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Analogue remaster = Analogue original
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Teesside Tom View Drop Down
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Points: 115 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Teesside Tom Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Oct 2021 at 2:08pm
Hi Chris, I'm using a macbook pro so I'm sure there will be a different option - maybe clipboard or some such, there is an Apple shop where I live I'll call in, thanks.
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patientot View Drop Down
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Originally posted by fluddite fluddite wrote:

[
The caveat with all of this is that cutting at Abbey Road is digitally controlled - so not strictly AAA according to the purist mob, e.g. this commentator on Fremer's piece:

I can't comment on this specific record as I don't have it and have little interest in it. However, one needs to be VERY careful how much stock you put into comments from Dirty 'Ol Uncle Mikey and his acolytes. They've been wrong before and have a tendency to shoot from the hip and not always correct things when they are wrong.

The fact is that Abbey Road has several cutting lathes and several different engineers, and they all have their own way of working.

Miles Showell, for example, makes 100% digital cuts from tape transferred to digital first, then mastered, then cut via 1/2 speed. He will tell you that himself and has mentioned this many times in interviews.

Sean Magee can cut from digital or PURE analog, depending on the project. The Beatles Mono reissues he cut are 100% AAA. A shame these are mostly OOP now. I grabbed a few while I could, years before the prices got completely out of hand.

To be clear, it is also incorrect to assume every new reissue is cut using a digital preview head or from a digital file. I'm not calling you out here but I have seen many other people on other sites do this. Many reissues being released are digitally sourced but not all of them are. It's very much a case by case basis. You really have to research each title and find out how it was cut. Usually an email to the label, or better yet, the mastering house, will clear things up.

Here in the U.S., the big dogs for AAA cut records are Kevin Gray (Cohearant), Bernie Grundman Mastering (BG and Chris Bellman) and Ryan K. Smith (Sterling). Most of the work out of these mastering houses will be AAA where possible.

There are others but most of the high profile AAA releases will come from them. MOFI has their own cutting system and will always cut AAA from tape unless the album was digitally recorded.

Now there are other places that can cut from tape elsewhere in the U.S. and in Europe. I can't name them all of course. Alchemy is a big one in the UK and there is also Gearbox which does smaller scale independent releases.

One more thing: just because you see a computer in a video where someone is cutting a record, doesn't mean the signal going onto the lacquer is digital either. Kevin Gray, for example, has a custom made cutting system where he can send a 100% analog signal to the lathe but uses a computer system to calculate groove space beforehand and has an analog preview head. He can also record his work via digital output to make a digital master simultaneously while the record is being cut if requested by the customer.
SL-1200 MK7 (modified) + Reflex M + PSU-1 used with AT150-40ML, AT VM95ML, Stanton 680mkII + Ogura, and Shure M35X cartridges.
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fluddite View Drop Down
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Points: 416 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Oct 2021 at 10:45pm
Originally posted by patientot patientot wrote:

Originally posted by fluddite fluddite wrote:

[
The caveat with all of this is that cutting at Abbey Road is digitally controlled - so not strictly AAA according to the purist mob, e.g. this commentator on Fremer's piece:

I can't comment on this specific record as I don't have it and have little interest in it. However, one needs to be VERY careful how much stock you put into comments from Dirty 'Ol Uncle Mikey and his acolytes. They've been wrong before and have a tendency to shoot from the hip and not always correct things when they are wrong.

The fact is that Abbey Road has several cutting lathes and several different engineers, and they all have their own way of working.

Miles Showell, for example, makes 100% digital cuts from tape transferred to digital first, then mastered, then cut via 1/2 speed. He will tell you that himself and has mentioned this many times in interviews.

Sean Magee can cut from digital or PURE analog, depending on the project. The Beatles Mono reissues he cut are 100% AAA. A shame these are mostly OOP now. I grabbed a few while I could, years before the prices got completely out of hand.

To be clear, it is also incorrect to assume every new reissue is cut using a digital preview head or from a digital file. I'm not calling you out here but I have seen many other people on other sites do this. Many reissues being released are digitally sourced but not all of them are. It's very much a case by case basis. You really have to research each title and find out how it was cut. Usually an email to the label, or better yet, the mastering house, will clear things up.

Here in the U.S., the big dogs for AAA cut records are Kevin Gray (Cohearant), Bernie Grundman Mastering (BG and Chris Bellman) and Ryan K. Smith (Sterling). Most of the work out of these mastering houses will be AAA where possible.

