JV on tape!

[rbbert]

You can bet the master tapes of groups like The Beatles and Pink Floyd are let out once in a blue moon. In fact, when talking to several people at CES this year, it's getting increasingly difficult for those doing remasters to get the original 3 track master tape. And as Allen Sides told me, and who's to disagree with him, the two tracks pale in comparison to the original three track tapes.

I thought Sgt. Pepper's was originally recorded on 4-track?

 

[Andre Marc]

"Interesting on several layers. First, no mention of Magico and ARC. "

Indeed, shocking!

 

[Andre Marc]

I was kind of wondering the same thing with regards to the provenance of the tape. My guess is that it is a Capitol tape, but of course I could be wrong. I don't know how often EMI Parlaphone let their master tapes of Beatles' albums go outside of the EU. I wonder if the tapes that Capitol had came from safety copies made from the master tapes in Britain.

The original Beatles master tapes, the ones stored at Abbey Road, have NEVER, EVER left the building. In fact, they are protected by a fingerprint recognition security system. Any tape OUTSIDE of Abbey Road is a copy. Pure and simple.

I grew up on the Capital albums, which were copies produced for the US market.

 

[c1ferrari]

Ah!

When I get these tapes, I get one chance to to make a decent copy and usually can only have the tapes for 48-72hr. I could easily capture these in digital and master them in the digital domain, but instead, I listen to them and when I make the dub, they go through an analog console where I can tailor the sound to the way I like it. These copies usually end up at shows where vendors such as Greg and Jonathan use the best source possible to showcase their equipment. This means when UMG, Concord or wherever, what goes on the dubs is sometimes far from what you will hear on production LP's or CD's, which most have been crushed to death. These tapes don't have to be loud to match other cuts because they know how to use a volume knob!

Indeed -- so, these are not straight transfers of the flat stereo masters.
Bravo for staying true to the analog domain...presuming an analog track/mix/master --> dub

 

[Ki Choi]

Hi Guys!

"Let's not argue over who killed whom, it's a happy occasion" to quote Monty Python loosely.

Regardless of the tape being sourced from a true master or a safety copy, when the tape sounds good I am happy. I have some of the real masters or just raw recordings (at 30ips and not even yet mastered tapes) that don't move me as much as third generation sloppy copy of music I like. As others have said it better, it's all about the music. If you like your version of the Sgt. Pepper better than any other versions, good for you.

At the end, we are lucky to be around now when our hobby with so many choices and different ways to reproduce music that weren't available just few years back...