Introduction and Kickstarter for new jazz AAA vinyl!

[Jerome Sabbagh]

Hi,

I am a new member here. I'm a jazz musician and an audiophile. I have a Garrard 401 turntable, a Fisher X-100-3 amplifier and Rogers JR 149 speakers. In the digital world, I have a mac mini server with a Wavelength Brick V3 DAC and an Arcam FMJ23 CD player. I was recently profiled in the Stereophile series Musicians as Audiophiles.

Three years ago, the support of the audiophile community helped make a vinyl pressing of my album "The Turn" a reality. "The Turn" made a few "best of" lists for 2014 (LA Times, Boston Globe, DownBeat) and was also favorably reviewed in Stereophile and Analog Planet.

I recently recorded a new album, "No Filter", a project I co-lead with my old friend - and fantastic guitarist - Greg Tuohey. Like "The Turn", this record was recorded live to two track 1/2 inch tape at 30 ips by James Farber at Sear Sound. It will be mastered and cut to vinyl directly from the tape by Bernie Grundman but 96/24 downloads will also be available, as well as CDs.

We are trying to keep the vinyl affordable at $20 + shipping ($5 in the US). There are also fancier options, including 1/4 inch 15 ips tape and reference lacquer pressings.

I hope this is OK to post here. I thought people might be interested.

I am also happy to answer any and all questions.

The Kickstarter is here.

Thank you!

Jerome Sabbagh

[Bruce B]

Recording at Sear Sound with James Farber: $5600
Tape: $2000
Assembling the tape (cutting and piecing the tape together onto two reels so you can cut sides A and B of the vinyl): $760
Mastering, cutting the lacquer and pressing the LPs: $7200
Artwork (all formats): $1200
Printing jackets and labels: $1500
TOTAL = $18260


By the looks of some of these prices, you were taken advantage of.

Regardless.... In lieu of donating to your Kickstarter campaign, I will offer you the donation of my time to do all tape transfers that you may have.

[jonathanhorwich]

Yes got it. Well both are expensive. He could do the whole thing for a lot less.

[Jerome Sabbagh]

Bruce,

That's an incredible and generous offer. Many thanks!

As far as tape, the reason the cost is high on the Kickstarter is that all the tapes would be done in real time at Bernie Grundman's studio, directly from the tape that we recorded on. I'm paying for studio time and it's not a straight transfer. EQ and whatever else might be going on would be applied in real time, making the result in essence a first generation master (with EQ, while the tape we recorded at the recording session has no EQ and is also not perfectly cleaned up in terms of beginnings and endings). I thought some people might be interested in this, as it's very uncommon. I could however have Bernie do one EQed master copy, that I would then use to make all other copies. This would be a lot easier and it would be cheaper, especially if you are willing to do the straight transfers after that. It would be one more generation removed though. I am not sure what the actual sonic difference would be. PM me if you want to discuss this?

I would love to have a sense of what the interest for real to reel is, on this board and elsewhere. This all started because a backer last time actually requested a 15 ips 1/4 inch tape copy of "The Turn". I made it happen for him. This gave me the idea of offering reel to reel in the Kickstarter.

As far as cost of the record, I wanted to clarify a few things:

- "Recording at Sear Sound with James Farber" cost also includes paying Joe Martin on bass and Kush Abadey on drums. My co leader Greg Tuohey and I didn't get paid and have invested heavily in the project so far. Sear Sound was rented for a day and James charges by the hour. It's expensive but well worth it. You could certainly record for cheaper, I am not sure that you could record to tape something this high quality for much cheaper, especially considering we are recording live to 2 track tape, which saves the entire cost of mixing. Working at Sear Sound with James is also a way to maximize the chances of having a great sounding record. Even though "The Turn" was my first vinyl, I've done 5 records with James in that room. We get very good results.

- "Assembling the tape" took about 5 hours. The engineer who did it at Power Station, Roy Hendrickson, billed for 4 hours. It was actually pretty hard work and he was great at it. We had to figure out spacing, clean up beginnings and endings as best we could (some will have to be done at mastering) etc. We had many different reels to work from. The cost also includes $230 for 2 twelve inch metal reels from ATR, as the regular 10 inch reels were too small to fit sides A and B, and shipping.

- Mastering, cutting and pressing: Bernie Grundman is not cheap, for sure, but he's also great. I went down that road for "The Turn". I hired Doug Sax, who was also expensive but did a fantastic job. There are not of mastering facilities that can do not only a great job with digital (which I need) but also cut lacquers entirely analog at a world class level. In addition, I've always found that money spent at mastering on the right people is a good call. With the right studio, it really makes a difference. Keep in mind I am getting four delivery formats: 96/24, 44.1/24 (separate mastering pass, not downsampled, DDP for CD replication, and vinyl: 2 sets of lacquers, one for my approval, one for the pressing plant). Similarly, the pressing plant, QRP, is not inexpensive but they are great, likely the best in the US.

- "Tape": please keep in mind we recorded at 30 ips, on half inch tape. Each tape gets about 15 minutes of music. Tape was RMG SM900. List price is over $90 per tape and we bought a bunch. We didn't use everything but didn't want to risk running out. We recorded 14 songs (between 1 and 3 takes of each) and picked the best 7 for the record. We could have saved half the cost of tape recording at 15 ips but James, Greg and I felt that 30 ips would sound better.

