For The Record: All-Analog Mastering
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- Mastering a vinyl record with an all-analog signal chain. Why is it getting so rare? Drummer/Producer Johnny Rock details the process and equipment. Includes videos from the sessions at Salt Mastering.
Great video, very well explained, thank you for doing so. Love analogue audio machines.
Great to see people still using analog tape. Especially, 1/2 inch tape at 15 inches per second (IPS) for the final mixes. I still use tape when I can for tracking (I have a pair of StuderA800s and a pair of Ampex ATR 124s that I alternate between) and mixing (I have a Studer A80VU 1/2 inch deck). Tape is still the gold standard for audio recording and reporduction.
Nice! I use a Stephens 821b 24 track and an Ampex AG440C 2 track. I love both the sound and workflow of tape.
Thanks for sharing. Amazing to see just how it done. Love vinyl and love the analog sound as well.
Just bought my own tape recorder! Love how the sound goes through it already :)
Hi.where from and how much payed?thank you
If I understand this process correctly, the tape playback preview head sends a signal to a computer which analyses the sound and determines the groove spacing and depth requirements, which then directs the cutting head, but the actual audio source recorded is from playback head #2? That's ingenious.
Yep!
If you want to hear a challenging account of analog mastering, check out this story of Todd Rundgren's A Wizard A True Star from 1973. Although he released a double album set the year before, he wanted to release an album close to 60 minutes in length as a single LP. To do so, during mastering they had to speed up some of the songs a half pitch (to shorten the length), plus lower the bass and reduce the volume across the board. He made mention of it in the album notes without going into specifics, making it sound like he cracked some mystical code about extending the time length. He also did the same thing on a subsequent album. My guess is by that point, record companies (who ordinarily would never attempt an obvious compromise in sound like that) figured that the listeners wouldn't know any difference. I certainly didn't.
I believe they call it Rheinische Fullschrifft (with an umlaut on the "u") in Germany where the patent originated. It worked very well for classical pieces with lots of variation in volume and enabled engineers to use the record surface to its maximum. A constant cutter head speed would limit the louder parts and waste record space with softer parts of music.
Thanks for analog mastering! It's hard to get a new vinyl ripped from the master tape.
And the music is amazing! Just bought another copy of this LP!
Awesome video!! Analog has always been the way too go! If I had that cutting equipment in my house, I'd never leave the room!!!!! THANKS!!!!!
Your interesting and enjoyable video explains record production much better than all of the other videos here on CZcams. Thank you - and rock on!
This video is great. I love seeing how albums are made and how musicians and producers put things together. I can not get enough of stuff like this. Music is my passion. I am a drummer too. Analog is awesome! I'm sure it took a long time doing it the old-fasioned way but i'm sure it was a labor of love for something you really care about and something you want in pure and true analog quality. I applaud you! When you record, mix, and master your album entirely on tape you can really hear a true difference verses just doing things digitally and adding an effect to make it have tape warmth sound. Long live analog!
This is a great video, thank you.
This process is immensely complicated and those who have mastered it (pun intended) have become legends!
Very cool. Glad you did this and hope this becomes popular again.
Thank you, really interesting blog and reminds us that the nearest you get to what the artist intended you to hear is best achieved via the analogue relationship between Tape and Vinyl. This is why a totally analogue recording faithfully reproduced via a vinyl album has the ability to touch the music lover in ways that digital and particularly CD can never capture. Long live proper sound long live analogue vinyl.
I am an old analog engineer. Worked in the mastering lab several years in NV. The metal stamper is where we lost it in the acetate. WOW! Those virgin lacquer masters are awesome. Very nice Johnny.
1:44
One of the rare exceptions is the record included with Monty Python's _Matching Tie & Handkerchief_ . In addition to both sides being labeled "side 2", the actual side 2 had two interlaced grooves, so depending on where you drop the needle you can end up listening to something completely different.
