It's still barely 48 hrs since this video was broadcast live - and it's provoking a fair bit of online chatter:
Bernie Goodman is the voice of mastering experience. Ryan K. Smith is visibly respectful. Chad Kassem is motormouth, and we hope that his solicited "trust" in AP AAA vinyl output will be vindicated in the long run.
The whole broadcast is nearly 2.5 hrs. Here are my notes in case interest for anyone who fancies dipping in:
00.00.00 BG: Trust your ears / Music is a complex signal (defies bench measurement) / Everything matters [later says we [mastering engineers] listen to wire when he laments AES/EBU for D-D transmission as it carries both channels AND clock] / At work BG needs a neutral system but at home has something more "hypey" / Talks about emotion and connection and how mastering facilitates those aspects
00:10:40 Importance of earliest generation (tape source) / Difference between accurate and "clean" being tied to first/early generation and EQ to make something you could like more / No perfect digital copy / RKS says the earlier the generation the closer to how the artist intended (because that is what was passed)
00:13:15 BG: Likes that he stays in audiophile market (doing reissues) / Doesn't like Loudness and pandering to customers for Loudness / Loudness irritates
00:14:40 CK talking about DR / BG talking about discs i.e. vinyl records: complex signal + obstacle course for stylus + loud enough to get above noise floor for vinyl + speed at rim vs. speed at label therefore "clearer" at edge
00:23:10 BG: Younger people listening to vinyl - demands attention - involvement - listen and do nothing else at same time
00:24:00 Prefer analogue copy of tape or digital copy to work with? BG answers firmly that *analogue* tape has greater longevity / Careful storage important / Tapes get wear by repeated play / Many 50s tapes are in great condition
00:28:25 BG can repair analogue tapes with alt. CD material
00:32:00 Labels have not been looking after tapes / Not thinking of posterity
00:35:40 Quality of press in recent years - Vinyl sellers seeing returns as acceptable price of volume business
00:36:20 Controversy BG involvement in analogue reissue of 'Thriller'
00:39:30 Discussion about getting hold of original tapes
00:45:35 Extraordinary condition of KOB tape [in mid-1990s] - no splices
00:55:45 Mastering mojo variable - one day sounds great - the next maybe not - not always understanding why
01:04:00 Talking about "Original Master Recording" and what that means / BG repeats generational copies will never be as "clean" / VMP copying an analogue tape still leaves possibility of AAA
01:10:00 CK talking about comparing AP issues with originals [analogue-era 1st issues]
01:13:26 CK: "There's only one original ... a tape copy - or worse - a *digital* tape copy"
01:19:00 BG on digital - low level - how ambience is lost / digital permeates / makes everything sound the same / "disease" [gets smile from CK]
01:21:45 RKS: Working with PCM not DSD / CK: We're on 4 DSD / BG: With DSD things go bad / 44.1 16 bits good / It is [iterative] *processing* that does the damage with digital / Repeats digital problem of revealing ambience and high end info / Questions credentials of 192 downloads
01:27:20 BG: A straight [flat] digital copy will not sound as good / Here is where BG talks about AES/EBU wrt jitter etc inc. re-clocking
01:35:00 Discussion quality pf press / CK "****ty pressing plant" [btw heard CK use f word twice in whole broadcast] / deleterious effect of polishing or de-horning on SQ / Quieter but inferior
01:39:20 SRX / Quiet vinyl
01:40:35 Led Zeppelin on Classic Records from original tapes / BG: Not much to do / "Very good recordings"
01:47:50 CK is coming out with big announcements in 2 weeks then another one after a month - "not Beatles"
01:59:10 DSD audible on a home stereo - generations can be heard [implicit that one generation is a delta]
My own minor remarks:
Michael 45 was pretty quiet - good "Chair"
RKS didn't get a lot of air time - respectful to BG
BG spoke a lot - but you wanted to listen - pure experience
CK loudmouth somewhat off-putting - over-passionate - sales guy
In this video, digital draws a short straw, and
I wonder whether the tide is turning. Not so much vinyl resurgence per se, but the way that people who like to own vinyl records will think about them.
- Scraping digits off plastic mechanically is nonsense - why not just send digits (whether DSD or stepped derivatives) to a DAC.
- Some analogue tapes are in great condition. Others less so. DSD is not necessarily a bad Archive medium given all the alternatives. Archiving needs to be done now:
https://www.richardhess.com/tape/history/HESS_Tape_Degradation_ARSC_Journal_39-2.pdf
- The vinyl resurgence beginning 2007 was and still is a gravy train. Some demand couldn't care less the provenance of what they buy. Some buyers extol DSD based on subjective SQ - although cognitive dissonance/expectation bias likely in play. Many vinyl record enthusiasts value AAA and began buying MFSL LPs in the late 1970s.
- MoFi's DSD vinyl records date to as early as 2007 according to some reports. As demand for alternative titles burgeoned, the likelihood of analogue tapes in good condition must have diminished rapidly.
- Why did MoFi continue to market DSD vinyl without declaring (or even dissimulating regarding) its provenance? If it sounds better (according to Jim Davis) why not promote DSD?
- Could pronouncing DSD have diluted interest in vinyl and provoked interest in digital products - where the premium for scarcity and collectability could not have been justified?
- Are vinyl enthusiasts now beginning to appreciate provenance? Such that AAA vinyl will once again be appreciated, and DSD or other digital vinyl scorned for what it is?
- In forthcoming years will there be an injection of buyer cash into the vintage vinyl market at the expense of the modern vinyl gravy train?
- We know that most vinyl records are worth little. But the spread of value of vinyl records will increase further. Vinyl records have always performed as an investment better than money in the bank - and we can expect further dividends.
- That said, any serious collector needs a plan. Not just for the foundations of their dwellings - but for the relief of their indifferent beneficiaries.