[ ]A vid popped up about a small record shop in Hong Kong that has the rarest records in the world. I was clickbaited but sure enough he really does have the rarest records in existence. They're so rare many collectors don't even know about them. As the owner has had decades of experience he's regarded in that part of the world as the main expert on all things recorded. He came up with a system for ranking sound-quality of recordings on various media. What was more interesting to me was his comparison of the sound of original master recordings compared to vinyl, tape and CDs. The results are shown on this chart. It's based mainly on his his ears and his opinions, plus research.
[ ]He collects "master tapes" of many artists, and that's his standard. What he has aren't THE original master tapes; they're "production masters," which were usually made in issues of 100 or so, and given to radio stations and certain individuals. I suppose they're second-generation and straight from the masters, and as close to the original recording as possible. As you can see reel-to-reel has the next-best sound compared to the master tapes. That's no surprise. It only has about 70% of the fidelity of the master though, but I'm guessing that reel copies are at least third-generation and maybe more. Before it gets to the reel-to-reel, a copy is made from tha master, generally referred to as a "stereo mix," then most likely a third copy is made to make production copies from, so that's four gens already. Still that's a big drop in sound-quality.
[ ]Cassette tapes came in third at around 50% fidelity, and scored higher than vinyl. That's a bit surprising until you consider that it's much smaller than reel-to-reel tape but it's still tape. Speaking of cassettes, they're making a bit of a comeback, and a few companies are making players again, for the first time in decades. If it sounds better than vinyl, why not? Vinyl started making a comeback well-over a decade ago and it's still going. They make turntables now that cost more than your house. Many of the hipper bands have been releasing their material on vinyl and cassette for a while, and I think that's really cool.
[ ]Speaking of cassettes there's a guy who started a great company. He transfers recorded music into any format you choose, from CDs to vinyl to tape. He does everything in-house, from transfer to printing to packaging, and he also does mastering, which is critical and can make or break a record. He has his own system and the idea sounds really interesting, although I'll have to go back and watch that again because I've already forgotten. I know it's something pretty different. But he's my total hero, and I mean that, for creating what he calls "Quiet Vinyl." "Quiet" refers not only to the high-quality virgin vinyl he uses, but to his mastering process. And speaking of mastering, hearing about this gave me a massive musical-boner.
[ ]My other true hero in the music biz is Roger "The Immortal" Nichols, who produced all of Steely Dan's amazing records among others. He mixes music the way it should be mixed, not compressing the fuck out of it and cranking up the volume just to compete with the volume of all other CDs. If you want to learn more Google: "Loudness Wars" or just go to YouTube, and you can learn about it, and see what makes Roger and a handful of other producers so special. This guy took a page from Roger's book. He mixes vinyl at a lower volume level, and instructs the listener that the decision of the volume levels will be left up to their disgression, but for best results it should be cranked in volume compared to other releases. He also uses much less compression, and that plus the lower recorded volume means that it sounds truer to the original recording and intent of the band, and more-importantly there's way more dynamic range (the difference between soft and loud parts). It's what it was meant to sound like, and it's WAY easier on the ears, and not just because of volume. Again if you look into "Loudness Wars" you can learn all about it. I think it's Satanic.
[ ]He also masters CDs according to his method he calls "'86 Mastering" or something like that. It's the same idea as the vinyl, and again the listener is encouraged to crank it. I love this guy. If I had scads of cash I'd get this guy to put out the songs "Psychedic Snack" and "Mister Bubble" out on a bubble-gum pink vinyl 45, and go from there. Talk about a musical boner. I don't know if the original tapes exist but I could ask the guys. I'd do it from the CD if I had to. I'm sure that guy could weave his magic and make it sound great. He'll release your music in any format you choose, from reel-to-reel to vinyl to cassette to...(drum roll, please)...8-Track tapes. Yep, good ol' 8-Tracks.