That’s awesome! Another fun exception is Jack White’s Lazaretto - backwards grooves, dual grooves that merge, hidden grooves under the labels, and other goodies.
analog for the win!
But why tho
Not so much 'for the win', since it's entirely possible to have great-sounding digital recordings too. Analog is, in some ways, more forgiving of mistakes though, it can produce a listenable sound while being less picky about recording levels etc.
Recording digitally at too high a level, for example, causes annoying, audible artifacts--the popping and crackling that you sometimes hear in a badly made digital recording with excessively high peaks. Analog is more forgiving.
Also, people like it for the nostalgia.
@@fluffed_coyote1487 Good question! I see you've posted this sentiment a couple times :)
Some people really like analog recording. They just like it for whatever reason. Why learn to play guitar or drums when you can just program it all into a computer that will play everything for you? Because they like to.
Ultimately, there's no audible difference between a very good quality analog recording, and a very good quality digital one. Digital predominates because it's extremely convenient to work with, and that's the advantage of digital. It's also perfectly possible to have very good sounding analog recordings as well.
@@devilsoffspring5519 i rather keep my old analog
@@devilsoffspring5519 Analog sound is a continuous amplitude and frequencies changing process, which is how the ear actually works. Digital is a stepped sampling process even with 1 bit sampling at 192k sampling rate. Some of the original source information is lost. This affects high frequenct timbre, and phase location. Many people do hear the difference between a classic analog only tape mastered and vinyl cut album, from the 70's before digital was introduced in the early eighties. With an excellent turntable, cartridge and proper stylus and carefully tracking calibrated, the high frequency information and dynamics are preserved well. However with lesser quality turntable, etc, or one that connects through a computer the sonics coming off the vinyl will be compromised to various degrees. Quite often to the point where the quality sounds no better than the lossy digital signal chain process. So it really depends on the sensitivity of one's ears and the quality of one's audio equipment to hear the difference. But it can be heard. Digital is much more convenient to record, and the average listener can play it back without several hundred bucks of good equipment, so the average listener really doesn't care about the difference, but some people do. And that's why some prefer vinyl.
wow we're planing on doing a vinyl project.
your video was great.
we have not pressed vinyl since the 80's so it interesting to see how it is done now.
Thanks for uploading!
I just did the same thing with Paul at salt master !!! 100% analog it was amazing
I understand the process, but I still never git tired of seeing it and hearing it explained! I'm a weird guy y'all! 😅
Thanks for putting this together and sharing with us analog enthusiasts! Even though I've been mostly digital for 20 years, I'm very happy that there are those out there like you that preserve that wonderful analog sound. Thanks!
when I get one of my albums to be recorded analogue and on vinyl. my live will be completed. wow
Really cool. Thx for documenting and sharing this on youtube.
That was awesome. I've never known how this processed worked. How cool!
WELL DONE DEAR JOHNY ROCK...YOUR PRESENTATION IS REALLY AMAZING...BEST WISHES
Great video! Very educational. Thank you!
I sure hope Paul Gold at Salt Mastering is training someone to eventually take over the process when he retires!
You have a Turntable just like mine, that's cool. This video Is cool and informative.
Thank you..an extremely interesting video. Presumably, all the rest of the audio chain was analoque!
What you said about albums with heavy bass needing more space aligns with what I know. Most all of my hip hop albums are dual lp. Even if they are super short.
Great vid respect for original analog sound👍
Oh my ..Great ,just great work
Asked my engineer who presses true analog ? He knows of no one that does that . I record on tape find it not rite to put them into digital then on vinyl . Like to keep it pure . Looks like gotta groove sent u some warped test pressings there . Glad to see someone talk about the lost art of analog mastering :)
Excellent video and explanations! been looking for something like this for a while
Really neat video, thanks for sharing the whole process.
This is so cool! Wish i could do that everyday!
Excellent video. I ordered two copies.
