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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1982)
We're Loyal to You, Masters Re-Mastered AUDIOPHILE RECORDINGS by Byron Laursen King the door at Sweet Thunder and Vinyl yelps Later, Vinyl accepts a pat on the head and com mences to chew Mr Duck. Sweet Thunder is a new entrant in the half-speed re mastered audiophile disc business. All those expensive albums that look like regular albums — but don't sound like regular albums. Vinyl is a black cocker spaniel who lives in Sweet Thunder's Hollywood offices Mr Duck is a little yellow rubber toy. Company mavens Howard Lowell and Russell Palmer, after introducing a visitor to Vinyl, like to point out a framed letter from Aaron Copland, whose recording of Billy the Kid and Statements for Orchestra was among the first of Sweet Thunder’s projects. Copland, one of America's most distin guished living composers, calls the record a true achievement in the sense that it represents more realistically the composer’s thought." Citing The clarity and brilliance of sonic mixtures, Copland concludes that the new recordings ' pack more of a whallop, and keep the separate lines more distinct and more true to the live sound.” Crucial to what Sweet Thunder and the slightly older Mobile Fidelity Labs and Nautilus Re cordings companies do are two things virgin vinyl and half-speed mastering The former, supplied either as JVC Supervinyl from Japan or Teldec Vinyl from West Germany, is refined totally Anti pollution regulations prevent such thoroughgoing refinement in the United States Half-speed mastering, a technique pioneered by the Japanese in the days of Quadrophinic, means just what it would seem to mean The master disc is cut at half of its intended playing speed, so the cutting heads have more time to respond to the signals sent them from the master tape. As a result, the subtler sounds are more vividly drawn and the recording sounds more live" than a conventional disc. Though the field is relatively new (Mobile began in 1978, Nautilus in 1979 and Sweet Thunder in 1981!), expansion has been remarkable. Larger companies, already established in the record busi ness, have come forward with their own competitive "audiophile" pressings. Some observers feel \dvvru.semeru ■6 19M fWyGram Records tot. The album for the Animation Generation. Stephen Dees/Bete Hewlett/Carlos Rios/Michael Shrieve “The Animation Generation/' the new album from Novo Combo. ixjfydof, »r>d M-v by PofyGram Records* that the giants are too mass-production conscious to ever equal the independents in quality, how ever Initially, a company must select an IP they think will perform well (sonically and commercially) as a re mastered edition. Then they strike a business agreement with the company owning the original, check the master recording for flaws and (if none are present) put the original through a meticulous copying process, using the aforementioned virgin vinyl and half-speed mastering. The results tend to be exquisite. They're also expensive Re mastered editions cost more than twice as much as conventional discs They are for lovers—of a given piece of music or of their own stereo systems—onlv There are cither components to this better quality product — individual hand-checking of each disc off the assembly line, magnetic filtration systems at the top of the vinyl delivery' hopper and use of loose fitting wrap instead of platter-bending, strangulating shrink wrap. Interestingly, nearly as many audiophile recordings are sold in stereo shops as in normal record stores. Pan of the appeal seems to be wringing the most out of a top-of-the-line stereo system But, as the audiophile record companies like to assert, any system will produce better music if it's playing a better record. Also, any music will sound better. Product availability in re mastered audiophile discs runs from classics to Creedence Clearwater, from jazz to Joe Cocker, from funk to Peter Frampton. The “Royal Treatment' AUDIOPHILE CONTEST 1st prize: 2-3-4-5th: The Keatles/The Collection from Mobile Fidelity. 13 albums on 14 discs (because die White Album was a double, of course). Retail value about $325. One album from Nautilus and one from Sweet Thunder, to be chosen by the winners from each company’s catalog. Retail value: $36-40. A few years back, when the "audiophile record began to make big news in the music world, an outfit called Mobile Fidelity. Sound l,ab had an idea so obvious it probably required genius to figure it out: get licensing agreements for "classic" albums, refurbish them with top-grade vinyl and reissue them in versions whose sound quality would put the big commercial outfits to shame Their process necessitated prices several times those of the “regular" versions. But they have sold respectably Other companies, from fledglings to giants like RCA, CBS and MCA, have rushed into the audiophile market .Now, Amperstuul asks the musical question "What LP would you most like to see get the royal treatment?" VCh.it great, perhaps overlooked, record of the past (or present) would most please you in an even greater version all the highs sweeter, the lows fuller and rounder and the harmonic overtones clearer? To motivate response we re olfering some delicious prizes from the vaults of the audiophile companies Here, as an example, is one contributor s idea of a prime candidate: Rhapsody Lcof>old Stokowski: Music of' I.iszt, Fnesco & Smetana (RCA) Hack in ilu* early Sixties, Stokie got togethet one ol his (Vritxlu gatherings ol New York ht*e laiu t* musicians anti led them in leiuliiions ol lour pieces lhat audiences the world over are sick to death ol I lie I iszt Hungttndn AVw/t\o</v No J. Knescb’s Rut turn ion Rhapsody No I, and Smetana s //*,• Molrfou and Uortctvtl Untie overture .The orchestra was duhlx\l the K(.A Vktot Symphony. the record was entitled A’/w/amw/v, and it re ni.unetl in K(.As main catalogue lor nearly 20:years (it was recently reissued on their (»t)ld Seal label), -primarily because the old master"conducted the tlarned thing as i! the ink was still wet on the score I he problem is that at least in recent pressings, the sound-, clean and well balanced in soli passages, becomes impossibly ugly and distorted in the loud ones As far as l‘m concerned, canonization is not go<hI enough l» »r the mastering engineer w ho can rescue this one Sol Louis Siegel (*ot the idea' Am favorite album is Ian game* Ihe live most convincing and clever (also witty intelligent, |x*tsuasive and grammatically cot reel wv didn't say it would be easy ) will lx.* published in out I ebruarv issue, ami paid at the same generous rates that already cause freelance writers round the globe to roll theii eves to heaven at the mention ol our name Hull's 12 cents a word. All entries must be received by Novemlx*t is. IU82 Naturally, all entries Ixvome the property of and w ill be judged by out fair, thoughtful anil only occasionally vicious editors Keep it to a couple of double spaced paiagiaphs on a single page May the best music-maA Ampersand readers w ild Send vout entries to Koval treatment. c/o.\1680 North Vine, Suite 000, Hollywood, CA <XX)28
