What is the proper term for a vinyl pressing made from old stampers, usually
for audition purposes or possibly to use as a source in reissuing?
Theoretically, one made from an unissued master could be a test, but should
these just be referred to as vinyls? Lots of them turn up (thousands were made
available to a Toronto dealer a couple of years ago, all 60s or 70s pressings
from ARC stampers, many of them unissued takes).
dl
phillip holmes wrote:
> I've been told by collectors and people that were in the business, that
> test pressings were pressed in very low numbers, IE, 100-200 copies for
> the musicians, A&R people, producer, big wigs, and the like. Every test
> pressing I've seen had a plain white label with just the bare basics
> typed or handwritten, and I only have 2 major label test pressings and
> 3-4 "audiophile" test pressings. The jacket had a pasted on (typed or
> handwritten) note with just the basics--tracks and artist stuff. If
> anyone wants a picture, I'll send one. But it's impossible to confuse a
> white label promo with a test pressing. Obviously, the idea of the test
> pressing is to give fair warning about what's going to be on the
> record. It supposedly gave the musicians the opportunity to sign off on
> the final product, but this really was a micromanagement tool for the
> front office types. I can imagine some imbecile in management spitting
> his coffee all over the board room table while listening to Black
> Sabbath for the first time. "Fairies wear boots? What the hell is this
> crap? Who signed these bozos? I need to fire the A&R department".
> Phillip
>
>
>>
>>
>> Roger
>>
>> Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Why do most test
>> pressings that I've heard sound better than a bought-in-store version
>> of the LP? Did the plants do something special for the test pressing
>> or use a "brewer's choice" biscuit compound or is it more a random
>> chance of having a further-down-the-production-run copy in a store and
>> thus worn stampers? Where I've been able to compare a master laquer to
>> a test pressing to a bought-in-store version of the same
>> cut/matrix/whatever, the test pressing usually sounds pretty darn
>> close to the first cut but the production disk sounds inferior,
>> usually lower s/n ratio and noisier surface. This was less true in the
>> one case I've been able to compare all 3 for a modern LP reissue and I
>> assume it's because a modern reissue that appears at retail will be
>> pressed with more care on better vinyl and fewer copies will be made
>> per stamper, but I might be wrong on that.
>>
>> In some older examples, late 50's and early 60's, the retail version
>> vinyl seems to definitely be a different compound from the test
>> pressing, which more resembles modern, "softer" quieter-playing
>> compounds.
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------
>> Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web
>> links.
>>
>
|