Thank you, Richard! Your copies are on the way along with that T-Shirt!
Thanks for sharing! Great video. Rock on 🍻
we want more ...👍👍👍👍👍
Cool Video! I've got an all-analog vinyl in the works mastered by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering and getting pressed at Gotta Groove Records too! It was recorded at analog recording studio The Bomb Shelter and produced by Andrija Tokic in East Nashville, TN. Stay tuned on release date and other news at www.arielbui.com or on Facebook!
Cool video, two small notes
1. The Ortofon 2M really isn't 'all that'. May want to consider an upgrade since you do seem to care about sound
2. A record player is all about resonances, you can sort of figure out what happens when you play with the dust cover closed. It becomes one big resonance chamber that makes your low end hollow. The only acceptable exception to this is cat ownership.
Great project and great video.
Great Video …. I'm in possession of many Studer/Nagra/Stellavox tape recorder and love such analog machines.
Amazing...
Question, why on some albums, the song before the last song on the album, like on side 2, crossfades? You know how you wait a few short seconds for the next song? I'd like to know why. Example, only track 11 alone crossfades into track 12. All other songs don't do that. Comprehend what I'm talking about?
DOPE!!!! good job on the process!
Dust in the air will end up on the finished product if not careful, and the quality of the "plastic"
used is important. In the 1970s there was some plastic used for records that must have been recycled washing up bottles, playing a new record with scratch like crackles, I took song remains the same back 3 times and got my money back as it was unlistenable. From new some of my records sound as if I marked them which I had not. Recent pressings seem more thought about. Equipment-Quad ESL 57s, Magnaplaners, Transcriptors Transcriber, Ortofon VMS20E11.
Great video!!
Rewarding indeed.
I do Miss those Analog days, DAW's are Fine,... But never will get that warm audio feeling
So has there has allways been a computer involved when cutting from tape through a dual playback head tape machine, only not in the signal chain?
I find a very interesting video.
But what I can't understand is how a magnetic tape is recorded, analogously, on a lathe, to make vinyl records.
That is, how is the sound transferred from the magnetic tape to the lathe?
I don't know if I explain myself.
Can you clarify my question, please?
"That is, how is the sound transferred from the magnetic tape to the lathe?"
The same way that it's transferred to a speaker when you listen to a tape, but instead of vibrating the speaker cone to produce sound it vibrates the lathe's needle to cut a copy of the tape's audio signal into the lacquer.
The mechanism which vibrates a speaker cone or a cutting needle is known as a voice coil, which is a specific type of linear-motion electric motor. The audio signal, which is a specific type of electrical signal, that you feed the voice coil determines its pattern of vibration.
how is it that when I play a vinyl record and listen closely I can hear the start of the next track before it starts at normal volume a moment later? please reply im dying to know how and why this happens.
keep up the good work
Where do I get a copy of your
Music on vinyl?
johnnyrockrecord.com
@@johnnyrockrecord thank you..
So....Dire Straits-Brothers In Arms was recorded on digital, Metallica-Metallica was mastered from a DAT tape and they sound awesome. The list of great albums recorded or mastered from digital sources is bigger but there's no point to put it here. These guys didn't bother with all analog, so what's the catch here?
No catch; there's no right or wrong way to make a good sounding record. The stated goal of this album was to do it with as few 1's and 0's between the artists and the audience. Whether or not that made for a better sounding album is subjective, but it's what we wanted and it was quite a feat to pull it off. Part of my inspiration was learning that reissues of old albums are mostly cut from digital copies. As I alluded in the video, great sounding records are cut this way all time, but my preference is to hear it cut all analog if that's how the album was recorded and mixed and the tapes are in good condition.
