

    Who knows if that is true though. Who is Adam Linder and what did he do at Mofi? Where is the proof he even worked there?
     
  9. Big Blue

    Big Blue Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    I doubt there are enough people willing to pay these prices for the market to support major label volume. MoFi customers are a niche within the already small portion of the population who even buys music at all. I wouldn’t worry too much about that.
     
    MonkeyTennis likes this.
  10. rcsrich

    rcsrich Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    Well, that’s nuts (and sounds like a toxic work environment).
     
  11. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    Disagree. MFSL's prices were under false pretense. Keeping prices as they are is plain stupid. Other manufacturers raising their prices will alienate their customers.

    If the market prices get to this point, it'll price out a lot of people including myself. Not that I can't afford it but that I refuse to pay those prices. Too many albums out there for me to stick with buying new overpriced ones. For the price of a single One-Step, I bought *4* AAA titles from VMP.

    MFSL can go pound sand if they're going to stick with the status quo.
     
  12. myles

    myles Argyle, before you ask ....

    Location:
    Plymouth, UK
    You know him....Adam Linder, Master Tape Winder!
     
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  13. myles

    myles Argyle, before you ask ....

    Location:
    Plymouth, UK
    Something has to change; communication, transparency, their methods, price. Amongst other things.
     
  14. JCRW

    JCRW Forum Resident

    I dunno, I go to my local record shop (Tax Records) almost every week and every time I go there it is wall to wall people with lineups going all the way back to the end of the store. People of all age ranges holding anywhere from $50 up to $300+ of vinyl goodies in their hands waiting their turn at the cash register. I don't think these people will bat an eye if the prices go up across the board. Myself, I would prefer to stay in the digital Hi-Res realm but so many releases have unfavorable mastering inflicted upon them where many times I have to go out and buy the record to have a decent sounding release (the Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Unlimited Love' as a good example). It was pushing my budget paying $50 CDN for that release. If prices go up across the board I will have no choice but to bow out of purchasing vinyl entirely.
     
    nosliw likes this.
  15. MonkeyTennis

    MonkeyTennis Billie Eilish style

    Location:
    Manchester
    Thanks for the reply - and it does seem that we broadly agree: self-selecting polls are, by their nature, very limited in value :)

    And thanks for the clarification regarding tone. I’ve gone back and looked and should have picked that up. As you say, it’s not always easy, in this kind of forum, to detect nuance.

    And I do recognise that you are very much a straight shooter which is why I appreciate your posts. Even when we disagree, you provoke thought and discussion - which is, I think, a very good thing :)
     
    I-OD likes this.
  16. MonkeyTennis

    MonkeyTennis Billie Eilish style

    Location:
    Manchester
    This has been posted on Twitter and I’ve seen it on other YouTube channels. Albeit the fact that Mr Davis doesn’t own a turntable is a new embellishment. Oh the great wide world of social media :)
     
    morinix likes this.
  17. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    Yes...I just found the "hoarding" comment interesting. Then again, there might be plenty of people with numbers 1-99 in their collections
     
  18. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    If you're referring to me, you completely misinterpreted my post.
     
  19. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    The numbers don't mean anything, anyway.
     
    Kyhl likes this.
  20. blind_melon1

    blind_melon1 An erotic adventurer of the most deranged kind....

    Location:
    Australia
    If it sounds good, and has good reviews, I’ll buy it!

    I never have and never will buy a one step. (Far too dear).

    One positive I can potentially see coming from this mess, is maybe we’ll get some well mastered, well pressed vinyl and sacd releases of modern albums that weren’t recorded to tape, whose original releases were loudness war victims.

    …. at least, that would be my move if I had any say at Mofi.
     
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  21. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    You are correct. The number has nothing to do with pressing order. The covers are delivered (already numbered) to the pressing plant.
     
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  22. MonkeyTennis

    MonkeyTennis Billie Eilish style

    Location:
    Manchester
    I agree with all of this: except they’re not going to move on the pricing, firstly, because it’s too complicated and they are too slow, and, secondly, because I’d be shocked if their margins will allow for it. Which is why I suspect they will very quickly fall into trouble.

    Consider: what is a Silver Label really worth - $20? How about a standard 33 OMR - $30? A 45 OMR - $40 max? And what about something like a digitally sourced SuperVinyl - what is the referent something like that? Yeah, the SuperVinyl may produce a lower noise floor, but it’s digitally sourced… And however you position the SuperVinyl, you give yourself a problem with the OneStep. Because, other than the process (which, if I understand the view of Mr Hoffman, et al - arguably yields modest benefits, at best) - what is the difference between that and the SuperVinyl? The stupid box?

    All of that is difficult to do - and, as we now know, MoFi don’t do ‘difficult’. And that’s before we consider what any of the above might do to their margins.

    But it may just be that MD bail them out. But to what end? MoFi is a product which no longer makes sense in the marketplace. That isn’t going to change in the foreseeable future.
     
    The Quiet One, dkmonroe and Big Blue like this.
  23. Robert C

    Robert C Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Yeah, let's waste what precious time we have left with these machines making copies instead of digitising other tapes!
    Well then you're at odds with practically every audio archive. PCM is the archival standard. You're right on DSD though, that isn't an archival format because it's proprietary. With PCM you could literally print the data out and reassemble a sound file from the printed binary data.
    In ten years time routine transfer of magnetic tape recordings will have ended. Thankfully we have digital archivists and file and data integrity to ensure that these recordings outlive their historic sound carriers.

    Magnetic Tape Alert Project supported by IFAP
     
    folkfreak likes this.
  24. 4-2-7

    4-2-7 Forum Resident

    Location:
    SF Peninsula
    It looks like the poll is stopped for right now, but it offered multiple votes so accuracy will be a bit off. That said
    46.2% said they would not buy anymore records of what they sell.
    19.2% said they wouldn't buy anymore One Step records.

    To me those two need to be added together to show that 65.4% will not be buying the One Steps anymore. I voted No and didn't vote multiple times, but if I'm not buying any of their records that also means I'm not going to be buying the one steps either.

    Even before all this I felt MFSL lost their way by pressing unlimited records and different performance levels of records.

    It wasn't that long ago and from the start that they would only press around 5000 copies and then the title would go OOP. They would in some cases bring back the same title but it would be years down the road.

    They would also only do one record, the whole point of the original label was to sell the best record they could make. So when a given title came out there was only one version of it, the best they could make. Today they put out a standard version of a title, then you might see a Super Vinyl copy of the same mastering, or maybe a one step on supper vinyl, and I might as well through in a Silver Label.

    The thing is, if MFSL thinks One Step plating is the best, Super vinyl is the best, 45 RPM is the best then all their records should have these features to produce one copy only. I hate the games with these different pressings, just produce the best record you can and be done with it. I don't mind having two different RPM choices though and that should be the only option.
     
    grx8, The Quiet One, OldSoul and 3 others like this.
  25. MonkeyTennis

    MonkeyTennis Billie Eilish style

    Location:
    Manchester
    Which is why he was let go. Very little tape winding going on at MoFi, as we now know :D
     

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