Tonight I totaled up all of the 23 companies doing master tapes and how many different titles are available. No question sales have gone up along with varity.
Tonight I totaled up all of the 23 companHuies doing master tapes and how many different titles are available. No question sales have gone up along with varity.[/QUOTE
..and at only what, $400 a pop?
Astrotoy .... Is that 15k records ... Pretty awesome collection !
The price can be steep -- agreed. What I believe imperative is analog provenance. For example, let's stipulate one has access to a genuine analog master tape: analog tracked...analog mixed...analog mastered or AAA. Is the analog-only integrity preserved when it is delivered to the consumer? If not, then prominent disclosure is necessary.
the number of copies is strictly limited, to prevent the master tape from wearing out (Opus3 limits the number to 50).
Of the major players, there is pretty secure provenance. Many of them, like Ed Pong of UltraAnalogue, Bob Attiyeh of Yarlung, Open Reel, and Jonathan Horwich (for most of his tapes) are the owners of the recordings, were the recording engineers and they recorded and keep the master tapes and do the duplication themselves. Opus3 is another where they did the recording and own the master tapes - in their case they are selling direct copies of the master tape. Both Tape Project and I am certain Chad Kassam (Acoustic Sounds) have been very careful about provenance.
I expect those enumerated above have established bona fides. BTW, does anyone have an e-mail address for Acoustic Sounds?
I've heard about the occasional tape from this or that company (always very small) that is digitally sourced. However, I haven't seen it as a major issue.
What about an original AAA master tape source that is captured or remastered...digitally...then released on analog media? In my estimation, the product -- now converted -- may be said to be sourced from the original AAA master tape, but is de facto -- digital.
For the direct masters - the most expensive tapes - the number of copies is strictly limited, to prevent the master tape from wearing out (Opus3 limits the number to 50).
Opus 3 -- an exquisite source.
Not cheap, but this is the WBF . A reasonable collection of tapes (say 100 albums) will cost more than..., but less than a top of the line set of interconnects,...
LOL -- cruisin' for a brusin'? ;-)
Larry
Makes you wonder how much degradation master tapes from the 50s to the 70s have suffered that are used for modern reissues simply through the process of being played back so many times. Many of them would have been played back at least that many times - probably much more. Plus they would be suffering the usual age-related degradation.
Would it not be at least of some concern that tape reissues are considerably expensive yet are a "wearing" format?
The wear and tear on master tapes is definitely an issue. When I was working with Winston Ma on our Decca book, Winston's source for the CD's were the master tapes from Decca. I know that there were tapes he wanted and actually received from Decca, but when he had them played by his mastering engineers, he rejected them because of their poor quality. You can see on the cover of the master tape a record of each time it has been taken out to play for whatever reason. Paul Stubblebine of Tape Project has also had tapes that he wanted to release, but the condition was not acceptable.
As far as the tapes that have been released, wear can be an issue. I think a rule of thumb, if you have your tape machine in good shape (cleaned and demagnetized heads, etc) that if you play them fewer than 50 times, it should be no problem. I wouldn't play the tapes all day long, every day for weeks on end. There are also some rules like never store the tapes in a fast wind condition. 15ips 2 track tapes are always stored tails out, so you store them just after they have been played, so they have an even pack. My pro Ampex ATR-102 has a special library wind, which gives a very even pack, somewhere in speed between fast wind and regular play.
Larry
(...) I've heard about the occasional tape from this or that company (always very small) that is digitally sourced. However, I haven't seen it as a major issue. (...)
Received a reply from Acoustic Sounds regarding Ultra Tape and whether or not analog-only integrity is preserved from source to consumer. Acoustic Sounds responded: "They are sourced from a (sic) analog tape copy of the original analog master tape."It would be very nice to have a public and easily accessible list of such tapes. IMHO it is the kind of product that creates confusion in the market.
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