@@johnnyrockrecord Hi Johnny. I'm not talking about albums originally recorded all analog and then remasterd from digital sources :) I'm talking about albums from 80s and 90s recorded entirely on digital, or, recorded on tape and then transferred before mastering on digital format. And this was way before any DAW showing up on the market. I'm doing music production for years now, and I realized that is like Andrew Scheps said :"What comes from the speakers matters" :)
Hi Michael, I don’t think we’re really debating, since we agree that what comes out of the speakers is what matters. I’ll just add that I’m not an extremely analog purist. A majority of albums done in the 80s and 90s like you mentioned were a mashup of digital and analog formats, be it the tape formats or the mixing consoles (and some of course were entirely digital end to end). And I love the sound on plenty of those albums too! 'Jagged Little Pill' was tracked on ADAT and it’s great!
I *occasionally* take issue when unnecessary conversions are added at the mastering stage when the original master tape is analog and in good, playable condition (Beatles records in particular don’t sound right to me every time they convert the tapes to digital first, but their AAA pressings are outstanding). But hey, if the master tape was digital all along, be it DAT or 1630 etc. then it needs to be converted to analog before being put into groove form anyway, so I’ve no issue there. As long as it sounds good that’s all that counts ;-)
@@johnnyrockrecord Hi Johnny :) You're correct I don't think either it's a debate, and your effort to show people this "lost art" is amazing.
wow really nice vid thankx
God I hope one day I can work in this field
Can I cut an album from a cassette tape?
any video with your sample sound from the master copy?
HOLY MOLEY!!! I know Paul really well.
Great Video! Do you know of any links that show how to record test tones on to the reel for mastering? Specifically curious what adapter cables one would need to record tones from the tone generator on to the tape.
The tones are generated in the recording console or an external frequency generator. The purpose of them is for maintaining amplitude and frequency accuracy through the signal chain. If the Master analog tape is recorded at +6 the noise floor is lowered but also the dynamic range headroom before tape saturation, which will require more compression and hard limiting. If recorded at +3, or 0dB just the opposite affect. The tones also allow calibration of the different playback machines to match the inherent bias charachteristics. of the tape. The tones are recorded at the head or tail of the tape before or after the program depending if one stores their tape tails in or out. There is no continuous tone on the program tracks unless syncing two syncable equipped machines together, in which a SMPTE tone as it is called, is recorded on one track.
johnny how or wear could i buy this equipment like this i love it thanks
that test pressing looked slightly warped
That's not the only problem, "Check the right hand Large Roller Guide, " on the Tape Recorder supplying the cutting lathe Have you checked the Wow and Flutter figures from a Test Tape, this can't be much good it looks really bad for a Mastering Studio ?
I noticed that wobble too.
Actually, this is just the tape guide roller's cover not being pushed all the way down. These covers have a way of not being well fitted. It has absolutely no influence on the tape path or the recorder's specs, though. I have 4 of these machines and I tend to remove these covers, just because I don't like that wobble either :)
@@remigettliffe glad you cleared this up, I noticed it but assumed the same as you have just stated. If the actual guide was operating like that it would not function and you would end up with a pile of useless magnetic confetti
Long live the analog purists!
But why?
@@fluffed_coyote1487 unique sound brother
utub sorry I’m kind of an audiophile and care more about quality of reproduction.
@@fluffed_coyote1487 If the sound of CDs is better to your ears by all means go ahead and stick to that format. From a technical standpoint CDs are indeed better but after listening to a well mastered album on vinyl and comparing it to a CD I wouldn't even give the CD a second listen.
Love it.
Awesome video, thanks for the explanation. How much more delicate, as far as cracking/shattering?, are acetate dubplates compared to regular vinyl?
Thank you! As far as I know the acetate is considered more fragile not for cracking, but more for the softness of the playing surface, which wears out quicker on each play.
Nice to see an old Studer machine...shame most vinyl is played back on shit equipment where 80% of the quality is lost in playback.
The test pressing looked quite warped.
