Vinyl Reissues - From Analog Planet

socfan12

socfan12

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I found this to be an informative and timely article as I get into vinyl. Maybe experienced vinylphiles already know this.

Reissue Labels To Avoid and Some Best to Proceed With Caution | Analog Planet

Anyone with any experience with the label Music On Vinyl? They seem to be re-issuing some artists I'm interested in, but unsure if they are any good. Their own website and Fremer suggest they could source from CD if analog or high rez sources are unavailable.
 
socfan12 said:
I found this to be an informative and timely article as I get into vinyl. Maybe experienced vinylphiles already know this.

Reissue Labels To Avoid and Some Best to Proceed With Caution | Analog Planet

Anyone with any experience with the label Music On Vinyl? They seem to be re-issuing some artists I'm interested in, but unsure if they are any good. Their own website and Fremer suggest they could source from CD if analog or high rez sources are unavailable.
Click to expand...

If you read the followup comments you'll see that most, if not all of the MOV releases are digitally sourced. Michael's comments were spot on and ID'd the labels that master their releases directly from the master tapes and generally do a great job. In fact, if you don't want to spend $50 on the 45 rpm Music Matters Blue Note reissues, grab their later 33 1/3 rpm releases.everyone so far has been excellent.

I think the real issue is that a lot of companies have jumped on the analog bandwagon and simply issue dreck. As Michael mentioned and MEP and I were just the other day talking about, analog sourced means nothing. In fact, it probably means the LP was cut from a digital file. While many of the comments focus on the sound, the Q/C of many of these new labels is wanting.

Face it. The major record labels won't send their precious and extremely fragile master tapes to any Johnny come lately mastering engineer. Essentially the master tapes -- if they leave the premises -- only go to one of four groups nowadays in the US for mastering. Kevin Gray, Bernie Grundman, Steven Marsh/Steve Hoffman and Ryan Smith.

The rest of the LP labels have to satisfy themselves with a safety or digital copy often of dubious origin.

I was also disappointed with RRs decision to master their LPs from 176/24 digital copies. The reason given is that KOJ only wanted to run the tapes once and as many know, it might require two or three passes to get a good lacquer. Still, I don't see the damage with three passes.

In the case of say the Beatles or Pink Floyd, the masters have been rarely taken out of the vaults. Pretty much all of the releases are from safeties. I'm not sure how many Beatles safeties were made from the original recordings (and how many are still around) but I've seen pictures for one title that I don't remember the name of that went at least 8 or more.

Same goes with Japanese remasters. There's no way unless the original was screwed up that they can sound better than the originals. They're at best cut from a safety tape and generation number is everything in analog.
 
It does appear that the master tapes did come out of the vaults for the Beatles mono LP release. I'm looking forward to Christmas so I get my set which has been sitting here since the original release date. Somebody at RMAF this week is going to be playing the new Beatles mono LPs with a mono cartridge. I hope I get a chance to hear the demo. I was thinking about packing one of the LPs from my BC-13 set to play at the show since I know them so well and regardless of what people with crappy stereos tell you, they sound real damn good.
 
Thanks for the additional color, Myles. Knew you would have something to say about the topic. Did not know that RR masters from digital. Would have thought an audiophile label like RR would always use the analog tapes...

Mark, BC-13, are they cut from analog tapes or digital? I've only read on one site that BC-13 was cut from tapes. Can anyone confirm this?
 
I have no doubt that the original BC-13 LP sets were cut from tape. Whether or not they were cut from 'the' master tapes I couldn't tell you. They were official EMI releases though and I have had many years and countless hours of listening pleasure with my set.
 
socfan12 said:
Thanks for the additional color, Myles. Knew you would have something to say about the topic. Did not know that RR masters from digital. Would have thought an audiophile label like RR would always use the analog tapes...

Mark, BC-13, are they cut from analog tapes or digital? I've only read on one site that BC-13 was cut from tapes. Can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...

Remember that RR only recorded in parallel up to '92. So analog tapes only exist for recordings made before '92. As I understand, RR intends to release LPs from before and after '92.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Remember that RR only recorded in parallel up to '92. So analog tapes only exist for recordings made before '92. As I understand, RR intends to release LPs from before and after '92.
Click to expand...

But ALL RR LPs will be cut from digital files which sucks. Just for grins, I played my copy of Donald Fagen's Nightfly last night which I bought when the LP was first issued. If you can't tell that's a digital recording, something is seriously amiss. The first hint is the cymbals that sound like "Tissss" when they are struck. I know digital recording technology has changed greatly since that LP came out, but some people still think Nightfly is a damn good recording and it's not.
 
