Interview with Jamie Horwath - Plangent Process

[dminches]

Fascinating stuff. It certainly calls into questions how stable all the servo motors in reel to reels and turntables are.

Jamie Howarth of Plangent Processes: Making Recordings Sound Better, P

Plangent Processes offers a unique playback system that corrects for the wow and flutter present in the master tape of a recording, to provide speed stabilization. It’s a combination hardware and software suite that, as their website explains, “combines state-of-the-art analog electronics with...

www.psaudio.com

 

[Zeotrope]

Really interesting, thanks for sharing.
This speaks directly to why modern machines, specially the Metaxas, have superior distortion, speed accuracy, and W+F: they literally have digital speed detection and much more accurate motor control, with brand new bearings, etc., vs what was possible in the ~70s and 80s.

“And still, to this day, one of my gripes is that the tape machines that are still revered – the Ampex ATR102 and Studer A80 and 820 – and exclusively employed in archive and reissue remastering - are great in and of themselves, but they're also 1975 designs. There’s resistance to the idea they can be improved, even 50+ years later, because to the older engineers there’s simply no concept that they could be faulted in any way.”

 

[dminches]

It would be interesting for Plangent to test tapes played back on those machines. I would not be surprised if they found similar wow and flutter issues. Their findings seem to indicate that any system which tests speed and corrects it is “chasing its own tail.”

 

[Zeotrope]

But if I’m not mistaken, he’s converting the analog signal to digital. So while you may be fixing things like speed and w+f, you are losing what makes an analog tape unique. And with the benefit of having some of the best sources (taiko, Metaxas, etc.), I can say that a great vinyl or R2R system sounds significantly better than digital.

 

[Zeotrope]

It would be interesting for Plangent to test tapes played back on those machines. I would not be surprised if they found similar wow and flutter issues. Their findings seem to indicate that any system which tests speed and corrects it is “chasing its own tail.”

Yes, but Metaxas does not test speed. There is no feedback loop. It uses a very precise counter (ARM CPU) and a very precise 4 motor system that runs to the same ‘beat’. That’s where the “Tourbillon” name came from. There is no speed detection and adjustment.

BTW, Nagra also doesn’t measure speed during playback with their Ref TT.

 

[dminches]

Yes, but Metaxas does not test speed. There is no feedback loop. It uses a very precise counter (ARM CPU) and a very precise 4 motor system that runs to the same ‘beat’. That’s where the “Tourbillon” name came from. There is no speed detection and adjustment.

BTW, Nagra also doesn’t measure speed during playback with their Ref TT.

Proof is in the testing. New may be better but it isn’t always. Send Jamie a note and suggest he test the new decks.

 

[Zeotrope]

Happy to send him a note.
New is definitely not always better … my midrange horns are nearly 100 years old!
But when it comes to motors and electronics, newer is better. I’m convinced, but I understand that a test is what will convince others.

The bigger problem to me though is that he’s converting to digital. I see this being interesting for digital mastering from a master tape; but not for home use.If I want a digital track, I’ll buy or stream the digital file. Converting a tape to digital at home is not why I’m playing tape.
And you know as well as anyone how tricky it is to get digital right, so even if you focus on the mastering side, you can add noise, jitter, etc. if you are not doing the processing and adjustments that Plangent correctly.

 

[dminches]

Certainly his work is for mastering tape to digital. It is not for home use. He does a lot of work for Grateful Dead releases. The results are stunning. I know first hand since I have both the Plangent and non-Plangent transfers of many reels to compare.

 

[Foxbat]

Yes, but Metaxas does not test speed. There is no feedback loop. It uses a very precise counter (ARM CPU) and a very precise 4 motor system that runs to the same ‘beat’. That’s where the “Tourbillon” name came from. There is no speed detection and adjustment.

BTW, Nagra also doesn’t measure speed during playback with their Ref TT.

I guess that is how the manage to get the W&F or .25%.

This would be bad even for a cheap consumer machine.

For instance, Akai 4000DS:

Wow and flutter: 0.15% (7 1⁄2 ips)

 

[Bruce B]

For tapes made on Studer A8xx, Technics RS15xx and ATR 102 machines, the w/f is quite low to begin with. I found no difference in all the files I sent to Plangent.

Besides, they can't work with DSD ..