Deadwax inscription ID's needed

This one is usually Dennis Blackham (google for his site, and some interesting history). Tape One was the name of the studio. Dennis used the nickname Bilbo.

Others worked at Tape One. Typically signed BILBO - TA1PE. I've not noted any other markings, though I think TA1PE sometimes appears on it's own.

 

Also JA (handwritten) = Jack Adams at Tape One.

 

Nice Photo's.

 

Thanks.

 

nice pics

 

Some great LPs were mastered at Utopiain the late '70s/early 80's. Here is their deadwax inscription.

Including the following...
Spandau Ballet, Roger Waters, Heatwave, Lindisfarne, Judy Tzuke, Paul McCartney, Ultravox, The Clash, The Police, Yello, UB40, Duran Duran, Cozy Powell, Thin Lizzy.
JG

 

Some of my Canadian pressings have what looks like a TX in the dead wax. Someone said it might be TY (Tim Young) but it sure looks like an X.

 

Yes. It's on albums by producer Keith Olsen. That's why it's on Fleetwood Mac's S/T, several Foreigner albums, Pat Benatar's Precious Time, and Heart's Passionworks. Among others, of course. It's even on a lot of the singles released from the albums he produced.

 

Hi thxdave,

It is another Barry.
I don't know who though.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

I have a Jackson Browne LP The Pretender and it has 'Barry' in the deadwax.

JG

 

Slow day here at the home office.
Here's another one I came across on my copy of XTC's "English Settlement" on Virgin/Epic. It also has "COLUMBIA NY" stamped in the deadwax. Any ideas who "Vanos" is?

 

It may be "Janos," but . . . sounds like one of Columbia's mastering engineers.

 

Here's my attempt at a deadwax pic, trying to use a magnifying glass to make the important part larger. It's my Atco 45 of 'Cars' by Gary Numan with the famous @t/gp of George Piros. Sorry it's fuzzy, I did this with a cell phone.

 

This is true. Especially with 80s pressings.

 

By mid-1982 when the long term contract under which Capitol Industries supplied Warner with custom pressings expired, fewer Warner LPs were pressed there than during the previous 5 years. The main reason is because WCI had become major players in the manufacturing business themselves.

Capitol Winchester, under the old contract, supplied most of the Warner vinyl pressings for the east coast, but they manufactured 100% of all US Warner cassettes. By the second half of 1982, Capitol's role in manufacturing Warner product was reduced to first-in-line to handle their overflow (still significant).

 

It is Ray Janos, who originally signed Janos in the deadwax, recently it is RJ.

JG

 

Great thread. Keep the sigs coming!

 

I wish someone would put up a photo of "Gene", a mastering engineer at Capitol (with Wally Traugott).

 

There's a lot of Fleetwood mac rumors that say capitol. Since it was such a big inital seller, I guess at some point they were using test pressings as well. I have one that says "FM test" and RL's initials.

 

Below are the Specialty Records Corporation pressing marks. The one on the left (the backwards one) predates the one on the right. Both were used at the old plant on N. Valley Ave. in Olyphant, PA. Only the later version was used at the larger plant on Lackawanna Ave. about a mile away. Richard Marquardt, then head of Specialty (later president of WEA Manufacturing, East) once told me the exact date that they flipped the marking. I wish I could remember the date (sometime in 1972 I believe), but for certain, once it changed, it stayed that way. Meaning, if you have two pressings, each having different SRC markings, you can always tell which one was made first...no matter what the label design, ect.

 

The Capitol Records pressing plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania used this mark from the early 1960's until the plant was sold in the early 1970's. According to a famous book about the Beatles, IAM stood for International Association of Machinists' Union. Anyone got a shot of the various "anvils" used by the Scranton plant before and after the triangle era?

 

Great thread, great photos, what macro lens/camera are you using. Those are simply fantastic.

What is the story behind the "shelly" on the Hot Rocks mispressing.

Where can I find archives by WB on dead wax matrix numbers. I have always wanted to confrim that 1A/1A was a first pressing on Columbia, what other matrix numbers confirm a 1st pressing, etc.

Travis

 

Not sure of the second two questions, but I shot these with a Nikon D200 digital body with a 105mm MicroNikkor lens and some very tedious lighting. Getting the image large is actually easy, but getting the lighting right is more than half the battle when you're working this close to the subject.

 

How did you end up doing the lighting?

 

I'm using a Nikon SB800 via TTL cord with a bounce card. The whole thing is threaded on a tiny tripod. At that point, there's a lot of nudging and testing until I get the right mix of bounce flash coming in from an angle. The key is skimming the light across the surface to get the right amount of reflectivity into the tiny grooves of the inscriptions. If I remember the next time, I'll take a shot of the rig once it's in position. Once it's set, I try to slip the different pieces of vinyl in and out of the shot. Depth of field is probably less than a 1/4" after stopping down.