[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [ARSCLIST] discography of "direct-to-disk revival"?
There was Sheffield, Century, M&K Realtime (they did a couple of D2D before they were digital
pioneers). I can't name any other specialty labels right off the bat. Didn't some of the majors
experiment with this, maybe just for classical and jazz?
Hmm, I wonder how one could compile a list and maybe cook up an ARSC Journal article. With 25-30
years of distance, the D2D fad was an interesting last hurrah for LPs. Some of the claims were
pretty outrageous -- along the lines of "tape technology hasn't progressed but disc-cutting has
vastly improved." Uh, not true. By the late 70's, the Ampex ATR-100 and then-current Studers had
eliminated scrape-flutter as an issue and one COULD choose to record at 30IPS half-inch 2-track with
no NR and get results that would rival even the best 44.1/16-bit digital systems. But the D2D
records, the best of them, show just how hifi grooved disk recording could get.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Richter" <mrichter@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 9:47 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] discography of "direct-to-disk revival"?
Tom Fine wrote:
Hi All:
Was there ever published a discography or listing of all of the direct-to-disk revival LPs? That
was a short-lived fad but there were some great-sounding records made. I have just a handful but
I imagine there were maybe a couple hundred made.
I would argue that some of those recordings were as good as vinyl could get. It was an
interesting time in the recording business because some of the great old-school engineers were
still around in top form and there were still jazz and classical artists who could nail it live
in the studio in one take, and the studios were past the early and mid 70's "dead coffin"
acoustics. Plus that generation of mixing consoles sounded good again in most cases.
Interesting -- in a couple of cases I later bought the CD, which was obviously made from a tape
run at the time. You can really tell how Dolby A NR on the tape quashes the sound, even when a
good CD mastering job was done.
-- Tom Fine
I've a dozen or so of the Sheffield D2D LPs and a couple of the corresponding CDs. Some of the CDs
are from digital master tapes, though mine were from the analogue masters. The sonic difference is
easily recognized; my supposition is that it derives from phase shift of overtones.
I've some D2D efforts from other publishers, a few of which are similar in quality to the
Sheffield but most simply exploit the 'gimmick'
I know of no discography.
Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/