Steely Dan Analogue Productions 45 RPM & UME/Geffen 33 Vinyl Reissues

Nice. That is a true friend to set up you like that.

 

I can’t begin to tell you what he’s done for me. I’d lay my life down for him.

 

Gaucho was an analog recording. The Nightfly was digital.

As far as Aja, Nichols transferred the side A master tape to digital. The side B master could not be located, so he transferred side B from the safety. However, Nichols explained that the safety was not a copy of the master, but was made at the same time as the master. They are the same generation. So, the safety is a duplicate master, but not a duplicate of the master.

Presumably, this was the tape used for mastering the Cisco Aja release from 15 years ago and what is being used for the UHQR.

 

Thanks for the clarification. Fingers crossed that's true of Aja. Still doesn't give me good feelings about Gaucho, though, and AP's source.

 

For Gaucho I think they said Bob Ludwig created the EQ'd-copy, if so that should bode pretty well I would hope.

 

I have severe doubts about there being a secondary copy mixed and printed at the same time as the master, with all the edits that would have had to be done throughout the entire album. Not a trivial task and I find it hard to believe they would’ve done it all twice.. if it’s true, this would be pretty easy to verify if they could inspect the extant tape for splices, but that job is far out of our hands as consumers and we’ll probably never hear about it either way.
On the other hand, If Chad says it’s an analog copy I don’t have any reason to believe he would state something that might make his product look less desirable unless it were 100% true and absolutely necessary. I would not hang onto false hope that they actually have a 1st generation master for Aja, as much as I would want that to be the case.

 

They should do some instagram posts like Joe Harley does for Tone Poet. Let's see the tape box and the transfer to vinyl!

 

These are questions best answered by a mastering engineer (e.g. our host). My understanding is that the real original "master" tapes are the multitrack masters (or depending on the time that they were recorded earlier recordings were straight from board masters) and that, when the "Master Tape" - the mixdown tape of the multitracks - was made - a "safety copy" was also made concurrently as a backup; which is was and always has been best practice. Sometimes the "safety" is a copy of the multitracks. Of interest, for 30+ years the original master tape of "Kind of Blue" was used - which had a speed defect.
"When Mark Wilder and colleagues went to the Columbia vault in 1992 (as part of a Miles Davis reissue project) they found 5 tapes: the original session tapes (two of them), the mix-down stereo master (in poor condition) and the two safety tapes of the original sessions (3 track). No mono master tape. The safety tapes had been untouched from 1959 until 1992. Wilder used the safety (which did not have the speed defect) to create the “speed corrected” 20 bit mastered gold CD released in 1994." The current "master tape" of KOB is derived from that safety.
It is likely that the "safety" - same tape same time - sounds the same as the "original master tape (OMT)" except that (depending on storage etc) it has undergone much less wear and tear. Indeed, there is likely little sonic difference between the OMT and first generation copies (sent the UK, Japan, Germany etc) - if done carefully in house. Remember that all of your Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Who, Bowie, Roxy Music, Police etc. albums released in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s were done from tape copies - the original masters were in the UK.

 

Well, not exactly. For example, the early Stones records were actually made in England, but with the London label slapped on them. Decca did that for many of their releases.

But regarding records using 2nd gen tapes, sure, great sounding records can be made from them, even if they might lose a little bit of detail in the process.

 

So far Chads UHQR pressings have exceeded any other copy I've heard so expecting these to be the best. Chad Does have the best pressings to compare with and aims to beat them. Hence he had Grundman do multiple cuts of Can't Buy A Thrill. As far as the cost is concerned the resale value is also guaranteed to be higher though I'm worried they will just become too expensive due to the falling pound.

 

That perfectly describes many Steely Dan lyrics

 

I don’t think there is any guarantee on resale being higher. The Axis UHQR run was 5000. ‘Are You Experienced?’ At 20,000 has yet to sell out. Kind Of Blue has been selling on discogs at approximately what it cost. The high press runs combined with the higher prices don’t necessarily make for a good investment.

 

$1204.00
That's the total cost if I were to buy all 7 sets from Acoustic Sounds. It's not logical. I say uncle.

 

Well, for the customers in the US... It's way more for anyone else.

 

That’s what Nichols said they did.

 

But who needs information from people who were actually there when we can speculate based on our imaginations?

 

Well...for the premium price, I'd want NO detail lost in the process.

 

There are records with longer runs that go for stupid money. When they are sold out there will be people prepared to pay above retail for these. Many 'Classic Records' titles had indeterminate and unlimited runs and seemed to appear in various pressing weights. They now fetch many times retail.

 

Sure. The UK Plum label Led Zeppelin originals used 2nd generation tapes and are fantastic, musical, dynamic. But you can hear with the Classic Records reissues, which used the master tapes, the incredible inner detail that are in the tapes.

 

Ha! Right! And not only did he say it once, but multiple times in his articles in Sound on Sound and on his website.

 

I trust Nichols's words re: Aja. It's Gaucho I'm a little leery about.

 

I did a comparison with a LZII plum I bought (the Classic being the most criticized title) and found there was no contest in favour of the Classic in terms of detail though I preferred the Plum UK pressing's bass. Not enough to overturn my strong preference for the Classic Records version.

 

They're each very different presentations. The UK is like you're there halfway back in the hall. The Classic Records sounds like you're in the studio with them. Personally, I prefer the UK. But to each their own.

 

I remember a PILE of the original UHQRs at Tower Records in Boston on deep discount. I pfft’d at them as I happily shopped for $15 CDs. Sigh. Of course, DSOTM and Beatles had long sold out by then, so they were mostly two classical titles, a jazz title, and a dime a dozen Cat Stevens…

 

That these records cost so much now is not mitigated, for this listener, by whatever they might be worth in the future to someone else.