Re: [ARSCLIST] Fw: Fw: [ARSCLIST] Dynagroove, was Record tracking

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

Karl Miller wrote:
> I have several of the commerically issued reel to reel tapes from the
> dynagroove era. They seem to suffer from the same distortion problems I
> found on the discs...or is that just a problem with my ears...
>
> As I write this, I don't recall having heard any CD releases of the
> dynagroove recordings. If the master tapes were ok, are the transfers
> good?
>
> One of my favorite BSO recordings from that time was the DelloJoio Fantasy
> and Variations. After several copies of the disc and reel to reel tapes, I
> gave up and now listen to concert broadcast tape I have.

I'm afraid I am responsible for this strand of the thread, having said 
that my experience was that the master tapes carried the distortions of 
Dynagroove. I stand by that on the basis of experience parallelling 
yours: prerecorded tapes with clearer capture of the Dynagroove 
distortions. I do not believe I have tried CD reissues and I note that 
the titles I have or had on both Dynagroove LP and prerecorded tape are 
all U.S. masters. It may well be that a clean European master was 
distorted for LP but need not have been for other issues.

Such behavior was common enough: EMI issued abominable LPs on Angel 
concurrently with clean ones on HMV and plummy ones on Electrola. Odeon, 
Pathe, Columbia and minor EMI labels in Europe tended to offer 
intermediate sound - all from the same master tape. Quite frequently, 
the sonic variation is so great that the performances seem to differ. I 
have one or two recordings on three LP labels, on U.S. prerecord and on 
CD; no two of them sound alike. Fortunately (and unlike London/Decca), 
EMI has made an effort to provide the best sonic environment on CD reissues.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/