80%? LOL at that. More like 5%, which is about the difference you can expect between a $100 record player and a $10,000+ one, if you're lucky. So-called "audiophiles" like to imagine that their ridiculously priced machines that they bought to play a ten-cents-to-manufacture plastic disc make a much bigger difference than they do in reality. They are a group of semi-delusional people who are best known for their history of laughter-inducing failures in double-blind ABX tests.
On top of that, if you're looking for quality, which means fidelity in the case of audio, why would you buy a record at all? Even under the best circumstances they can't compare to the fidelity of run-of-the-mill CD audio (44.1 KHz, 16-bit, 2-channel, uncompressed LPCM). When you play a record you inevitably get some degree of surface noise, channel bleed, wow & flutter, and, if not using headphones, the sound waves from the speakers will vibrate the needle slightly after the record grooves vibrated the needle. None of those things apply to CDs. On top of that, records have significantly worse dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio than CDs.
Even on my laptop, this analog recording sounds better!!
And then some people say youtube sucks ...........WRONG
All it needs is pure analog sound :-)
How many vinyl record master copies can you make from the original master before you get generational loss?
Hey Transcendental, each stamper can produce usually 500 to 1000 copies before quality starts to decline. I didn't go into the metal plating process in this video, but there's some great details here about how it's done: standardvinyl.com/2011/08/04/2-step-vs-3-step-electroplating/. We used a 2-step process since our output was only 500 records. Cheers~
Johnny Rock & Friends: For The Record
Thank you so much.
Hello. Where is possible to buy your record? It would be cool to hear contemporary analog disc.
Greetings! That would be johnnyrockrecord.com/store. Please note if you are placing an international order, scroll to the bottom of that page for our contact info; we'll create a custom invoice for your order. Thank you for your interest!
What type of cartridge is your home TT using?
That's the Ortofon 2m Bronze
@0:33 "Balance the volume and tones between the songs"
Why alter the "tones"?
That is an active process that will diminish the sound quality. It is an extra process, and each process diminishes the sound quality.
Why would the tones not be correct from your performance of creating the song?
Why would you choose to have one song's tones be changed to match some other song? Why not leave each song's tones as they naturally are?
@2:57 "...our sides are cut as loud as possible, without reaching the center of the disk"
Why cut them loud?
I do not know how much gain should be applied, but I suspect that it should not be as loud as possible. Less than loud, I imagine, would sound closer to the mix-down tapes, and the finished pressing's volume would be determined by the customer's volume knob.
@4:10 "But to my ears, there's nothing quite like doing it entirely analog"
Correct.
Although Paul McGowan of PS Audio (and now Octave Records) swears by DSD. He claims that it is virtually analog's equal; that you could not tell apart one from the other.
By the way, I wrote some conclusions, but I am not in a position to know for sure whether I am correct. I do not have access to a studio's mixing and mastering equipment, nor do I have access to cutting the lacquer, etc. I am generally averse to "enhancements", as I do not want to hear the studio's equipment (on a revealing stereo, you hear it all). I want to hear only the band. The best job the studio can do, in my opinion, is to make themselves invisible. The highest complement I can pay to the studio is to sense no sign of the studio.
Please let me know if I got anything wrong.
Hi Perhaps,
I must state upfront that I'm not a purist, mainly because I've been engineering for 20 years and I view the entire recording, mixing, and mastering process a series of compromises (as well as creative decisions that often defy pure sound). I do very much admire recording and mastering that's done in a purist fashion, but that's not quite what I was after here. The mandate was to minimize or eliminate 1's and 0's between the artists and the audience. I'm happy to address your points, though!
The altering of volume and tones in mastering is done for a cohesive listening experience. Most tonal adjustments are already addressed in earlier stages of the process, especially during the mix. For example, each song warrants its own balance that works for that song, but on a continuous album you wouldn't want one song to sound *too* bassy, midrangey or trebly compared to the next (I wouldn't anyway). So a mastering engineer may decide to raise or lower certain frequencies to keep sonic cohesion. The volume differences that I mention are done for the same reason - just to make sure each song is heard relatively evenly and properly impactful when listening to the record as a whole.