There are others but most of the high profile AAA releases will come from them. MOFI has their own cutting system and will always cut AAA from tape unless the album was digitally recorded.

Now there are other places that can cut from tape elsewhere in the U.S. and in Europe. I can't name them all of course. Alchemy is a big one in the UK and there is also Gearbox which does smaller scale independent releases.

One more thing: just because you see a computer in a video where someone is cutting a record, doesn't mean the signal going onto the lacquer is digital either. Kevin Gray, for example, has a custom made cutting system where he can send a 100% analog signal to the lathe but uses a computer system to calculate groove space beforehand and has an analog preview head. He can also record his work via digital output to make a digital master simultaneously while the record is being cut if requested by the customer.

Mea maxima culpa! My intention (evidently unclear from my wording - "so not strictly AAA according to the purist mob, e.g. this commentator") was partly to poke fun at the Fremerite faithful who would hold that digital control/calibration of a cutting head (note - not of the "AA" signal itself) somehow makes the resulting master a "pseudo-CD". To be fair to Uncle Mikey, I don't think he's that daft.

My evident mistake was to assume from my experience with Miles Showell's half-speed remasters of (in particular) Brian Eno's early LPs that all the Abbey Road cutting was (in my ill-chosen phrase) "digitally controlled". As the happy owner of several of the 2014 Mono Beatles remasters (cut AAA by Sean Magee - at Abbey Road...), I really should have thought this through before posting and checked whether Abbey Road have more than one mastering facility. Which, of course, they do. Oops. Embarrassed

Having had exceptionally positive experiences with AAA cuts/remasters from Cohearant, BG, Gearbox and (unsurprisingly) MFSL - and solid ones with Sterling (Alchemy I've found less impressive) - I'd fully endorse your list of "big dogs". Kevin Grey in particular is a man after my own heart. At the same time, it's often the case with high-circulation LPs (The Beatles 1967-1970 being a case in point) that original (and by definition AAA if pre-1980ish) copies can be had near-mint for the same or less than new remasters. Of course, that tends not to be true of the desirable Blue Note goodies that Mr Grey remasters so well...Wink

Envoi: as you rightly say,"you really have to research each title and find out how it was cut". And, as someone who's spent far too much money on reissues from e.g. 4 Men With Beards, Doxy, WaxTime etc. etc. - caveat emptor...
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fluddite View Drop Down
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Points: 416 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Oct 2021 at 11:01pm
Originally posted by Teesside Tom Teesside Tom wrote:

Hi Chris, I'm using a macbook pro so I'm sure there will be a different option - maybe clipboard or some such, there is an Apple shop where I live I'll call in, thanks.

As a fellow Mac user - I tend to do grabs with Screenshot (should be pre-installed in your Utilities folder, from where it can be plonked onto your dock) and save them to the desktop as jpegs (default for Screenshot) - then check the file size. Bear in mind that 150 KB is the maximum file size for posting to GS Forum mailings - I tend to stick to 100 KB or less, and reduce larger file sizes using Preview.

After that, it's 3 quick stages - click 'Choose File' (from desktop or wherever), click 'Upload' (image should appear in that preview box full of Latin after a second or so), click 'OK'.
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fluddite View Drop Down
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Points: 416 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Oct 2021 at 11:20pm
Originally posted by fluddite fluddite wrote:



As my list of files in that last screenshot included the mighty Tap's Break Like The Wind, I feel duty-bound to inflict its picture-disc wonderfulness on the GS Forum once more...
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fluddite View Drop Down
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Points: 416 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Oct 2021 at 11:30pm
Also, if I come to praise Kevin Gray (https://www.discogs.com/artist/312098-Kevin-Gray) as "a man after my own heart", I could at least do him the honour of spelling his name correctly. Mea maxima culpa. Again. Doh. Confused
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MS61 View Drop Down
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Points: 28 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MS61 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2021 at 10:14am
GZ Media pressing plant and mastering facility in Loděnice, Czech Republic operates 3 DMM and 1 lacquer mastering systems. Full analog chain is possible but rare used... GZ Media concentrates on mass market not audiophil community definitely.

It´s possible to use software control for computer simulation and use full analog signal chain.

BTW my short visit in GZ plant was very interesting! Mr. Ladislav Kus (my guide) worked in Loděnice from 1959!

Michal
Technics SP15 / Audiomods 6 / SH-15B3 plinth / Audio Technica AT 150 Sa / Accession M / Genelec 8030 + RME ADI-2 Pro ADDA
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