| When I cut the vinyl DMM masters for the first "special edition" release of the 45rpm 4-LP set for the Foo Fighters "In Your Honor" album the producers made a big deal out of wanting to have an "audiophile" release and made sure that I could work from 24bit/96kHz source (which I was able to do at Europadisk due to SAWStudio sending to a matched pair of Lavry Blues that went to both the pitch depth computer and the cutting head) and that I did as close to a flat transfer from these as possible.
I was disappointed to find that the high res files I received from Bob Ludwig for the most part had been heavily clipped as they were the same files (just prior to SRC and dithering) that the CD master was made from. I was a little bit "star struck" at the time, plus the label was in an extreme rush, and didn't want to rock the boat (as I was hoping to receive future business) by requesting less limited files - and instead just cut reference discs and sent them to the producers - and since they loved the results it was a non-issue. Still I regret not requesting new files - as I ultimately think cutting from 16bit/44.1kHz source that hadn't been clipped would have sounded a lot better than cutting from 24bit/96kHz source that had. In the end the pressing plant (33-1/3 in PA - now out of business) did a poor job of plating, pressing and packaging making about 1/2 of the records made for this release noisy anyway - which also defeated the goal of "audiophile" quality.
SO - just an example of how sometimes the best intentions to make a vinyl release have the highest quality mastering can get defeated by what happens both "upstream" and "downstream" of the actual cutting.
Best regards,
Steve Berson |