UK 1st press vinyl recorded in England, but mastered in America

Awesome--keep 'em coming!

Two questions:

1) Why do you think the UK presses were mastered in America?

2) Does anybody feel that some of the US pressings are just as good as the UKs?

 

1) I do not know - wish I did. There's been some inter-oceanic recording/mastering/cutting back & forth stuff going on since way back ....from early Stones and Mk.I Deep Purple LPs to Led Zep. Its gotta be an interesting story.

In every case related to this thread I've found the UK pressings still sound better - but the gap is close on some. Some of the US A&M labels pressed at Monarch Records sound superb....like the Humble Pie and Cat Stevens titles. I know of one forum member whose opinion I respect a lot even prefers at least one of the US Cat Stevens Sterling's over the pink island.

 

Would that be Tea for the Tillerman?

 

I think so - and Mona Bone Jakon.

I overlooked this one:

FREE - 2nd self titled album - pink island label. The first presses have 'Bell Sound' and 'sf' (Sam Feldman) etchings in the dead waxes.

 

The Mission Masque U.K. Phonogram was cut @ Masterdisk. I'm not sure this was even issued on vinyl in the U.S.

 

I have UK orange label copies of Low and Heroes which are also Sterling cuts. Both have A2/B2 matrices, I don't know if they are the first UK pressings.

 

The Wall was recorded in France and finished in LA. The LP was mastered at TML in California.

 

I'm not sure about the mastering but I believe Cream's Disraeli Gears was recorded in New York, and possibly Wheels of Fire too? If an album is mastered in the US, does it mean that the master tapes were used as well?

 

I can probably save Green Fuz the trouble here but I am pretty certain he is referring to Nonesuch the label...

 

FRUUPP- MODERN MASQUERADES (Sterling on both sides) great detailed sound
BOXER-Below the Belt (Kendum)

 

Iron Maiden-'Piece of Mind' up to 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son' both UK and US cut @ Sterling.

 

Thank you, Paul ... about six months later.

Yes, I was indeed referring to the label, Nonesuch with an "e." He mastered quite a few titles for them that were pressed on UK vinyl.

 

Both UK and US vinyl of pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane ROUGH MIX have TML stamped in the dead wax area and the UK pressing sounds far superior.

 

Agreed. That is one where there is significant difference. Most of the others mentioned are pretty close IMO (depending on lacquer number).

 

This also applies to Australia. I've come across quite a few 'Australian' 1st pressings that have all been mastered in UK and USA. I've had 'Porkys', RL's, Sterlings pop up from time to time.

 

Bowie, Let's Dance

 

I'll check my copy tonight.

 

UK Decca 45 pressings of their 1968 "Jumpin' Jack Flash" used lacquers cut at Bell Sound Studios in New York by Dominick Romeo. (The British pressings put in machine-stamped XDR numbers which were totally missing from the US London single; in any case, Romeo's hand-etched numbers - 6942M for "Jumpin' Jack Flash," 6943M for the flip "Child of the Moon" - were still there.)

 

the original German lp Amon Duul II-Only Human was cut by Brian Gardner at Allen Zentz Recording Hollywood. a top lp in my list

 

Regarding Low, I found an early UK lp this weekend (orange labels, textured Garrodprint Ltd. sleeve with song title sticker on the back) that has the same deadwax info as my black label RCA US version, but the UK has added matrix info and has lines through the US matrix info. Both have Sterling stamped in the dead wax. I did notice that my UK's handwritten info ends with A-2 and B-2, so I guess it's technically not first press, but I found an old auction on Popsike that's listed as a UK first press and the matrix info they list, i.e. Streling, crossed out US matrix, is the same except the record in the auction ends with an A1/B1 matrix: http://www.popsike.com/DAVID-BOWIE-LOW-UK-1ST-1976-PRESS-A1B1-NMINT-UPGRADE/360307676678.html

I think it's safe to assume that the UK and US are the same mastering.

 

Wasn't that recorded in The US for EMI America?

 

Slightly off topic, but it was not unusual in the 1980s to find classical vinyl from CBS Germany or Holland with "COLUMBIA NY" in the dead wax.

 

I've seen a Porky pop up from time to time too.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

My US copy has "timtom cbs" in the deadwax. Very early US pressing and the sound is incredible. "timtom" was a UK sig, no?

I find UK masterings on US pressings from time to time, as above.
US pressings of:
Genesis - Lamb
Yes - Fragile
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady.
Led Zeppelin IV
All have Porky or Pecko in the deadwax.

Led Zeppelin - In Through has STRAWBERRY

US pressings of:
Peter Gabriel - Security (inferior mastering to other RL pressing)
and
Genesis - abacab
have TOWNHOUSE

Except for the above examples, how can we rely on deadwax info to indicate the actual origin of mastering?

 

You will see timtom or ty (Tim Young) on a lot of great UK LPs, The Clash's 'London Calling' springs to mind. See info below....

http://www.imastering.co.uk/engineers/tim_young

JG