Mastering dynamic compression and limiting is of course another thing that often gets used and certainly affects sonics way more than EQ and volume rides. But that's a sensitive topic and a rabbit hole I won't be going down today (much better to have a separate, nuanced discussion on that). I will point out that for cutting vinyl engineers do often employ high-frequency limiting to avoid excessive sibilance during playback, which is a common occurrence with vinyl. The same can be said for loud transients that can cause a stylus to jump out of the groove.
There's a very valid reason for cutting vinyl records as loud as possible, though. The medium itself is prone to surface noise and rumble. Cutting the program as loud as possible brings the content above all of that noise. There's also only so much room on an LP side to cut - especially in the rock and pop world where things can get loud and bass-heavy. If a side is longer than 18 minutes or so the engineer risks cutting too far into the center of the disc, either running out of space or leaving the door open for inner groove distortion. Reducing the volume and/or bass helps avoid this, but the tradeoff is more surface noise and potentially a thinner sound. The pitch computer I mention in the video (which intelligently spaces the groove walls) strikes a balance to allow longer sides, keep the level higher, and avoid cutting too far into the disc.
I know where you're coming from, and I actually agree on a lot of those points for DIGITAL mastering, where engineers have 96 or 144db of headroom to play with and not as many limitations. And I could rant for hours about remixed and/or remastered albums that are absolutely dreadful and hyper compressed, but that's for another day :) Hope that clarifies a bit.
@@johnnyrockrecord "I must state upfront that I'm not a purist"
I am a purist, but only in the sense that I would prefer to avoid any processing that is not absolutely necessary. I understand that processing is a necessary evil. But so many songs sound wrong (congested, flat, compressed, narrow soundstage, etc) that I can only assume was due to excessive processing.
I cannot imagine that the tapes holding the original capture sound that bad. They probably sound amazing, and I hope before I one-day meet my maker that one day someone will release some hit songs that reveal how great the sound quality is and how great the artists are.
"...but on a continuous album you wouldn't want one song to sound too bassy, midrangey or trebly compared to the next"
I would prefer to hear each song on its own merit. If it sounds better without post-recording processing, then that is my preference, compared to diminishing the sound quality for the sake of matching it to an adjacent song.
And if a song is too bassy, then could not the gain be turned down on that stem (I am not literate when it comes to studio lingo, so maybe "stem" is the wrong term). Adjusting the gain keeps that instrument's sound (its shape) intact. Applying an equalizer reshapes the sound, making it unnatural. Or perhaps record the song again, and adjust the placement of the microphone or the amount of pressure being used on the instrument? That probably takes more effort. But that would pay off with better sound quality (or am I mistaken?).
"Mastering dynamic compression and limiting is of course another thing...rabbit hole..."
I hear ya!
"I will point out that for cutting vinyl engineers do often employ high-frequency limiting to avoid excessive sibilance..."
I always wondered where siblance came from. I assumed that the singer was just pushing out his/her "s" sounds too hard.
I just hope that by addressing siblance with a high-frequency limiter, we are not trading off that fix at the cost of losing the airy, open sound of the song.
"The same can be said for loud transients that can cause a stylus to jump out of the groove."
I am glad you mentioned this.
When Led Zeppelin II was released, the President of Atlantic Records gave a copy to his daughter. She complained to him that the stylus (she probably said "needle") was jumping out of the groove. Hers was a child's toy turntable. But he ordered that the pressings be dialed down.
That "hot cut", RL / SS stamper is the most sought after pressing (and I have one, and a really good one). I played it in a high-end audio store on their flagship system. It was the best sounding recording I have ever heard. The band was there (my eyes and ears were fighting over who was right). It was spooky real. The cartridge was the Clearaudio Goldfinger (costs something like $15,000).
