The Master Flat-Transfer Thread

Watermark hasn't been remastered since you did it Barry.

 

Yep. That's how I always look at it.

It almost seems to me at times that it would actually take MORE effort to make an album sound LESS like the master tapes. I just don't get it.

 

Johnny Mathis's "More Johnny's Greatest Hits" CD is either a flat transfer from the stereo LP master of the comp, or they used the individual stereo album masters of the original albums to make the digital master. Either way, this is an excellent sounding CD. The first greatest hits comp is from the rechanneled LP master, folded down to mono.

 

Steve said in a post once that the original cd issue of Morison Hotel sounds close to the master tape. Still widely available around my part of the country for about $10-12 new.

 

If the master tapes sound like poop, you probably don't want your CD sounding like them...

 

Very true, but in the case of a well-recorded album with master tapes in good shape ....

 

The tape can be in perfect condition, and the tracks well recorded, but if the mix was done on funky monitors or something, it might have unpleasant peaks at certain frequencies.

 

Two examples being the Eagles' Hotel California on DCC and the Mamas and the Papas 16 Greatest Hits on MCA. IIRC Steve said he heavily EQ'ed both of those.

 

I have Frank Zappas 'Apostrophe' in the Au format and it sounds wonderful. I also have the two-fer of 'Apostrophe and Overnight Sensation.' Forgot I had it. Just found it yesterday.
Are those flat transfers?

 

The Jeff Healy Band's 1988\early 89? release "See The Light" is a very nice flat transfer. It remember it stating on the cd that it was recorded without any dolby noise reduction.

 

That's a great sounding disc! It certainly got me through my Freshman year of college--great music to study by--very soothing. Congrats on a job well done, Barry.

 

Steve's Red Rose Speedway is a flat transfer, IIRC reading about it here.

 

Enya's Watermark 1989 disc original mastering is one disc I plan on seeking out next month. I remember my friend bought it new and besides the music, it sounded great.

 

Oops. Thanks for pointing that out.

Here are the technical notes for FZ's One Size Fits All Au20 disc:


Transfer Engineers: David Dondorf, Spenser Chrislu. Mastering Facility: The Utility Muffin Research Kitchen

This Au20 CD was mastered from the original Dolby A master tapes. Playback was through a specially-enhanced Ampex ATR-102 using audio cards upgraded by John Musgrave and courtesy of The Complex recording studios. No equalization, compression, limiting or other "enhancement" of any kind was added during the transfer.

The analog-to-digital conversion was accomplished using the dB Technologies™ AD-122 A/D converter in the 20-bit mode, directly to the hard disk of the Sonic Solutions digital mastering workstation.

Once edited into the final form, the program was transferred through the Sony Super Bitmapping process integrated into the Sonic System. This "noise-shaping" process allows the music to be captured in 16-bits while maintaining the optimal signal-to-noise equivalent of 20-bits. This 16-bit “Super Bit Mapped” PCM 1630 master was then used in the production of the Au20 CD.

 

I'm curious. I see no mastering credit on Enya's next CD "Shepherd Moons". Did you do that one as well?

 

Exactly. The two examples I was thinking of when I typed that.

Of course, the M&P weren't exactly well recorded, but...

 

IIRC Straight Up was subjected to some heavy EQ by Steve--in places at least. It's gotta be one of the best sounding albums I've ever heard, DCC or otherwise!

 

I don't think Layla has been mentioned in this thread. If it has, forgive me. Here's what Steve had to say -

http://stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=117758&postcount=2
http://stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=118064&postcount=35

So both the original Polydor and the MFSL are flat transfers.

 

I'm nearly positive that neither of these cds are flat transfers. In fact, I'm positive about Who's Next.

 

I surely love that Ultimate Otis, I use it to set up stereos all the time.

 

Here's what Steve said about Pet Sounds - http://stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=1588306&postcount=1

 

Exactly - which is why I fear this thread is going to end up a trainwreck of supposition and misinformation. I'll take Steve and Barry's word for the "flat transfers" they've ether worked on or know about, but for everyone else be very careful about pretending to know a flat transfer when you hear one. Because chances are that unless you've heard and/or compared the finished product to the actual master tape you're just hazarding a guess and/or attributing flat transfer-ness to any old random thing that you just happen to like.