SH Spotlight How do I fix a damaged analog master tape without digital step? Jethro Tull, Nat King Cole, etc.

It still is in Denmark. So we have the inconsequential naming from a-c: A Bb H C

 

Exactly my impression. Epic failure IMHO

 

Nonsense. I'd buy your book full of these stories [hint].

 

I care a lot as I've posted in other threads. I buy good sounding digital vinyl all the time if it's priced right, but I'll usually just stream it. I always prefer AAA, if it sounds good.
Lying about it and charging more because of the lie is a cardinal sin imo.

 

Well, some. Funny that, since I was a very young kid, I geeked out on being able to record sound to tapes (cassette & R2R). My childhood neighbor and I would compile recordings of "stuff". Did all sorts of goofy things creating sound effects and spooky Halloween tapes - lol. Today, when I read what had been done in studios to record music back then I think to myself, damn, I could have grown up to be a recording engineer had I pursued that line of interest as a child. When I was a young teen I would hang out at the WLS radio studio (Marina Towers) and plead with the engineer to show me around. Finally he relented and I was dumbfounded and didn't have a clue - lol. But, I then became awestruck by the Apollo moon missions, watching and hearing astronauts walking on the moon. The techniques used to communicate with them. Mind boggling stuff at the time. Music like Led Zep wasn't on the top of my list anymore. So I was distracted with radio telecommunications and that became my forte instead. Nothing interesting about that except for geeks like me - lol. Nobody cares about my career either except for former radiotelecommunications engineers. At least you have good technical stories to tell intermingled with celebrity - wow. Could be a pretty good damn book.

 

Came out fantastic in both cases, never noticed anything odd!

 

Ha, my first job while in H.S. paid $1.90/hr. frying chicken - lol. When I was in high school we had an Amateur (Ham) Radio station where I spent my lunch hours and study periods. The electric shop teacher there prodded me to study for my FCC novice class Ham license. I'll never forget how shaking nervous I was when I tried to send Morse code for the first time live, On The Air with a small crowd looking over my sweating shoulder (I'm agoraphobic). After college I earned an FCC 1st Class commercial radio license which opened many doors in the telecommunications field. I almost signed on for a radio operator post on a commercial freight ship but my agoraphobia prevented me. That legally required radio operator post on every commercial ship was eliminated when maritime communications technology advanced to the point that an onboard licensed radio operator was unnecessary. And so that career is now defunct. But, I'm grateful to that high school shop teacher, the WLS radio station engineer and the men on the moon who inspired me to pursue my interests no matter how daunting it seemed when I first toured the innards of the WLS studio escorted by that station "wizard" - lol. Just learning Morse code seemed like an impossibility for a young kid. I wish I could buy another lifetime if only to observe the evolution of technology. I want to live to be able to say I witnessed the first man to walk on the moon as well as on Mars. Perhaps I will also witness the first quantum entanglement telecommunications which will eliminate the time it takes (up to 20 minutes one way) for an archaic electromagnetic radio signal transmitted from Earth to arrive on Mars. That would solve many problems. Meanwhile, I'm still enjoying my Ham radio hobby of a half century - lol.

Seriously, write it down. Write that book. If you inspire just a handful of young people to pursue any related technical carrier or avocation it's worth it. You never know. It will at least teach that anything is possible if you want it. I'm sure you'll at least be interviewed by the trade rags and perhaps embark on a book tour. Who knows. But if it's not recorded, passed on, written down, our experiences are all dissolved into nothing and then lost forever. And that's tragic.

 

Licensed. No. Quantegy of Opelika, Alabama was a spin off of Ampex's magnetic tape division (now defunct).

 

We could have easily fixed the tape stretch. But not for vinyl.

 

In analog? No digital, no Plangent?

 

If the demand is to cut from tape then no plangent. This has been maddening for years. We can literally beat the recorder and yet…

 

There’s no advantage to staying AAA. That’s over.

 

How about the infamous damage that's now on the master tape for David Bowie's "Heroes" (the song, not the entire album)?

 

I’m not familiar with that damage, please describe.

 

Will cut-and-paste details from here:
David Bowie - Heroes 2017 fixed remaster

This relates to the recently released box set A New Career In A New Town. The sound on "Heroes" (the track) increases at 2:42 or thereabouts and decreases again at 2:50. This isn't on the original 1977 vinyl or later releases so listeners have been asking what the reason is for it. The label have put out an explanation about worn master-tapes or some-such...

 

Actually, here's what Parlophone told Paul Sinclair:

In terms of the problem on the title track of "Heroes," it was explained that this is down to an issue on the master tape. It was stressed that for all four albums, the label went back to the original analogue master tapes for new digital transfers (done at 192/24). The issue on the master tape of "Heroes" is described as a ‘loss of energy’ on that title track that starts at around the 2.42 mark, and lasts for about four or five seconds. Parlophone stressed that they were very keen to maintain the integrity of using the original master tape. So rather than ‘fly in’ a section from another tape generation or source (such as a safety copy) they kept to the original master tape transfer and the track "Heroes" was given a boost of high frequency during the period of this loss of energy. When this high frequency boost finishes (around the 2.50 mark) the effect creates the impression of a drop in volume but Parlophone insist that this simply isn’t the case. The level is consistent with the start. Again, Warner Music/Parlophone reject the notion that this disc is in any way faulty. You are listening to the original master tape with this slight frequency adjustment for a short period in the middle of "Heroes" to correct an issue inherent with the master tape itself. I asked why this issue on the master tape hadn’t come up before and was told that it was probably because this was the first time in a very long time that the original master tape was being used and no-one knows when the issue with the tape may have come about.

 

A bunch of AAA obsessives over in the various MFSL threads really don't want to hear that. Even if it's true.

 

Wish I and John Chester (especially) had a chance to take a look at it, to diagnose the problem.

 

Tom Port would like a word....

 

It's all new and shiny!