Anyway, Atlantic Record's President's daughter's problem was with the sub-par quality turntable, which most certainly had a junk tonearm and junk cartridge, and was 100% surly not dialed in (effective length of the tonearm, overhang, zenith angle, and the rest).
I understand that a stylus jumping out of the groove is a problem, because there are countless people that to not properly dial in their turntables. But it is a shame that sound quality has to suffer for everyone, including those of us that do properly dial in our turntables.
"The medium itself is prone to surface noise and rumble."
Like a car that needs a tire balance or front-end alignment, that car is prone to noise and rumble. And if that driver rubs up against the curb, that is very noticeable. But when properly aligned, properly pressed records play very quietly, because the stylus is not rubbing where it should not be rubbing. Other noise is because many people do not clean their records. And "rumble"? Is that feedback? I used to get that. But that was me not properly isolating my turntable. Now I get none, and the focus of the soundstage is much better.
"And I could rant for hours about remixed and/or remastered albums that are absolutely dreadful and hyper compressed..."
Me, too.
I just hope that not being as bad as them is not considered acceptable. Based on your video and comments, I think that you are seeking a high level of quality.
I have never heard a re-master that sounds right.
It might have some good qualities. But it is that forced sound (that something that stands out) that ruins it.
Like having too much salt on your fries. The first one catches your attention and is yummy. But as you eat more, it becomes too much. And so it is with many re-masters, where some things become too much. I have given up on re-masters.
Johnny, I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me and taking the time to explain and answer my questions.
@@NoEgg4u You're welcome! I feel you on all of that. I approach each project I do based on what the artist is looking for and what I feel is the best presentation of it. But I'm very much into high quality sound, especially as a listening preference. The co-producer for this record and I used to nerd out all the time over sound quality and our favorite audiophile releases (or releases that were just done properly). To this day I contend that the only way to properly hear The Beatles is all-analog vinyl. And that's not to say the powers that be are incapable of making great masters (they nailed it with the 2014 AAA mono pressings), they just choose to do all this digital screwing around and it never matches up to an AAA signal path. Lots of various opinions going around, but that's mine :)
And after doing this record I learned a hell of a lot more about mixing and mastering in general and what makes the format sound so good in spite of its limitations. Vinyl just won't allow for things like excessive high frequencies or brick wall limiting - so those are things I pay attention to much earlier in production (as you alluded to). If a singer is too sibilant and that's their style, then adjust the distance or angle on the mic, or swap it out for one that's more forgiving at those frequencies. Worst case put a de-esser on the vocal in the mix. On the last project I did for vinyl I made sure sibilance was addressed, low frequencies were more centered, and in general laid off boosting a lot of treble - and when I heard the master it sounded way truer to my intentions. Another fun fact is that high frequency reproduction diminishes the closer you get to the disc center, and it's much easier to distort with loud passages. So if a producer wants the best sound quality they might opt to sequence the songs with quieter material placed at the end of each side.
And yeah - a lot of mixing and mastering choices that begin as reasonable compromises can and often are overdone and detrimental to the sound quality, for the sake of loudness or competitiveness or whatever. At least for some things we live in a world where there are audiophile-quality versions of our favorite stuff. Cheers~
Ducking awesome
All this wonderful process for some of the most asinine, safe, derogatory and un-menacing rock music I've had the sadness to come across.
How is it both "safe" and "derogatory"? Did you mean "derivative"?
@@MaximRecoil Yes! I did! Thanks for pointing that out!
You should also release your album on 1/4 - 7 1/2ips open reel tape. I know Id buy a copy.
How expensive is a record lacquer disk really ?
Back in the 60's and 70's when digital wasn't an option, I assume they still had a faster way of pumping them out somehow?
