Great thread. IIRC, another house on X-80s - Eastman School - was using the
Mitsu as an A-D converter to feed DATs at around the same time. I'm not the
only admirer of OJCs? LP and CD, they were at least decent, more than can be
said for some of the premium releases I've owned. Compared to the Impulse
series (Capitol?), for instance, Phil was ahead of his time. Considering how
much great material he touched, we have to be thankful.

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 8:14 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Fwd: [ARSCLIST] "Why Vinyl Is the Only Worthwhile
Way to Own Music"

Hi Ted:

I'm sitting here listening to an early 90s example of good CD remastering.
On Pablo/OJC - "Soul Fusion" by Milt Jackson and the Monty Alexander Trio."
This is definitely a "produced" jazz recording -- very close mic'ing and
wide-field stereo mix, so it's more wide than deep, but it's very detailed
and pleasing. Phil De Lancie at Fantasy Studios did a good job remastering
the 1977 recording, in 1992. I think, by then Fantasy wasn't dubbing to
Mitsubhishi X-80 and then copying to U-Matic tapes to make CDs. So this
would be playback of the original master tape (which was a live-to-2-track
recording) to the CD master recorder. The good sound quality, particularly
the ring and impact of Milt Jackson's vibes, tells me that a
better-than-Sony ADC was used. If there was EQ used, it was tasteful. Vibes
sound like close-mic'd stereo vibes. Piano sounds like close-mic'd stereo
piano. Drums and bass sound like drums and bass. Typical Norman Granz
session -- really good playing, more about the music than the recording.

My point is, they could do this in 1992. So it's all the more depressing
that 22 years later, lousy-sounding CDs still come out every day.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Kendall" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 5:07 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Fwd: [ARSCLIST] "Why Vinyl Is the Only Worthwhile
Way to Own Music"


> Hello Tom
>
> I think the rush to more top petered out naturally after a few years, at
least in most quarters, 
> but there is still a faction to whom "impact", as measured by pinned VUs
and bathtub curves, is 
> the prime good. If their influence is in fact diminishing, this can only
be a good thing. As to EQ 
> for corrective purposes, I couldn't agree more - it is still one of the
prime functions of a 
> mastering engineer, to my mind, that he can recognise when such correction
is need /and leave well 
> alone when it isn't./ If only it were more widely realised that light and
shade is the essence of 
> impact, be it Mahler or James Brown, there would be many happier pairs of
ears in the world at 
> large...
>
> Ted