"Damn it, there is tape hiss in-between tracks on Creedence "Willy & The Poor Boys"!

Good. What we get is the EXACT replica of the tape. Cool! Do you have that link handy, Steve?

 

Steve,

Very interesting! I have concluded that there are folks "out there" that do not want or even like, "master tape sound". When I hear tape hiss, I generally believe I am more likely to hear what music is actually present on those master tapes. Now this is what I want...

Bob

 

That's right, Bob, they want it all tweaked and punched up.

I recall Bill Inglot stating in an old BSN newsletter interview that if people got the master tape on CD they couldn't handle it. And, don't you know, people HATE hiss, and will do anything to get rid of it!

I can't tell you how many times I do stuff for people and the first thing they want me to do is get rid of that hiss, and to make it LOUDER!

 

I would rather I did, then if I was not pleased with the sound I could, if I wanted to, re-master to my tastes and not have undo the work of others, which is a more daunting task. Thankfully, with Steve's work I do not have to do this!

Bob

 

And the compression ...All I have, as the only source for several songs, are those ungodly compressed CDs, like those mid 90s Salsoul CDs, that Andrea True Connection best of CD, or some of the Hip-O comps. I have a very hard time trying to undo the compression to the point where the music is just somewhat normal sounding again.

 

Thanks Steve.

I think I hear hiss between tracks on the DCC Paul Simon LP you did. Is it a super pure transfer as well? It sounds quite beautiful.

dan c

 

Spliced bias tape? What exactly is that for us non-recording engineers here?

 

So you're saying that if you -- or the original label, or mastering engineer, of whoever -- had inserted paper leader between the songs, that particular "problem" would have been eliminated?

Then, why not use paper leader? Is here some advantage to using tape between cuts?

 

Oh, this is all soooo beautiful!!! Thank goodness there's at least one person like you who's involved in the remastering part of the business. Now, if only your craft would spread to become standard practice so that all recorded music sounded so alive!

 

Gosh, I'd expect it to be more like minus 60 or 70 db down.

Steve, I haven't done any CD or SACD mastering, but I'm kind of surprised that you do it on the fly as in cutting records. Why not master one song at a time?

 

So with you, it's a matter of keeping the master tape as it was, which I appreciate. My question also asked, though, why paper leader wasn't used in the first place. Is there a reason not to have?

Incidentally, back when I was editing a lot of interviews with a razor blade, we'd have recorded a couple minutes' worth of "room noise" to use as spacing between the interviewee's words when we'd cut down sentences or eliminated verious "um"s or "like"s. It sounded a lot more real...

 

Those Tom Dowd engineered, 8-track recordings excepted? Or not?

Bob

 

I did read that, but didn't realize you couldn't master each song separatly by bypassing the console, and then resequence them when creating the master. Obviously I have no idea how DSD mastering works.

 

Columbia's first CD pressings of Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" has the hiss in between the songs. You would really have to crank it up, between the songs to hear the tape hiss anyway. It is more noticeable with headphones...not a big deal...IMO.

 

Put "Tape hiss is great!" posters in every school, mall, fast food restaurant, and iPod box and in about 10 years "they" won't be able to give noise-reduction software away let alone sell it. People are suckers and they'll believe just about anything you tell them...if you repeat yourself long enough and loud enough. Unfortunately, the message has been quite the opposite over the past 10 or more years and audio quality has really suffered.

 

It´s so beatiful sounding this SACD. (The redbook layer). Im hearing thing on "Cotton Fields" and on every track that I didn´t heard on "Chronicles"-

 

I want this on a t-shirt.