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A very good friend brought this sampler tape back from the Munich Show for me to hear.
The tape started out with such great promise. Transferred from the analog master. Played back on a Telefunken M15E machine and copied on the new Ballfinger machine. My expectations were definitely raised.
Unfortunately, they were dashed almost as quickly. 71/2 ips sampler with IEC EQ. Ok some 71/2 ips tapes aren't that bad but they all to my ears lack openness and upper octave extension. But let's put that aside and just listen.
This was hardly something that I would put forward as an example of my work. Sampler tapes are a way of deciding by cuts taken from different albums which reels I want to buy. None of the six cuts-including a Ben Webster track-make me to want to further investigate the label. Nor does the sampler tape put the Ballfinger in a good light either. Music aside, the tape is closed in, murky, veiled and congested. The soundstage and instruments are two dimensional. The bass is boomy. That leads me to ask did STS even listen to the tape?
I did find someone me one else on the net commenting on the same thing (I don't think that sampler was made on Ballfinger though). They added that despite the sound of the sampler tape, they were braver enough to buy the 15 ips copy and found it considerably better and on a totally different sonic plane. Still then, why shoot yourself in the foot then?
The tape started out with such great promise. Transferred from the analog master. Played back on a Telefunken M15E machine and copied on the new Ballfinger machine. My expectations were definitely raised.
Unfortunately, they were dashed almost as quickly. 71/2 ips sampler with IEC EQ. Ok some 71/2 ips tapes aren't that bad but they all to my ears lack openness and upper octave extension. But let's put that aside and just listen.
This was hardly something that I would put forward as an example of my work. Sampler tapes are a way of deciding by cuts taken from different albums which reels I want to buy. None of the six cuts-including a Ben Webster track-make me to want to further investigate the label. Nor does the sampler tape put the Ballfinger in a good light either. Music aside, the tape is closed in, murky, veiled and congested. The soundstage and instruments are two dimensional. The bass is boomy. That leads me to ask did STS even listen to the tape?
I did find someone me one else on the net commenting on the same thing (I don't think that sampler was made on Ballfinger though). They added that despite the sound of the sampler tape, they were braver enough to buy the 15 ips copy and found it considerably better and on a totally different sonic plane. Still then, why shoot yourself in the foot then?
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