In my time of over thinking things (which is a lot ) I've recently come to think of audio in the same terms as motion picture film. Motion pictures are the original digital format if you consider that you are seeing so many individual frames per second that fool the mind into thinking you are seeing a seamless smooth moving image.
While analogue audio truly is seamless, our hearing will also operate the same way as our vision in putting sounds together. The process of cleaning up rips of both LP's and CD's has taught me this. The best example of this is scratches, clicks and pops. There are many ways to remove these, but I prefer to do it with a pencil tool and draw out an individual pop rather than use a program that affects the entire track in a global fashion. Using a program will usually lead to a noticeable change in the entire sound. While extremely time consuming, one at a time done manually, if done properly, will make the change undetectable to the listener.
Not too long ago, someone I met wanted to actually hear the before and after of what I do so I put a disc together for him to listen to. I also put up a folder of the tracks on that disc to share at a site that has a lot of people doing remasters of their own vinyl for a I'll show you mine if you show me your's kinda thing.
The main attraction was my rip of The Chambers Bros ~ Time Has Come Today from the very first pressing I bought as a kid when it first came out. It went to more than a few parties and the proof is in the raw rip. But it cleaned up real nice proving that there can be gold in those beat up grooves.
Here's some screen prints to illustrate. The first one is a portion that is about 10 seconds long, with the pops easy to see and there are lots of them. The song is over 10 minutes long. The second shows a blow up of the centered section with a 1/10 of a second portion and the clicks. The third shows the click drawn out with a straight line redrawing the click into no click for a lack of a better way to put it. It is inaudible upon playback.
Awhile ago I wished that I had some Google glasses so that I could record what the process is like in real time while listening to it during the process. IIRC correctly, it took me a couple of days to draw out all the pops in the song. Call me crazy. But the finished product made me smile.
So for anyone interested, the folder with the before and after of Time Has Come Today is available for a short time that also includes side 1 of Ambrosia's first album which never had a major CD release. The CD's are obscure and out of print already as best as I can tell. The raw rip of the whole side is there along with the individual tracks remastered. Ambrosia's first album is one of those albums where one side is truly outstanding and the other side is so so. Side 1 is outstanding, imho.
Its what I do to keep me smiling and out of trouble.
I thought so too. They might have cheated you on liner notes or stuff like that but the record itself was decent. I always heard stuff like they used "worn out" masters etc. but I can't imagine that was really any kind of savings.
I heard the same thing, too. Prolly bs rumours from record store owners to keep you coming in.
Truth be told, I have quite a bit of CRC LP's and they are mostly very nice pressings.
I thought so too. They might have cheated you on liner notes or stuff like that but the record itself was decent. I always heard stuff like they used "worn out" masters etc. but I can't imagine that was really any kind of savings.
I remember making buying decisions based on label. Not sure if all CBS-affiliated labels used the same pressing plants, but in the 80s I gave some credit to CBS/Columbia for making New Wave a success. Elvis Costello & the Clash early records were pressed well.
Warners stuff sometimes was really thin. I got Marshall Crenshaw's first album and it's the only one I ever took back for sounding crappy. The guy let me swap it out but told me the replacement probably wouldn't be any good either because of how thin the thing was (he'd inspected the original to make sure I hadn't damaged it). Thinner vinyl=shallower grooves, I guess. That was the first time someone told me that manufacturers make a difference (and he wasn't just trying to sell me on 180g or something).
The red label Columbia/CBS pressings have been consistently higher quality over the years. Another label that was consistently great was Reprise, Sinatra's company, before it got bought by WB. RCA was always an adventure, you never knew what you were going to get. Dynaflex, meh ... Atlantic and Atco were decent, before the WB purchase. I guess we can rightly blame WB for the demise of vinyl to a certain degree. The crapiness of so much vinyl made CD's an instant joy. Now that I'm back into my vinyl, when it was good, it was very, very good.
I have learned so much lately about pressing plants while catalogueing my collection at discogs. There were pressing plants scattered all over the place back in the day. It seems that the bulk of the plants were operated by Columbia and they sold press time to different labels when available. Capitol was the other primary presser. Mastered by Capitol and Sterling are two marks I do look for in the runouts. It really is mind blowing when you see how many versions of some albums there are. Going through the list to find the exact one you have can be a lot of work. Sgt. Pepper for example ...
Truth be told, I have quite a bit of CRC LP's and they are mostly very nice pressings.
Since I have been ripping away, I have found that any time I see an orange Epic label, I get excited. They are consistently the cleanest and quietest US pressings I have had the pleasure of listening to.