I realize this all seems expensive, and it sure is but I honestly don't think I was taken advantage of. I am very budget conscious and this is the cheapest I could figure out to work at the - admittedly high - level I want to work at. I don't think "The Turn" would have been such a success in the audiophile community if I had tried to cut corners and Greg and I are trying to do the very best we can with this record as well.

I hope this clarifies things a bit. I'm grateful for the interest and support on this board!

[Kingrex]

Really, I am not in the business, but if I had $million into my studio, I would want to recoup my investment. I thought it would be a lot more to record and master an album.

I am purchasing a record and high fidelity download.

[jonathanhorwich]

"The Turn" is a superb performance which I have owned for over a year. I had no idea it was out on vinyl but the playing is very very fine. Jerome is the real deal. Jerome next time you want to record, I'll do it for you free. If you want some examples of my recordings contact me off forum at [email protected] and I'll send them to you. You are a fine player. The Turn is very impressive. Jonathan

[Jerome Sabbagh]

Thanks Jonathan! Also an incredibly generous offer. PM sent

[Skylab]

I’m looking forward to the IPI recording and tape release

[lasercd]

Jerome I sponsored The Turn and this new one as well. Looking forward to it.

[RandyRobinson]

Looking forward to this one too. Congrats on achieving 3/4 of your goal in just a few days.

[adeep42]

I own The Turn on vinyl. Bought it after the Stereophile profile. It's a great record and a great recording. I'm already in for the new record. Thank you Jerome.

[MylesBAstor]

Hi,

I am a new member here. I'm a jazz musician and an audiophile. I have a Garrard 401 turntable, a Fisher X-100-3 amplifier and Rogers JR 149 speakers. In the digital world, I have a mac mini server with a Wavelength Brick V3 DAC and an Arcam FMJ23 CD player. I was recently profiled in the Stereophile series Musicians as Audiophiles.

Three years ago, the support of the audiophile community helped make a vinyl pressing of my album "The Turn" a reality. "The Turn" made a few "best of" lists for 2014 (LA Times, Boston Globe, DownBeat) and was also favorably reviewed in Stereophile and Analog Planet.

I recently recorded a new album, "No Filter", a project I co-lead with my old friend - and fantastic guitarist - Greg Tuohey. Like "The Turn", this record was recorded live to two track 1/2 inch tape at 30 ips by James Farber at Sear Sound. It will be mastered and cut to vinyl directly from the tape by Bernie Grundman but 96/24 downloads will also be available, as well as CDs.

We are trying to keep the vinyl affordable at $20 + shipping ($5 in the US). There are also fancier options, including 1/4 inch 15 ips tape and reference lacquer pressings.

I hope this is OK to post here. I thought people might be interested.

I am also happy to answer any and all questions.

The Kickstarter is here.

Thank you!

Jerome Sabbagh

Hi Jerome, what an honor to have you aboard! Came to right site for tape among other mediums!



And we have such generous members such as Bruce and Jonathan. Sure you could do better than 10 tapes sold here just on AN!

[Jerome Sabbagh]

Thanks Myles! Glad to be here!

[solypsa]

snip- reference lacquer pressings
-snip

Love this topic. As a former vinyl mastering studio owner wanted to say maybe tune up the quoted phrase; you cut lacquers and press vinyl...so no such thing as a reference lacquer pressing. Just saying, not trying to take any wind out of the sails...

[Jerome Sabbagh]

Good point, thank you!

[Audioraven]

Welcome Aboard, Jerome!

[Bill Hart]

I got onto The Turn when you first issued it- I don't know how- perhaps it was one of the boards? I made a note to pull it out and give it a(nother) listen. Glad to support your next one. Good to see you posting here.

[Jerome Sabbagh]

I'm really thankful for everyone's support. It's nice to know I have friends here. I'm grateful for your backing!

[Spla'nin]

Great sounds ! Just ordered your Turn from Amazon. How close to being out of print is the vinyl version? I loved the cover too, it brought back some memories.

[Jerome Sabbagh]

Thank you! I have about 50 copies left myself and then that's it for me. Glad you like the cover. We are planning to hire the same designer and photographer for the new one.

[garylkoh]

Welcome to Audionirvana, Jerome. I'm on board your Kickstarter and I've also posted to my FB page and private group.

Good luck!

[Jerome Sabbagh]

Thank you Gary! And thanks for your generous backing!

[Marcus]

I'm on board your Kickstarter...

Same here. Think you already reached the goal. 👍

[Jerome Sabbagh]

Thanks Marcus! We did reach the goal, although to be honest we set it low by design to be sure to have something. The real budget is about $18500 (and Kickstarter takes fees and also counts money for shipping towards the goal), but it seemed too much of an ask. But yes, we are psyched, grateful for the support and encouraged by the positive reactions, on this board and elsewhere. We are officially able to go ahead with the vinyl, which is exciting! Please keep spreading the word if you can.

[timztunz]

Placed my order as well. Good luck and welcome here!