I heard similar with Elvis Costello's early albums, comparing the Mobile Fidelity LPs from
relatively recent times (since MoFi's rebirth) and the Toby Mountain mastered RykoDisc CDs from the
90's. I was surprised how close everything sounded. I reached the same conclusion as Paul's
friend -- I figured Costello must have had an ear in the process both time, and that the same master
tapes were used, with either the same kind of mastering processing or minimal to no processing. Both
sound vastly superior to Columbia US original releases of the albums. Now the early catalog is out
on HDTracks, not sure when or where the new transfers were made. I'm also taking at face value
MoFi's claim that they cut the LPs from master tapes, not the Toby Mountain digital files.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Stamler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 10:53 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] What Your Music Format Says About You


> On 11/10/2015 9:31 PM, Aaron Levinson wrote:
>> I own 3 turntables, one more for 78, a Tascam pro cassette deck, a DAT, a reel to reel. I often
>> transfer rare grooved media to CD for clients and friends. I recently played back a DAT master
>> done by Toby Mountain and compared it to finished CD goods and as Tom suggested it was virtually
>> impossible to distinguish the master from the commercial release...
>
> On digital formats that's easily done, though a lot of times it doesn't happen because someone
> decided to mess with the signal.
>
> But I digress. I came across a phenomenon that was more startling. I recently digitized an LP from
> 1966, John Renbourn's "Another Monday" on Transatlantic Records (a UK label). Transatlantic, about
> 15 years ago, issued a Renbourn retrospective CD called "Vol. 1: The Soho Years". For grins I
> compared the tune "Another Monday" on that disc to my burned CD of the digitized LP and, friends,
> I could not hear a jot of difference between them. As another engineer friend said to me, "You got
> a double miracle there: someone cut the LP from the master tape without ****ing with it, and
> someone mastered the CD the same way."
>
> Mind you, this is the only instance I can cite (other than a couple of other cuts that appear on
> both that LP and the compendium CD). But it's evidence that it CAN happen.
>
> Peace,
> Paul
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>
>