venturaguy49
Member
I was thinkin that most likely, A&M, as with most record co.s, transferred their masters to a secondary tape, which in turn would be used for mastering LP's, which would be logical, as with few exceptions, an appropriate thing to do, given that the average record-buyer didn't/hasn't an expensive phonograph with a pickup that would reveal the discrepancies between a first and second-generation tape...the notable exceptions may have been productions by Longines Symphonette, and later by Mobile Fidelity, which were purists, but on the whole, most people weren't that particular, as music was all too often just 'sonic wallpaper', as some call it, so a fair-sounding tape was all that would be required. One thing that younger members of the 'Corner' may not realize, is that back then, audio systems weren't very advanced, or not by today's standards, and the true audiophiles of the day didn't bother at all with vinyl, but rather relied opon pre-recorded tapes, and there must be of the masters for the pre-recs in A&M's vaults, which can (as I'd imagine) be suitable for c.d.s. Now, I've one 24-bit c.d., and honestly, I can't detect any difference between it and standard 16-bit, as I've a few overlaps involved between them, so I don't believe that going beyond 16 bits is sensible, but instead, and perhaps D.V.D. may surpass c.d. as a carrier unit, with the possibility of layering one complete program over another, the issue should lie in developing better playback systems i.e. better sampling, digital-to-analog, and so forth ( the main prob with early c.d.s wasn't so much the disks, but it was inadequate analog filters, if my history is correct, and today, I think that upgrading hardware will result in enhanced sound reproduction. For now, your average c.d. player won't appreciate the subtle nuances of a higher bit-rate, but in the future, should fully optical systems become available for the mass-market, maybe then the improvements made by such higher bit-rates may become apparent, but for now, it's best to restrict that to masters, like let's say recording two digital masters simultaniously, and reserving the higher bit-rate for archiving...well, I'm clearly running amock, so I'll split for now, but what say ye?
Warm Wishes,
Steve
Warm Wishes,
Steve