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I am a bit of a novice in terms of the remastering process or original analog sources. So for current reissues that use analog sources, are they all still digitally processed? For example, I inquired about one particular vinyl reissue, and the responded "For this reissue, remastering was done using a mixture of analog and digital tools for best outcome. The original 1/4" tapes were transferred at 24bit/96kHz." Not sure what this means. Will it sound like a CD on a vinyl pressing, or will it sound like the original analog pressing but cleaned up? Anyone knowledgable about the remastering of reissued LPs?
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Here's the rub, you won't be able to tell unless you hear both the original and the reissue side by side. In general I believe a recording where the masters aren't all that good to begin with can be helped by manipulation in the digital realm rather than cut straight from the masters. On the other hand with very good masters in the first place don't bother with conversion to digital and back to analog which merely introduces two more layers for things to wobble.
Opinions of course vary. I have compared recordings where I have early all analog pressings against later all analog pressings, RBCD and HDCD. Comparing various pressings is a mixed bag, about half the time the reissues sound better simply because much more care was taken in the cutting of the lacquers and pressing. The other half of the time maybe too much time had passed and the tapes were not what they once were or something else just wasn't right.
I have very few LPs which were mastered in the digital realm and of course there is no pure analog version to compare them to.
As far as digital goes, HDCD sounds more natural than RBCD, but good analog sounds even more organic and of whole cloth.
An acquaintance describes digital as a perfect bone in ribeye turned into hamburger and then turned back into a ribeye. The translation from one format to another is not yet perfected despite the proliferation of five and six figure DACs. Nor will it be unless the flaws of conversion from analog to digital are addressed. Decoding won't fix flaws encoded into the medium. -
Good question. If your original analog masters are very good and you go directly to vinyl with them, as opposed to copying them to digital and then to vinyl, one will hear the difference. There is a certain presence and natural space that is present in a direct analog to vinyl transfer (especially if done with great care). I have yet to hear digital preserve that aspect of analog. I love digital and use it and listen to it all the time. But it does not have that organic presence and space you get on a great tape to vinyl transfer. I believe someday digital will capture this as digital continues to advance. But as of May 2016, the magic presence and space I hear in pure analog I do not hear in digital. My opinion of course.JLHComment
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Are all current audiophile reissues digitally transferred, even if they use original analog sources? That's what I'm not sure about.Comment
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The best use the original masters and are analog all the way. Maybe you should ask about the specific titles you are interested in, I'm sure someone here will have information on the pressings or be able to direct you to such sources of information.Comment
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Ok. Here is the link with all the mastering and credits at the bottom: https://www.discogs.com/Barbara-Lynn...elease/6277115Originally posted by Rust View PostComment
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OK, don't know what else to tell you. Haven't got any version in my collection.Comment
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From my knowledge some (more or less) vinyl is cut these days from a digital copy or source. I think that will improve with companies like Acoustic Sounds putting out vinyl, etc. But one has to check each issue. I have heard that some tape being sold is not necessarily from an analog source so one must check it. Case in point is Cafe Blue which was originally recorded digitally so the tape copy is of the master digital file. In this case it sounds very very good and in my opinion better than any other source for this performance. But the point is one has to check each situation to see what is what.JLHComment
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