Original Master Tape for Dark Side of the Moon

[Unknown]

Perhaps this has already been mentioned in an earlier post, but Gregg Schnitzer, the Director of Product Development for MFSL from 1980 to 1986, dropped this little bombshell regarding the fate of the original master for DSOTM:

<<Did you know that the Dark Side of the Moon master was ruined? Somebody put it on a recorder instead of a playback only mastering deck and a little piece of Super Tramp got dubbed onto the outro of Breath. Big secret, that. Stan had left the company so a redux wasn't gonna happen. Makes me seriously wonder where MFSL got the source for the Dark Side of the Moon CD. Hmmm. It would have had to have been a second generation safety or the digital master I made for the cassette run.>>

The complete interview can be found at http://pages.prodigy.net/amicus1/violet.htm. Gregg has some interesting things to say about the cassette master he prepared for the MFSL DSOTM cassette run. He also says his favorite MFSL DSOTM release was the PCM VHS/Beta cassette that was released in extremely limited quantities in the early 80's. I don't think I've ever seen one of them on eBay, although some of the Sony PCM machines, like the PCM-F1 and 601ES turn up every once in a while.

Of course, to add to the confusion, I've read that the original master tape of DSOTM is actually a Dolby encoded dub of the non-Dolby stereo mixdown master (which the band thought sounded too bright).

[Sckott]

That is correct, it IS dolby encoded. So were a lot of masters, though.

Steve mentioned he knows the DSOTM reel was repaired, and it's in fine shape.

[lukpac]

Originally posted by Sckott:
Steve mentioned he knows the DSOTM reel was repaired, and it's in fine shape.

I believe Steve said they spliced in the bit that was recorded over (not much) with a safety copy. No big deal...

[Holy Zoo]

Actually, here's what Steve said (you might want to read the whole thread):
http://cgi.dhot.com/cgi-bin/ubb_forums/dcc/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=000274

Urban legend.

There is a spot on the tape that is damaged, but a safety spot was edited in. It still works...

[Holy Zoo]

Here's another bit from the Gregg Schnitzer interview:

The cassette run master would've been suitable as it didn't have any gawd awful EQ done for the duplication.* It was very close in master prep to what the vinyl sounded like with one significant difference.* Want some cool trivia?* Back in the early '80's digital was a bit unpredictable and flaky which is why we used a very expensive 1" video deck (BVH 1000) instead of a U-Matic type 3/4".* I'd get these random ticks and pops which we affectionately called zits.

One night I sat in the studio listening to the DSOM digital copy and was horrified when I heard lots of low level clicks and zit like sounds.* So I called my wife to tell her I'd be working till sunup as the approval copy had to go to Alan Parsons via counter-to-counter air ASAP.* I turned the lights off so I wouldn't be distracted and sat there all night long with the first DAE-1100 editor and made a few hundred 1 millisecond edits to get rid of those zits I was hearing.* Then I made an approval copy cassette for Alan, sent it on its way and went home to sleep for a day or two.

A couple of days later we got a heated call from Mr. Parsons wanting to know, "What the f**k did you do to the master?"* I explained that I had done the best mastering job I could and that it compared very favorably to the vinyl and, in fact, I thought it sounded better than the vinyl.* Was there some problem?* He said that when he had mixed DSOM the desk (console) drove him nuts because every time he muted or unmuted a track or switched an EQ in or out there would be a resulting click or pop.* There was no technology to remove these artifacts so he and the band decided to just live with it.* He said, "How the hell did you get rid of those pops.* I love it!"* He was left with a patient explanation that it was proprietary.* Man, I almost soiled my pants only to find out that he was very impressed.

So, if you compare the CD with a vinyl disc and those pops and clicks are gone then there's the answer as to which tape was used.* Once you know what to listen for they are easy to spot as they occur when parts go in or out or the EQ changes.

Anyone heard any of these clicks/zits? I just popped in my '83 toshiba/EMI cd, and didn't notice anything right off the bat. Has anyone else spotted what he's talking about?

[ November 14, 2001: Message edited by: Holy Zoo ]