SH Spotlight Now it can be told: Why did some of the DCC Gold's sound so "unique" compared to other CD's?

The DCC discs that I own or have heard are stunning. Why did you stop using that gear, Steve?

 

Venus and Mars

 

I feel as though I'm staring directly into the "breath of life"... It feels something like this:

 

The DCC discs costed in Greece back then the now equivalent of 50-60 EUR each.

 

You beat me to it.

 

Looks like the production studio at the first AM radio station that I worked at, back in 1981. Add a razor blade, two GATES turntables, a few cart machine racks, an RCA microphone and a gigantic board with knobs the size of my hand and the picture would be complete! Those Ampex machines were the best reel-to-reel units that I've ever had the pleasure to work with. These kids today with their computers and digital editing toys, will sadly never know just what "real" fun they have missed out on.

 

I guess Joni's Blue.

 

I wish! Might as well throw in Band On The Run too......

 

The Jethro Tull CD collection, 'Original Masters', sounds very good - I could believe that it got the tube treatment.

 

Highway 61 and Court and Spark.

 

I'm just excited to see that out of the very small number of DCC discs that I own, I have Night Moves and The Doors s/t.

 

The Band Stage Fright listened to that yesterday with the headphones and was completely blown away by it like I am every time I hear it. The air around the instruments and vocals is mind boggling. One of the finest sounding discs ever but that just puts it it up there with the 60 plus DCC golds I have.

 

"Wheels of Fire" would be one of my guesses.

 

Band On The Run

 

Awesome! I have all of those.

 

So do I.

 

Now it can be asked....where is this gear today and is it still being used for mastering?

 

I don't have Van Halen. I do have the other four plus many others.

 

What did the units with the VU meters do? I recognize the unit just above that, an MX-10 mixer/preamp right? Some more info at the beginning of this post here ; it is what the Grateful Dead used to mix their archive tapes and famous Betty Boards up until 1978 by my theory. No pan pots, and it seems they always spread everything full L or R to improve the image. That is quite an effective mixer from the 50's because so many of those tapes sound great.

 

Wow, that makes sense. I bought Night Moves when it first came out. I was a sophomore in high school. For all my west coast classmates and I knew, Bob Seger was a new artist. I liked the songs on Night Moves, but the album was in and out of my collection over the years. It just never felt good or easy listening to Night Moves. About 2 years ago I got lucky and scored a DCC Night Moves for $5. When I listened, I thought, this sounds great...why didn't it sound like this befire?

 

It was something about the crackle and energy in the tone of the way Steve did it. I just had that hunch.

 

Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus sounds like it to me