The White Stripes "Icky Thump" new LP, adventures in mastering: 1" tape breakthrough!

Steve,

Have you heard the CD mastering? How did it compare to the analog tapes? Did they clobber it during mastering or was it done during mixing?

 

Congratulations.

Did you correct the title while you were at it? It should be "Ecky thump." Awww, Americans. Bless!

 

I was in Nashville when Jack and Meg were recording this record. A bud of mine flew down there to see Lucinda Williams at the Ryman. It would have been cool to hang out with Jack. I guess we missed him by a day. Maybe next time... It's nice to read about the otherside of recording. I am anxiously awaiting this release.

 

So Steve, how was the sync between the master reel and Sonic Solutions actually derived? When you mention that Kevin split the feed, it sounds like the Sonic system simply keyed itself into the audio on the reels, or have I misunderstood?

Thanks!

 

I can hardly wait. I want this vinyl NOW

 

Will this be on black vinyl or colored vinyl like 'Elephant'?

 

I remember the blurb for XDR cassettes mentioned "the duplication master uses a wide track format to increase dynamic range and alleviate momentary signal loss problems".

Was that 1" ?

 

No, 1" 2 track is a relatively new format. It was developed about 10 years ago by ATR Services. In that blurb above, they are talking about a standard 1/4" master, which is indeed "wide track" compared to a cassettes 1/8" tape. Although at the time, most cassettes were duplicated using an actual 1/8" cassette master tape, which was horrible! The XDR cassettes were actually duplicated from a 1/4" tape, recorded at cassette speed (1 7/8 ips) and then sped up for high speed duplication.

 

I thought XDR loops were quarter-inch recorded at a higher speed? It's been a long time since I've thought about it, but either 7.5 or 3.75ips springs to mind. I seem to recall reading an article* about when the tape duplicating plant at EMI in Swindon started producing XDR cassettes, a whole new procedure had to be implemented to prevent EMI issuing tapes erroneously dubbed at the wrong speed, and there were initial design problems in feeding such a large loop successfully into the duplication bin.

I could be wrong - it's not something I've ever had concern myself with - but it's something which has stuck in my head all these years.

*Probably Sound on Sound, or Home & Studio Recording.

 

nice story steve

 

Kind of reminds me of the guys who play records by using a 60hz tone recorded on a CD to drive their turntable's ac synchronous motor.

Cody

 

They were high speed duplicated, but the "master" was still recorded at 1 7/8 ips. Then both the "master" tape playback and cassette duplicators (recorders) were sped up to 3 3/4 ips. This is why pre recorded cassettes have such lousy high frequency response. In high speed duplication, a lot of the normal high frequency content goes supersonic, out of the range of the recorders.

 

Steve,
How do you like the White Stripes music? I've been promoting them here for years with litle fanfare except a few die-hards like me. Now everyone's on their wagon.
By the way, all their other LPs and CDs also sound wonderful.

 

Cool story. Although, after reading it a couple of times I still can't say that I fully understand it.
Glad all I really have to do to appreciate the end result is flick a switch and drop a needle.

 

This is going to rock hard!

Geez!

Sorry...when's the release date of the vinyl again?

June?

 

I've never bought a White Stripes release on CD, always vinyl. This will be no exception. Can't Wait!!!!

 

Whoa, I had no idea that Steve and Kevin were cutting this record. I am some what embarrassed to admit that I don't have a single Steve recording, but I'm just not into a lot of your readily available albums. So this is great news! I cannot wait to get my hands on this and the Moondance reissue.

 

In other words, the cutter got the information from the digital feed seconds before, while it cut the analog signal a few milliseconds later.

Joe, just trying to simplify the explaination for you and Steve!

 

Methinks I'll be buying the vinyl version upon release!! YAY!

My wife and I loved the Strips' last album....


--Matt

 

So XDR cassettes were duplicated at double speed? Interesting - every commercial pancake-type duplicator I've come across dubs at 60ips, 32x the recorded speed. I can see why running at the comparatively slower speed would produce, again comparatively, better quality results.

Which is why I've always avoided them where possible, although the few XDR titles I've heard haven't sounded too bad by comparison with standard copies. Can you still get pre-recorded cassettes?

It's worth pointing out that commercial duplicating machines have specially modified heads to try to help overcome the HF problem to some extent. Usually a microscopically narrow head gap combined with an HF boost somewhere along the chain.

Thanks for the info, with apologies for dragging this thread slightly off-topic.

 

I found the XDR cassettes by Capitol to have worst high frequency response than other companies cassettes duped in the usual way. But, they did seem to have a wider dynamic range and a bigger bottom.

 

Back to Icky Thump....

Did I read right....there is no bass guitar at all on this record?

 

Thanks for sharing, Steve. Great story. Can't wait 'til the album comes out.