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

Do you know if they have the facilities to cut from tape "in-house"?

I was watching Mr Fremer's latest video earlier.
He speculated that whilst Mofi's Miles Davis reissues sound spectacular, perhaps even more could have been achieved with all analogue cuts. Seems like an opening for Sony to start their own "tone poet" style AAA jazz series. Assuming they have the gear.

 

wow. outstanding work Steve + all out effort to fix and use the master tape.

 

Is right to say that the CLassic/UHQR are from the USA Cutting master?

 

Is this equivalent to what they are doing at MOFI? Is that the sound they are after with the DSD into analogue chain? Sorry I know nothing about this and I’m still scratching my head.

 

If I may chime in, I believe the guys at Mobile Fidelity are converting the 4X DSD copy to analogue and then running that analogue signal straight through their mastering gear to the lacquer cutting setup. So no dupe tape in their process. According to their interview with Mike from The Inner Groove they didn't like working from dub tapes.

 

Love that record, I haven't to it in a while, I will have to give it a spin tonight!

 

Steve, have you ever had to work with digital masters that were stored to tape, such as three-quarter inch U-matic used in some of the early iterations of digital recording? If these have deteriorated, can they baked? Or should they be nuked?..

 

Music Matters essentially did that for their 45rpm reissue of Horace Silver's Song For My Father with the title cut.

 

I remember the invites, always being jealous of those who lived nearby.

 

Did you get to listen to the US cutting master and the UK original tape to compare? Just trying to wrap my head around why Tull UK LP’s are so vastly superior to US originals (DCC, UHQR, and MFSL aside of course).

 

The MFSL Aqualung was terrible - extreme boom and tizz exaggerating the micro drop-outs in the recorded sound of the cymbals at the start of Aqualung. Not sure what caused this, but Island UK associated recordings of the time sometimes had this especially on the first track of the album (ELP's The Barbarian as an example as well Aqualung) - both later fixed in remixes.

 

This thread is incredible. I can't believe I'm getting to ask questions about the Aqualung tape. Thank you, Steve.

 

Right. And you were part of that process, although were you directly involved with the Plangeant fix to the first track?

 

Yes the Umatic machines use a spining drum head. Cassetes tape should not be sticky and storaged under low humidity conditions . this video shows the machine

 

Not a fan of Horace Silver, eh? (There is an 'H' on the keyboard. B-natural was sometimes noted as 'H' in the Baroque era.).

 

I had to check my amp at the time to make sure the loudness button wasn't on.