That's exactly what I explained previously. It's a mirror band area, after the Laser was started, but prior to the Catalog Band info being added. It's the result of 2 different operating styles, of 2 different LBR Technicians. One Tech turned the Laser on sooner than another Tech. Plus, we had several LBR Cutting Lathes, at each of the Nimbus sites (3 in Nimbus VA, where I worked). Each LBR Cutting Lathe produced slight variations too. One other thing that I mentioned, that can effect the inner mirror band, as well. When Cutting a longer length master, we had to adjust the Pitch and Velocity, in order to adjust the storage capacity of the Glass Master. When slowing the Pitch and Velocity, that caused the mirror band to shift in size too.
Great to have your insight from Nimbus here! One question = did Nimbus US have big label US customers besides Virgin America, which went away with EMI acquiring it? I rarely saw other majors using Nimbus US, but saw lots of Indie or smaller labels. Also, did Nimbus US do much export market pressing for non-US plants from the US?
Virgin was huge for us, as we were still an audio only pressing plant, when Virgin came aboard. Their orders were a big boost for us in the early days. Once we added CD-Rom, DVD, and X-Box pressing, those formats soon exceeded audio only orders. And we definitely did small label orders. Nimbus seemed to like catering to small runs. Larger production runs could intimidate management. No one wanted the responsibility of accepting a large 100K+ order. Too stressful. Also, Nimbus did press for a lot of brokers. Businesses that advertised as CD replication plants, and then we produced metal work, with their unique Catalog Band, and pressed the discs. We even grew custom stampers for clients too. After, they pressed their discs from our metal.
Quite an excellent assortment from non Virgin US related releases Caroline Metropolis Twin/Tone Tess Atlantic/Beggars Zok Nettwerk
For whatever reason, I always remembered the audiophile labels. Lot's of DCC Compact Classics, Chesky, Water Lilly, and Mapleshade. Maybe I remember them, because they were always hands-on type labels. Reps always came for a tour. That's how I got to meet Joe Grado and Pierre Sprey. They toured the factory, then hung out with us in audio mastering, while they waited for test press samples.
question, some nimbus matrix cds says: 1:1 MASTERED BY NIMBUS 1:2 MASTERED BY NIMBUS 2:1 MASTERED BY NIMBUS 2:3 MASTERED BY NIMBUS 2:4 MASTERED BY NIMBUS the minimum numbers means that are printed first on the CD plants? I found that variations in some of my cds.
The 80s era UK Nimbus pressed CDs had a sticky feeling coating on them and they can’t be polished at all if scratched.
I'm not sure on these variations? I'll have to pull some of my Nimbus samples, to see if they trigger any memory of this, and why?
In my experience, this "sticky feeling" was due to the lacquer coating not being 100% cured. The curing process consisted of passing the discs though a UV curing light system, via a conveyor. If the conveyor speed was set too fast, this could throw off the UV curing process. While the UV was properly sealed to the disc, it still seemed to have that sticky feeling, regardless. I always wondered if further curing would correct this? Any one with a tanning bed, and a few tacky discs?
I think I've been hacked? Not sure how this posted yesterday? I wasn't on-line. Sorry for this nonsense.
Had me completely puzzled (not difficult), thought it could be a lacquer formula in ‘l33t’ speak of some-kind after which failing to decode I gave up trying. Regards A. Turing (RIP)
At first I "thought" that maybe I was posting about the laser beam cutting lathe pitch and velocity settings. Just forgot to finish the post. But then I noticed the date and time, and realized that I was on the road, on a return trip from the hospital. So, I guess maybe I butt-dialed a post?
Looks like some joyful kitty danced on your PC keyboard a while when you looked away Mine sometimes does.
I wonder why this was never corrected by Nimbus. I guess nobody spotted that inconvenience. And, truth be told, it was apparent only when somebody tried to clean the disc label, so no problems for OCD customers who bought the Nimbus discs new. My "Mastered ny Nimbus" discs that were bought new by me are all in perfect shape, even after many years (eg XTC's "Nonsuch" and some Genesis titles)...but never tried to clean them. Thankfully. The ones I bought used, when cleaned, could be damaged and bits of the label side could vanish or may look scratched , leaving the label sticky indeed. That's a shame because usually first pressings of many EMI, Virgin and MCA CDs were pressed by Nimbus. Eventually, I decided to let it go and look for re-releases (in case of EMI and Virgin titles, discs pressed by EMI Swindon or "made in Holland" could easily be found; never had problems cleaning those) edit: I'm talking about the Nimbus discs made in UK having the "sticky" factor.
I thought you'd been kidnapped by aliens and they turned you to be one of them, the massage in your post is cryptic I have many Nimbus cds, some of them have the sticky feeling but they all play great! I love the Nimbus sound/mastering, very clear/open sound that I like, sometimes There are significant differences in the mastering between a Nimbus cd to the other cd issues of the same title.I find that the Nimbus mastering many times is Superior
Thanks. We worked very very hard to produce quality discs. As far as sticky discs, additional UV curing during printing sometimes helped. But, screen printing didn't need the UV process. No help there.
I just got my hands on an original CAROL 1705-2 CD of Gish by Smashing Pumpkins, mastered by Nimbus. The sound is truly astonishing, much better than both the remasters that followed.
Has anybody ever seen King Crimson "In The Court Of Crimson King" with ONE dot? The earliest I've met is two dots Nimbus and it is a remaster from 1989.
