Mastering

T

tanoka

New member
Hi Analog forum:

I have a friend who has unreleased material from the 60's and 70's on reel. He says these mix downs need to be mastered before they can be pressed up.

I know this is a simple and stupid question but what do you use to master a tape recording via analog? Whenever you alter or master a tape recording I'm assuming you would have to dub it onto another tape but wouldn't that fall victim to an inferior generation of the recording? Perhaps I should google this but I know this is THE place to learn and be taught.

much appreciated,
Tanoka
 
It depends what you're mastering to, really. For instance, if you were mastering to a vinyl record, the tape would be playing as a wax master is created from the original tape. While the wax master was being made is when any "tweaking" that was left could be done.

If you were mastering to CD, you'd first record the tape to some sort of computer, be it a PC or pro-digital system. Once it's in the computer, you could tweak it by compressing it and doing anything else necessary to make it ready and sound good to be put to a CD. In a pro environment, from this stage you'd have a glass-master CD, but for us home guys the master usually stays on the computer and we just burn CD-R copies of it.

Hope that helps,
-MD
 
Thanks Themaddog

Excuse my late reply.

I'm looking to press just vinyl from the mix downs.

My friend who used to work at Motown and PIR said that the wax masters used to be cut at Sigma Sound and most other studios before being sent to the pressing plants. Well my friend doesn't believe cutting lathes are used anymore with digital cd masters the norm. So my question is does anyone here ever have their tapes mastered and pressed on vinyl? If so I would appreciate any recommendations on where I can get this done at.

trying to keep it analogue,
tanoka
 
A lot of the indie vinyl factories do their own mastering. They could take it from a CD, but 1/4" tape would have a much higher fidelity. Otherwise, you're going from digital back to analog, which will work, but you probably won't get the exact sound you're looking for. Unfortunately, most places want a minimum order of 500 records.

www.urpressing.com
www.recordpressing.com
www.tomtmusic.com

These companies offer vinyl pressing. Good luck!

-Pete
 
Hi,

Can anyone explain to me how direct metal compares to lacquer mastering and what to avoid besides a digital limiter?

thanks,
Tenyu
 
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