For mass-scale production of vinyl records what's typically employed is a 3-step process. As explained by www.misfitscentral.com/appendices/appendix.php
"The Acetate
The first step in the record pressing process is the creation of the master disk, or acetate, which is cut directly from the master tape of the recording. An acetate is a piece of aluminum coated with a layer of vinyl, into which grooves are cut, like a record. Unlike records, however, acetates are usually (see below) one sided, and come in pairs, one for each side of the album. They also often have two center holes; one hole is the standard center hole which acts as the axis for rotation, and the other hole is used by the guiding arm to turn the acetate while the writing stylus cuts the grooves. Some plants now use single-holed acetates which are held in place by suction.
One or, at most, two acetate sets are typically made for an album. Due to their composition, acetates begin to lose their sound quality within a matter of days. If an acetate is not used within three days, another set needs to be cut, or the sound quality of the finished product will suffer. For this reason, the acetate pair is sent immediately (via express mail) to the plater.
Plating
The plater coats each acetate with a thin layer of silver which is then electro-plated with nickel. When this plate is separated from the acetate, the metal that was facing the disk now has protruding ridges where the grooves were. This plate is called the father or master plate. The acetate disk usually gets destroyed in this process.
The father plate is oxidized, and plated again. The resulting plate, when separated from the father, becomes a metal duplicate of the acetate, with grooves again. This plate is called the mother plate and can be played on a turntable to check for errors in mastering or plating. Like acetates, mothers and fathers also come in one-sided pairs.
In a two step process, the father plate is converted into a stamper, and the mother is shelved for future use. In a three step process, the mother is oxidized and plated to make stamper plates. One father can produce 10 mothers, and one mother can produce 10 stampers. One stamper can produce about 1000 vinyl records. Therefore, a two step process can produce a maximum of about 11,000 records before a remastering has to be done, and a three step process can produce up to about 100,000 vinyl records before remastering."
I share your opinion on ALL analogue!
Well.. How can I buy your record?
Orders in the USA can be made at johnnyrockrecord.com. International orders at store.cdbaby.com/cd/johnnyrockfriends. Thanks for your interest!
if you really want to be audio purists, try a direct to disk recording.
You mean DMM,Direct Metal Mastering??I have a copy of Nirvana's In Utero with DMM,i might take a listen as to how it's sounding :D
Frederic Vandeputte. DMM is a 1980’s forerunner to digital recording and digitally produced LP’s and nothing to do with Direct to Disc. Direct to disc means the record is cut while the band play and so cannot afford to make a mistake as they are the record source!
But why would you want to be a "purist"
Weasle 65 Sound Quality. It matters to me.
Roland Jones
>> audio quality
>> vinyl record
Yeah, sure, “audio quality” is important for you,
You approved that test pressing? It is visibly warped!
It isn't warpage, it's an artifact that gives it an old-school Analog sound! (i.e. wow-'n'-fuckin'-flutter) :)
what song is playing on 4:45?
That would be "It's Been a While." czcams.com/video/03sdVPDzlR0/video.html
Johnny Rock & Friends: For The Record thanks
bueno!
Did I just see a pair of ATC speakers being supported by laundry baskets? Really?
Yeah, I noticed the Prism DACs and ADC too, hehe.
Analogue dithering
In the late 80 s every body give up tape masterizing, which was pure ART and embrace digital signal where everyoane can push some buttons.... That is Main reason why we cannot find a single cd that really sounds good, or if there are ones they cost a lot.... What a big mistake....
we call this a dubplate in reggae music..
Nah ska sucks but reggae is aight
Unfortunately reggae is the type of music where 95% of studios using digital source to press vinyl records. Rescpect for the leftover exceptions.
so dang tideoues
That looks like it cost a tid bit more than my Sony disc burner.
Unfortunately there is very little new music that is worth the cost of the mastering lacquer disc alone. Mostly garbage. The recording being played as background music for this video is that sort of awful tripe that's unworthy.
Douche bag says what?
all analog.....heres a computer cutting the wax. doh
Splendido video ed esempio di passione. Il disco si può acquistare?
Hw deep to cut the groove? Really? You have no idea, do you...