[ ]8-Tracks sounded pretty good back in the day, maybe better than cassettes due to the thickness of the tape, and depending on your system. They were bulky and you needed a suitcase to carry them. O' had an 8-Track player in his car, and we discovered that if you opened the case you could put a fair amount of stuff inside and they'd still play perfectly. It was the perfect stasheroo. Anyway this guy takes new-old-stock 8-Tracks and magnetically scrubs and reconditions the tape. He does pro printing including inner labels and jackets, and they look just like the real thing. That's badass. You could even do a special 8-Track-only recording to fit the main drawback of 8-tracks.
[ ]The tape was divided into four equal sections of 15 minutes each or whatever it was. That rarely lined up with the length of the songs, if that makes sense. The song-lengths didn't divide equally by four. Typically they'd rearrange the order so less songs would get chopped, but almost every time one or two songs would fade right in the middle, and fade back in after an audible click as the machine went to the next track. Also if I remember correctly there'd be occasional silence when the songs were finished with tape still to go. You could record a thing in four "suites" that were all as long as each section of tape. That'd be geeky but kinda cool. "8-Track Only." That's nuts.
[ ]I doubt anyone has started making dedicated 8-Track players again but you never know. If a big band did that, that is have the balls to release an exclusive 8-Track only recording, their fans would be mobbing eBay and thrift stores for old players. That would be hilarious. Bet your ass I'd do it. That's as dorky as it gets. I love it. Meantime If I could I'd release Mister Bubble on every format that guy does. Hell I bet he'd even do a run on wax cylinders or wires if you asked. The first thing I'd do is send the guys in the band a Mister Bubble 8-Track anonymously in the mail. It'd look just like it teleported straight out of the 80s, but it would be printed exactly like the CD. It'd completely trip their shit out. Damn, where's my "perfect world?"
[ ]I'm rambling and digressing but who cares. Releasing Mister Bubble would be perfect for several reasons. First it's kickass music. The playing is stellar. I was involved with it because I lucked-out and met the guys in the band when they were in the middle of recording a CD and I got to play percussion on the second half of it, but that's not the thing, although it was an honor to play on it. The music is extremely original but still fun and cool, and again the guys on it are all monster players. I had such a fun time and a million laughs watching the leader Sam do his thing that I'd have hung out whether I played or not. It's so damn good...
[ ]The album would be perfect for releasing again, especially on vinyl. The cover of the CD was made to look like the classic Jazz albums of the 60s, and they nailed it. Back then stereo was fairly new and still a big deal, and records were marked "FULL STEREO" and such. They had all that stuff down to the cover and musician images to the typeface. Since it was meant to look like an LP jacket to begin with, to actually see it on a full-size jacket would be amazing. It'd cost 50K probably to do all that, maybe more. I'd do it if I could. I think my dream-world is starting to merge with the real one to be thinking about shit like that but it would be cool.
[ ]Vinyl scored surprisingly low, and more-surprisingly CDs. CDs are a whole different animal, and were the first mass-produced media that was 100%-digital. It all depends on how the music was mixed, mastered and transferred to disc. Turning music, or movies or even text into ones and zeros to me is still pure magic, and it does a great job of capturing what's left of the music after however many gens have passed since the master. People say that analog is "warmer" than digital and I'd have to agree. A certain amount of info is regarded by the algorythm as nonessential to the music and left out. It's not a huge amount, and I'm guessing it's probably things like amp-bleed, drum ring, pedal-squeaks and such. Every bit of sound is important in my opinion. That stuff is more felt than heard but it's all part of the music.
[ ]Vinyl clocks-in at around 40% compared to masters. That's the best most consumers can get. I feel cheated. Vinyl inherently in inferior to tape. Depending on the mediums it's several generations from the master, plus the tonal grooves are pressed physically into the vinyl of production records rather than being directly lathed, which is how the "master lacquer" is made. From the lacquer a mirror copy is made, metalized and used to stamp the grooves into hot vinyl, and every tiny groove has to be perfect. It's easily 6-7 gens away from the master. 40%, huh? Wow. Over half the sound lives on the masters and nowhere else. That sucks. No wonder dude collects them.