The sad thing is that we are holding on to the past. 99.9% of the new recordings are recorded digitally.
 
Mike said:
The sad thing is that we are holding on to the past. 99.9% of the new recordings are recorded digitally.
Click to expand...

But the good thing is that there are literally tons of great music that was recorded in pure analog which is available for purchase. I don't see an abundance of new great music being made today.
 
socfan12 said:
I found this to be an informative and timely article as I get into vinyl. Maybe experienced vinylphiles already know this.

Reissue Labels To Avoid and Some Best to Proceed With Caution | Analog Planet

Anyone with any experience with the label Music On Vinyl? They seem to be re-issuing some artists I'm interested in, but unsure if they are any good. Their own website and Fremer suggest they could source from CD if analog or high rez sources are unavailable.
Click to expand...

I've got STP's Purple on 180g Music On Vinyl and it sounds good to my non trained ears. I actually prefer the sound of the record compared to my CD version. I would give one of their reissues a try and decide for yourself if it's the quality that you're after.
 
I thought all of Music on Vinyl was sourced from digital files. I also found it ironic that Joe Walsh's LP "Analog Man" is a digital recording. The label even has the schematic symbol for a triode tube on it which looks cool. My two favorite cuts are "Analog Man" and "Lucky That Way." There is a fair amount of compression which limits dynamic range, but I still dig some of the tunes. Too bad he didn't record the album on analog.
 
Mike said:
The sad thing is that we are holding on to the past. 99.9% of the new recordings are recorded digitally.
Click to expand...

For me the sad thing is they are wasting manufacturing capacity reissuing all these old recordings so that the option to get new releases on LP are miniscule.
 
Mike said:
The sad thing is that we are holding on to the past. 99.9% of the new recordings are recorded digitally.
Click to expand...

MA Recordings, whose music and recordings I like a lot, are for the most part recorded digitally.:-(. Their Goldberg Variations was recorded in parallel, so the analog tapes were used for that LP only (which I purchased at NYAS). Talking to Todd of MA didn't give me a warm & fuzzy that he'll be doing many more like that, or even issuing a lot more vinyl...:-(
 
mep said:
I thought all of Music on Vinyl was sourced from digital files. I also found it ironic that Joe Walsh's LP "Analog Man" is a digital recording. The label even has the schematic symbol for a triode tube on it which looks cool. My two favorite cuts are "Analog Man" and "Lucky That Way." There is a fair amount of compression which limits dynamic range, but I still dig some of the tunes. Too bad he didn't record the album on analog.
Click to expand...

Their site does say they will use analog tapes when available, but to Myles' point, who will give them good masters?

I'm interested in their Lamb eponymous re-issue, so I emailed them asking the source. We shall see.
 
socfan12 said:
MA Recordings, whose music and recordings I like a lot, are for the most part recorded digitally.:-(. Their Goldberg Variations was recorded in parallel, so the analog tapes were used for that LP only (which I purchased at NYAS). Talking to Todd of MA didn't give me a warm & fuzzy that he'll be doing many more like that, or even issuing a lot more vinyl...:-(
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MA Recordings is all digital though they've been at the forefront of recording in hi-Rez digital.
 
still-one said:
For me the sad thing is they are wasting manufacturing capacity reissuing all these old recordings so that the option to get new releases on LP are miniscule.
Click to expand...

Where are you getting this info or is it supposition? That's hardly the case. There's plenty of pressing plants out there. I see plenty of new vinyl on Elusive Disc, AS or MD.

C'mon the reason is pure and simple financial. Companies don't see LPs as being financially viable. CDs are dead and they are concentrating their efforts on where they will make the most money eg. iTunes and digital downloads. Plus they don't have to deal with record returns or finding distributors or retailers.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Remember that RR only recorded in parallel up to '92. So analog tapes only exist for recordings made before '92. As I understand, RR intends to release LPs from before and after '92.
Click to expand...

Myles, I think that most of the recent vinyl reissues (all done by Paul Stubblebine) have been of KOJ digitally mastered albums. Definitely, the Exotic Dances was originally analog, and Paul did the Tape Project release from that one. However, Keith later released a 176/24 copy of that tape for his digital master series.

Interestingly one of those digital titles, was the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances which was recently released on vinyl. Back in 2010 Paul made a lacquer of it for the shootout of ADACs that he ran at my home when I was choosing the best ADAC for my ripping project. I ended up with a PM Model Two, haven't regretted that. Knowing Paul's and Keith's equipment, the Model Two was most certainly used for the digital copies.

Larry
 
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