SH Spotlight Recording and Mastering Questions---Answered here. Any more?

Same echo on both, yes. Just different EQ, etc.

 

In my experience in working with this stuff, I've learned that certain studios and record companies did one or the other.

ABC Records always cut the first press from the master and made an EQ'd cutting master at the same which was used for recuts. This insured that the recut would have the same general sound as the original cut due to the fact that all the mastering moves were "built in" to the cutting tape.

EMI UK cut all the Beatles LP's from the actual master mixes (except for a few songs as noted on this Forum: "Please, Please Me" mono LP cut, etc.)

Reprise used the original tapes to cut records because they considered (or better said, United/Western considered) all two-track tapes to be EQ dubs of the three-track! To them, the three-track was the mix and the two-track just an EQ copy, heh. I can't tell you how many reissue producers this has thrown off. The actual master mixes say "EQ Master" on them and these guys will look in vain for something earlier gen. The EQ Master WAS the actual master at United/Western. Wacky.

Atlantic always cut from the original masters even for recuts.

So did Columbia for the most part; this is the reason that the Byrds, Dylan, S&G stereo masters for the most part are shot and the mono versions are still usable. Less wear and tear.

RCA-Victor had their "dash" system where the cutting used the tape that was stored in the area of the pressing plant sometimes. Dash 1 was first generation, Dash 2, second, etc. Columbia did that for recuts as well sometimes.

Capitol always used masters to cut records except when recuts were needed for certain plants. Sometimes the backup copy was used (when stored in NYC, for example).

For the most part, a first LP cutting used the master tape during the 50's - 70's. The actual sound of the record was totally Dependant on the cutting style of the mastering engineer so that a first pressing of a Beach Boys album might have sounded worse than a recut from a dupe tape..

Gotta tell you though that the idea of an "EQ Cutting Master" was a 1970's thing. Before that the companies just made flat copies of their masters called "Safeties". A good thing, too. EQ ideas from that era have aged badly!

 

Probably never really was discussed, at least in these terms. Hence this thread.

 

Sure, I don't care. Keep the mic placement questions for another thread though; that gets too much in to personal taste, etc.

 

Steve,

I seem to remember 10cc using DBX noise reduction. I never hear about DBX anymore. Has it fallen from favor? How did that work as opposed to Dolby for noise reduction?

 

Excellent!!!

 

Probably. I was cured of "playing God" many years ago. I only use a three when the two really sucks... 99% of my remasterings are from vintage mixes.

 

You can GENTLY compress anywhere. Do it gently during recording, just a bit. Then, again when mixing. Remember, the idea of compression is to keep the voices "in the mix" with everything else. The human voice has too wide a dynamic range to be able to co-exist with any other tracks. Double gentle compression usually works.

 

A fold down means simply that for whatever reason the studio did not do a dedicated mono mix or that a licensee was not furnished with one.

Fold downs suck basically because (you may or may not know this) when you fold down a stereo image (left channel and right channel combined) what was mixed in the center stays at the same level and the left and right information drops about three wicked db, ruining your precious mix. So to fold down a true stereo image to mono is really a cheesy way of doing something.

During the last days of mono in the late 1960's, engineers got incredibly lazy about doing a dedicated mono mix along with their stereo mix. They often folded down the stereo and hoped no one would notice (Doors, etc.) Just the opposite of the early days of stereo when the mono mix still was everything and the stereo mix was a throwaway...

 

Masters have many splices in them, yes. Usually they break because the glue has dried up. We just fix 'em!

First gen tapes that still exist pre Beatles? 80% or so..