[ ]I've told this story ten times but it still blows my mind. My friend Emmette, who was Generic Band's soundman for a while, worked in a high-end stereo shop. For six months he waived his salary and comissions and invested it in the finest equipment of the day, at store cost. He had McIntosh amps but everything else was so esoteric I'd never heard of the brands, and I kept up with that stuff and even bought stereo mags every month. Few recording studios were 100% isolated and soundproof, and about 99% of all LPs from back in the day were loaded with "secret information."
[ ]The mics and equipment were sensitive enough to just barely pick up incidental sounds which were transferred to vinyl but at an inaudible level, for most stereo equipment anyway, even high-end. It was completely inaudible to anyone except maybe your dog. As amazing as his system was it all starts with the turntable cartridge and the diamond needle itself, the first link in the chain. The cartridge alone for that rig cost as much as a new car. After spending all of that money he realized that he could only play Deutche-Grammaphon and other expensive import records, because the "secret information" was constant and incredibly distracting. BTW a few studios are totally isolated acoustically, with expensive hydraulics and/or being underground, for that very reason.
[ ]He'd told me about it and I thought he was kidding, but then he put on a UK import, high-quality vinyl recording of Yes "Fragile," one of my favorites ever. My jaw dropped. Almost right away you could hear walking, talking, amp buzz, airplanes flying over, toilets flushing, laughter and other extraneous sounds. I'd listened to that album a million times and never heard a peep of that stuff, but it was all there, and all through the record. It flipped me out so much that over the years I'd almost managed to convince myself that it had been a dream, but I ran into Emmette several years ago at the Golden Rule Barbecue and asked him about it. He said "Yeah" and looked at me like I was having memory issues or mental problems. That was a trip. He still has that rig, plus a few additions. He says you still can't touch it with any new stuff. I believe it.
[ ]Some say vinyl sounds better than CD, and this chart would seem to bear that out, in fidelity anyway. It's not based only on his ears and opinions; it's backed-up by tons of testing with all sorts of equipment. In my mind going all-digital, from recording on digital medium to the digital master and then straight to CD I'd think the sound would rival vinyl at least, but apparently not. One huge difference between CDs and vinyl is that CDs can hold a wider dynamic range than vinyl, and that can be used for good or evil, as in Brickwalling. You can compress the fuck out of music going onto CD and crank the volume to fuck and back until it literally gives you a headache to listen to, and your brain interprets it exactly as a test-tone, and without fail it will make you cranky and pissy (Google it, Dylan) and you won't know why. You can't put music that hot on vinyl, so it can't be Brickwall-Mastered, thank God. The movement of the needle in the grooves would be so violent that it would actually bounce the needle off of the platter. That's an excellent point for vinyl.
[ ]Reading this chart was interesting but it made me sad. I didn't think we were losing that much of the music. It sure makes me wish I could attend a remastering session where they get out the original master tapes. I'm sure I'd cry. Failing that I'd love to have a reel-to-reel. It's always been the best sound but it's a hassle and not for the fumble-fingered. Back in the day they sold reel-to-reel versions of many major releases. Oh, dear God...just for kicks I thought I'd check the current price of r2r tapes on eBay. Prices ranged from $8 for a copy of Steppenwolf Gold up to a bill or so for other stuff, but there's a production-master of "Aja" by Steely Dan. It's giving my butterflies just thinking about it. They want $325 for it but bidding starts at $250. Damn, I wish I could buy that. Production-masters were second-gen, and as close as you can get to what was originally recorded. F-me I'd love to have that. Of course I'd also have to drop about another seven bills on a player so it'd cost me a grand, but if I could I'd buy it right now (sigh).
{ ]Next up a fancy turntable and stereo system would be nice, but not one sensitive to hear toilets flushing. Nothing ruins "Heart of the Sunrise" like a toilet flushing. For about a third of the cost I could book a flight to Hong Kong and a listening session in the record store's super-nice listening room, and sit in comfy chairs sipping green tea. I'd give anyting to hear some of his tapes. and maybe buy a few normal issues too if money allowed. But just to hear the recordings as closely as possible to the way they sounded in the studio would be glorius and a major religious experience. That'd be my kind of vacation. I can dream. "Music is the best." - Frank Zappa
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