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I am unfamiliar with 2" Betamax. I've only seen 1/2". Did I miss something? joe salerno On 8/7/2012 4:03 PM, David Lewis wrote: > Found a remaindered copy of a later Epic CD incarntaion of "Cheap Trick at > Budokan" which I have been listening to in the car. Apart from the fact > that I feel that > it is one of the best albums ever to go triple-platinum, there are some > questions about its recording that I'm hoping the combined wisdom here > might help illuminate. > > When the import release arrived in the little store that was my haunt in > late 1978 there were several things about it that were waaaaay unusual. The > quality of the > photography -- even though shot in the dark, and somewhat enhanced because > of that -- and of the album jacket printing was a king's mile above the > average, and > the later US version kind of darkened and blurred both by comparison. > However, the sound of the disc was realistic in a way I had never before > experienced; it was > so good that it still took me additional years to notice that the music was > good also. > > The earlier LP versions stated that "Cheap Trick at Budokan" was in SONY > STEREO. I remember a record store clerk excitedly telling me that Sony > stereo was > better than regular stereo and my bullcrap detector going off as a result. > Now, though, I wonder if he was in some way -- correct? > > Is it possible that digital was somewhere in the chain of "Cheap Trick at > Budokan." Historically it is possible: > > http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/SonyHistory/2-07.html > > The PCM-1 was in use and already being marketed by April of 1978 when > the Budokan concerts were recorded. At that time, Sony was using 2" Betamax > tapes; > the disc was being developed, but was not putting out acceptable results > yet as either a recording or playback format. However, April 1978 is a bit > before the > fateful meeting with Karajan mentioned in this corporate history. > > In my car, the recording sounds digital, but it is after all being played > back from a CD. Elsewhere I've read that the first digital recording in the > US was the Zubin > Mehta/NYP recording of Stravinsky's "Petrushka" from June 1979. But I also > recall that Fleetwood Mac's album "Tusk" was at least partly digital and it > was on the > market by the fall of '79. That was on the WB, not CBS. > > Uncle Dave Lewis > Lebanon, OH > -- Joe Salerno