Recreating rare vinyl: An Analogue Labour of Love.

Very cool link John.

Pete is doing very interesting work. I first went to his studio 3 or 4 years ago, with one of my London record dealers Dave Parsons, who is one of Pete's partners in the venture. You can see the releases on his website www.classicalvinyl.com. When I first saw the equipment, it was in pieces and it took them quite some time to find the veteran EMI engineer - who narrates the video - to rebuild the tape recorder, cutting lathes, etc. A year later, I heard a lacquer from one of the Martzy set. Finally, last year I heard the first fruit of their labors, a test pressing of one of the 3 Martzy Bach Partitas and Sonatas. I had gotten the Coup d'Archet Martzy set sent to my London address and was able to bring it to the listening session and Dave had one of the original EMI pressings (worth 3-4 times the 300GBP asking price of the reissue). In our shoot out of the three records, Pete's remaster was the superior record, better than then Coup d'Archet and the original. The original was too bright, EQ'ed from the pre RIAA era. The Glenn Armstrong release (which as a single record would be less than 10% of the Electric Recording reissue) was too dull in my opinion and the Electric Recording Company was just right. I have asked to get the Martzy set reproduced on 15 ips 2 track tape by Pete. Hopefully I will be able to get them. Hope to see him next month in London along with Dave. They have also issued another classic French EMI set, Mozart a Paris, which is one of the rarest and priciest sets (around 2500GBP for the 7 record set). They have also spent a significant sum in reproducing the record sleeves, with off set printing and paper very close to the original. The only difference is that they cannot use the "Little Nipper" from the original (who is listening to "His Master's Voice" through the gramophone" since it was taken by RCA for their logo in the US. So they have substituted EMI in block letters.

I hope to be able to hear their next release, the Leonid Kogan Beethoven Violin Concerto in stereo in test pressing in June. Dave shared with me a list of their planned releases which include many of the most famous and rare EMI recordings from the mono and early stereo era.

Larry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/25/pete-hutchison-interview-new-vinyl-recording

I don't get how he bought the pair of Lyrecs for 10,000 pounds (5000 each) and then spent 10X that amount restoring the decks. Labor must be expensive over there.

MylesBAstor said:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/25/pete-hutchison-interview-new-vinyl-recording

I don't get how he bought the pair of Lyrecs for 10,000 pounds (5000 each) and then spent 10X that amount restoring the decks. Labor must be expensive over there.

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Myles, when I am in London all I do is think that 1GBP =US$1. Then things are not so expensive (actually just about right).

Larry

so their only release so far is the 7 disc Mozart Monural Box Set for 2495 British Pounds?

or am i not understanding something?

this is the sort of effort one wants to support. i hope i've missed some part of this program as it would be a shame if that is truely what these discs will cost.

Wasn't vinyl just a low cost mass-distribution medium for the contents of the master tape? Why fetishise the vinyl bit, and sell a handful of albums at more than the cost of a very fine tape machine?

Mike,

They also have the Martzy Bach LP @ ~$500 US each.

beaur said:

Mike,

They also have the Martzy Bach LP @ ~$500 US each.

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amazing.

i'll root for them to succeed and respect those that can buy a few. and maybe man-up enough to buy one of those.

i would love to hear one in my system.

Groucho said:

Wasn't vinyl just a low cost mass-distribution medium for the contents of the master tape? Why fetishise the vinyl bit, and sell a handful of albums at more than the cost of a very fine tape machine?

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I agree, why not just put it out on tape for that price?

OTOH, everything is about mass marketing transcription discs-->tape-->LP-->cassettes-->CD-->MP3/iTunes. None of this had to do with sound quality.

I had mentioned on my first post that I had asked Pete and Dave to do a 15ips 2 track release of the Martzy. They said there were some other requests and they were considering it. I'll be in London next week and will check up on the status of things. I have the Testament reissue and an EMI CfP reissue of their next release and first in stereo, the Beethoven Violin Concerto by Kogan. I may bring them along to compare, if they have a test pressing ready next month.

Larry

Interesting commentary at the always entertaining London Jazz Collector...http://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/what-does-a-2500-record-sound-like/