I remember making buying decisions based on label. Not sure if all CBS-affiliated labels used the same pressing plants, but in the 80s I gave some credit to CBS/Columbia for making New Wave a success. Elvis Costello & the Clash early records were pressed well.
Warners stuff sometimes was really thin. I got Marshall Crenshaw's first album and it's the only one I ever took back for sounding crappy. The guy let me swap it out but told me the replacement probably wouldn't be any good either because of how thin the thing was (he'd inspected the original to make sure I hadn't damaged it). Thinner vinyl=shallower grooves, I guess. That was the first time someone told me that manufacturers make a difference (and he wasn't just trying to sell me on 180g or something).
Since I have been ripping away, I have found that any time I see an orange Epic label, I get excited. They are consistently the cleanest and quietest US pressings I have had the pleasure of listening to.
Yeah, it's been shared, but it's a cool story. But fat lot of good it's going to do if they're all stacked flat like that, getting mildewed covers etc. I want him to invest at least a little in some climate controlled space!
He's working on a controlled environment but the worst thing is he doesn't even own a turntable.
Yeah, it's been shared, but it's a cool story. But fat lot of good it's going to do if they're all stacked flat like that, getting mildewed covers etc. I want him to invest at least a little in some climate controlled space!
Cool stuff. I'm guessing the price is untouchable tho.
Not really. I think we get around $250 to $300 for a frame. That's a pretty middle of the road price for a quality frame these days.
I will admit that if I didn't work there I couldn't afford my own glasses. I've owned cars that cost less then some of my glasses and not that long ago ...
By now most of y'all know I'm an optician among other things. It was a quiet morning at the shop this past Saturday and I was poking around the frames and stumbled onto a frame line we have had for a pretty long while. I knew we had some frames that someone was using old vinyl LP's for the material and thought OK, they'll try anything and never gave it another thought. We literally have several thousand frames of all kinds and sorts including some solid wood ones. So I'm used to working with the unusual. I don't know why, but I saw a frame where the temples had a slice of the label visible on both of them. I saw Gypsy ~ Fleetwood Mac as one of the visible songs on the temple and the other temple had the WB logo from the top of the LP.
So I really took a hard look at them. They're actually very cool and well made. I went to Google them and looked them up and was happily surprised to see what they are up to. It seems that they also come to Cleveland often as we are a good source for the records they use. We are one of a few dealers in the country that carry their line and thought that I should pass this info along to share with those who really care about music and might want to take their interest to a higher level. They do custom work as you will find poking through their website.
So welcome to Spex Wax. Take a look. They're pretty cool and very well made.
Cool stuff. I'm guessing the price is untouchable tho.
By now most of y'all know I'm an optician among other things. It was a quiet morning at the shop this past Saturday and I was poking around the frames and stumbled onto a frame line we have had for a pretty long while. I knew we had some frames that someone was using old vinyl LP's for the material and thought OK, they'll try anything and never gave it another thought. We literally have several thousand frames of all kinds and sorts including some solid wood ones. So I'm used to working with the unusual. I don't know why, but I saw a frame where the temples had a slice of the label visible on both of them. I saw Gypsy ~ Fleetwood Mac as one of the visible songs on the temple and the other temple had the WB logo from the top of the LP.
So I really took a hard look at them. They're actually very cool and well made. I went to Google them and looked them up and was happily surprised to see what they are up to. It seems that they also come to Cleveland often as we are a good source for the records they use. We are one of a few dealers in the country that carry their line and thought that I should pass this info along to share with those who really care about music and might want to take their interest to a higher level. They do custom work as you will find poking through their website.
So welcome to Spex Wax. Take a look. They're pretty cool and very well made.
Thanks Kurt. Have a great Thanksgiving. I had fish and chips. That's close enough, right?
There ya go ! A hearty meal is always good.
Let me know how I did with the LAL tracks. I listened to my version of Baba against their own remaster from the 1995 CD and I think I did a decent job, considering my source and equipment vs theirs. That and there is a nasty scratch across the entire side one of WN of which Baba is the first song. Looks like a safety pin was dragged across it. It took me a whole day just to clean it up to get started on the finished product. 10 years of practice working with CD's has paid off.
Not everybody doing commercial remasters these days gets it right. The Who library is pretty damn good. Botnick's work on the Door's catalogue is primo. But whoever is doing Clapton's and Cream's is pathetic for example. Those shitty jobs are what led me to keep going.
) I've recently come to think of audio in the same terms as motion picture film. Motion pictures are the original digital format if you consider that you are seeing so many individual frames per second that fool the mind into thinking you are seeing a seamless smooth moving image.
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y'all !