> I only have about 350 vinyl albums at the moment but cleaning still takes a
> while, regardless of the method.
A while back, I was involved in the disposition of over 30,000 master
quality records. The entire library contained over 120,000 records. It
took almost 20 years for the entire project because flooding the
market with that quantity all at once would have been a disaster.
> And the care and feeding of vinyl is fairly trivial compared to the hassles
> of RTR tape. But tape can sound really good. (2-track stereo 15+ ips or more
> like from a safety master)
Since 1995, I've been consulting and contracting on tape recovery. I'm
currently working with a college that has over 5000 recordings that
need bake-and-scrape. At the moment they are doing it all in-house,
but I've put in a bid to digitize some of it. If I get the bid, I'll
outsource part of the project to Paul.
As we have talked multiple times before about analog audio, I'll just
do a quick recap:
1. While the frequency response of vinyl is limited, the very
mechanism of the groove and needle is creating overtones on playback.
This is creating an artificial frequency response that is actually
quite close to original live performance. The laser-based,
optical-needle turntables do not have this characteristic. The entire
pick-up in a turntable is effectively a musical instrument.
2. The sound "placement" in vinyl recordings and high-speed tape is
more accurate than what is possible with digital until you get to
96kHz sampling rate. This is most apparent with orchestral recordings.
3. High-speed tape (I've used 30 ips systems, too). Those were the
only things that could keep up with NEVE consoles in frequency
response. 30 ips was not common and was in use in only a handful of
studios and was only used for limited stuff as it was a beast to keep
from self-destructing in spectacular ways. 16 tracks at 15 ips was
hard enough to keep from destroying the equipment. Anyway, the biggest
advantage to tape was the "tape compression" for controlling dynamics.
The 30 ips systems were used mostly in several specific, high-end
mastering studios and was part of the "secret sauce" of those
mastering studios. Only recently has there been a digital processor
that has been able to adequately mimic the tape compression
characteristics. I helped write the algorithm for an early version of
it and can still hear certain artifacts in the latest/greatest
versions. The trick to digital is to convert it to analog in the
digital realm.
4. The room is more important than the speakers.
5. You really do need welding cable to hook up your speakers to your
amplifier. :)
AG Ears
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|