RR back in business

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RR back in business

Postby audiostar » Mon Mar 05, 2012 7:07 pm

Sunday Life
The Philippine Star

Feeling groovy
AUDIOFILE By Val A. Villanueva
Sunday,March 04, 2012

Image
Reference Recording"s new releases

I can’t help it. Recent news that my music format of choice, the unsinkable vinyl, has now re-entered the mainstream scene has made feel groovier these days. This corner has been consistently espousing the supremacy of this music format since we started six years ago. Time really flies, but millions of us who demand nothing but faithful sound reproduction of our favorite music, seem caught in a time where analog music still rules.

The CD format is still fighting for its life in a drawn-out battle against other digital music formats. But amid this intense rivalry among these 21st century gadgetry, vinyl has kept its place securely among those who crave for music fidelity. Convinced that this niche market can keep them afloat, a handful of recording companies like Mobile Fidelity and other smaller record firms have decided to do fresh pressings of new artists and re-issues of music whose rights are owned by record legends such as Sheffields Lab and Columbia, among others.

It didn’t take long before turntables started spinning again to recreate beautiful music in a simple mechanical process where cartridges (needles) scratch those grooves in which accurate sound waves of a particular music are embedded. Pretty soon, eBay, Amazon and other online stores began cashing in on the sudden surge in demand for music recorded on vinyl.

Just recently, recording legend Reference Recording (RR) announced that it is re-opening shop. In its website, the company posted:

“For many years, RR has been searching the world over for the best possible vinyl mastering, plating and pressing facilities so we could re-enter the LP market. We now have a production chain that will allow us to produce LPs to meet our high standards and satisfy our demanding customers, who have been waiting for these LPs for a long time!

“Disc mastering is done at half-speed to insure maximum accuracy. The lathe system has custom electronics by Nelson Pass. The simple signal path contains no compression, equalization or unnecessary circuitry. (Half-speed Mastering involves a capturing process in which the original recording master is played back at exactly half of the recorded speed. A sequenced cutting lathe is then timed at exactly half of the playback speed. This process allows twice as much time to carve a groove that accurately represents the sound on the master tape. Half-speed mastering allows for cleaner reproduction and also permits extended high frequency response, extending into the ultrasonic region.”

RR is leaving nothing to chance as it embarks on a mission to re-create music at its purest form. ‘Prof’ Keith Johnson, RR Chief Engineer and Technical Director, took care of the system design and upgrading of the lathe and electronics owned and operated by long-time mastering expert Paul Stubblebine. ‘Prof’ Johnson later said that the mastering is equal to the challenge of our master tapes!
Once done in disc mastering, RR overcame the difficult task of picking the finest plating and pressing plant in Quality Record Pressings (QRP) in Salina, Kansas. RR’s Chad Kassem brought together a crack team of experts to design and run the plant, employing unique engineering techniques and features which clearly make QRP superior than other pressing plants. According to Kassem, the 200-gram deluxe vinyl pressings from QRP are truly exceptional.

Says RR: “Depending on program lengths, some new releases will be cut at 45 rpm, some at 33-1/3 rpm. Some will be single discs, some double. All will feature deluxe gate-fold jackets crafted by Stoughton Printing. An unusual feature of new RR mastering is what we call the ‘FDS finish’: the end of each side will have a 30-second band of silent grooves before the ‘pull-away.’ No one today uses a record changer, and the silent grooves allow time to lift the arm before the always-somewhat-noisy tie-off. (Some 1950s vintage Capitol Full Dimensional Sound pressings sported this feature.) RR founder, J. Tamblyn (Tam) Henderson deserves special recognition for identifying the value of this unique production feature and reintroducing it with the new Mastercuts.”

So, dust off your old turntables and long-playing records, and heed the words of musical legend Bob Dylan: “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Vinyl is here to stay, and life is grand. Indeed!

For comments or questions, please e-mail me at audioglow@yahoo.com or at vphl@hotmail.com. You can also visit http://www.wiredstate.com for quick answers to your audio concerns.
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