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I'd like to add that I've been adding the Barclay-Crocker remastered 
Dolby 4 track series to my library in the quest for better recordings 
from the era of those who cared about fidelity.  Even though they're 4 
track, the excellent signal to noise ratio, lack of cross talk and 
performances make these audio standouts.  This link will give you an 
idea of a few of the their releases and the current prices they're 
fetching, even at this late date:

http://www.irvmusic.com/catdir/o5.htm

This article from 1986 is an obituary to the label and open reel 
prerecorded tapes:

http://aroundcny.com/Technofile/texts/openreelobit86.html

This a part of the Ebay page by a vendor, Ramblin' Jack, who gives these 
particulars when he's auctioning any of the Barclay-Crocker series:

> The fastidious BARCLAY-CROCKER Reel to Reel Tape Company of New York 
> City was internationally famous for manufacturing Reel to Reel 
> tapes with a "no-holds-barred" attitude to quality.  BARCLAY-CROCKER, 
> (BC), carefully chose recordings for manufacturing only after critical 
> evaluation of the MASTER TAPE supplied by the original licensing 
> (record) company.  After passing stringent BC standards,  the record 
> company master was painstakingly recorded 1-to-1 to a running master 
> at 15 inches per second on 1/2 inch mastering tape and not subjected 
> to any external limiting, compression or equalization.  These new BC 
> running masters were used to produce the LIMITED EDITION ISSUES (some 
> less than ONE HUNDRED!) at tape recording speeds unheard of for the 
> REEL TO REEL TAPE INDUSTRY.  
>
> Most commercially available Reel to Reel tapes in their day, were 
> duplicated at very high speeds (60 -240 IPS) ranging from 8 to 32 
> times the tape's normal playing speed at 7 1/2 IPS or up to 64 times 
> the speed of a 3 3/4 IPS tape!  The BROAD-BANDWIDTH required at these 
> high speeds severly 'taxes' the amplifiers and heads of the 
> duplicating equipment and adversely affects both 
> the FREQUENCY RESPONSE and NOISE LEVEL of the duplicated tapes.  BC's 
> custom modified AMPEX DUPLICATING EQUIPMENT was set to operate at a 
> ratio of only 4-to-1 (running master at 60 ips; recorded copies at 30 
> ips, or only 4 TIMES the normal playing speed of 7 1/2 ips).  Because 
> of this SLOW DUPLICATION speed, combined with the carefully made B-C 
> running master and the use of the most expensive premium 
> polyester-based, Audiotape Q-15,  low noise tape they were able to 
> produce a commercially available tape that captures the FULL RANGE, 
> BRILLIANCE, and TONAL SUBTELTIES of the original master, far 
> surpassing the ORIGINAL REEL TO REEL RELEASE by the record company (if 
> one was even released)!!!
>
> BARCLAY-CROCKER CO, until their doors closed, continually produced a 
> product uniquely qualified to become bonafied exceptions to the 
> limiting conditions which were then offered to the music listening 
> public.  To say that BC was the state-of-the-art source of it's day 
> for reels is a cliched understatement.  BC's very limited releases are 
> simply extremely RARE EXAMPLES OF RECORDED MUSIC PERFECTION.  And 
> in time, the value, appreciation & desirability of these recordings 
> will prove the axiom;
>
>   "If a man does not keep pace with his companions; perhaps it is 
> because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which 
> he hears, however measured or far away".  Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
>
Rod Stephens

Tom Fine wrote:

> Duper masters came from all places at various times. Same problem with 
> cassette duper masters. RCA might well have run a 2-track while they 
> mastered the LP and then used it for a duper master. There's really no 
> telling with mass-made reels. They could be many, many generations 
> away from the master tape. One of the very late-era good-quality 
> cassette dupe places used a better method, but charged big bux for 
> their tapes. They'd have a digital tape made from the real-deal 
> master, at a good mastering facility. Then they'd use the digital tape 
> or 1:1 clones as their cassette duper masters, and dupe at real-time 
> with a roomful of decent-quality cassette decks. Like I said, they 
> charged a premium for their tapes but they did sound good. The only 
> other mass-produced tapes that I have that sound somewhat near what a 
> master should sound like are some early 2-track reels, which were made 
> at 2X or at most 4X speed. Some companies did better than others, even 
> in that era.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Karl Miller" 
> <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 8:58 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Fw: Fw: [ARSCLIST] Dynagroove, was Record 
> tracking
>
>
>> On Mon, 13 Feb 2006, phillip holmes wrote:
>>
>>> With permission from Stan Ricker:
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Stan Ricker"
>>>
>>> Ya--------part of the cutter-amp circuitry; in a plug-in card, in the
>>> Neumann case, the amount of "pre-distort" is diameter-dependent, 
>>> triggered
>>> by many microswitches along the sled-path.......just before the RIAA 
>>> eq...
>>>
>>> > phillip holmes wrote:
>>> >> So the Dynagroove process was at the mastering end of things 
>>> (between the
>>> >> tape deck and the cutter head)?
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Stan Ricker"
>>> To: "phillip holmes"
>>>
>>>
>>> >>> NEUMANN CALLED THIS "PREDISTORT" CIRCUIT" A "TRACING 
>>> SIMULATOR"----AND
>>> >>> NOBODY LIKED IT EITHER.........THE TELDEC SYSTEM MENTIONED BELOW 
>>> IS THE
>>> >>> NEUMANN SYSTEM..............THANK GOODNESS "DYNAGROOVE" WAS ONLY
>>> >>> MASTERING,
>>> >>> AND NOT ORIGINAL RECORDING AS WELL...........STAN
>>
>>
>> I have several of the commerically issued reel to reel tapes from the
>> dynagroove era. They seem to suffer from the same distortion problems I
>> found on the discs...or is that just a problem with my ears...
>>
>> As I write this, I don't recall having heard any CD releases of the
>> dynagroove recordings. If the master tapes were ok, are the transfers
>> good?
>>
>> One of my favorite BSO recordings from that time was the DelloJoio 
>> Fantasy
>> and Variations. After several copies of the disc and reel to reel 
>> tapes, I
>> gave up and now listen to concert broadcast tape I have.
>>
>> Karl 
>
>