Advanced Vinyl Technology

[Robin L]

I had a really lovely Yamaha cassette deck, was told it had a Nakamichi dual capstan transport but "normal" eq, so one could play cassettes made on the Yahama on other decks without the wonky eq of Nakamichi's electronics. This deck featured multiple noise reduction options. To my ears, the best results came from using Sony metal cassettes without noise reduction. DBX always audibly pumped. Mind you, I was monitoring with Stax earspeakers, every little variation in the sound stood out in stark relief. I remember sending a Tascam 32 R to R deck to a shop as I heard high-frequency loss. They said the deck was fully within spec, go figure. Preferred the sound for the Yahama cassette deck to the Tascam R to R deck at 15 ips.

 

[JoachimStrobel]

The only direct-to-disc LP I purchased was Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker - I've Got The Music In Me. The MFL discs were expensive in Australia at the time and I didn't purchase any others. Now I wish I had from an investment viewpoint. From the snap, crackle and pop perspective not so.

I was lucky being able to purchase almost every Jazz DtD released during the end70’s. I lately stocked up on the ones I missed via Ebay. I was surprised to see that the ones I owned where not that expensive to get - certainly less than the original price with mild inflation added - except the early Sheffield ones where I sadly only own one

 

[JoachimStrobel]

Sheffield discs were high quality, however you had men like Doug Sax, men who knew what they were doing, making them. Umbrella (Audio Technica) discs were sonic knock-outs. On the other hand, some DtD didn't sound any better than the usual thing. The problem with DtD was that it was difficult to pull everything together, and easy to screw up (the recording/cutting process happened simultaneously).

Generally, program material was second or third rate, and timing (that is, minutes of program) was few. Sort of like the old restaurant joke: the food here is terrible and the portions are so small. The most egregious I owned (it was a gift) was a Dave Brubeck record. Dave was in a space suit (or something) and the band was his kids. You know going in that any Brubeck performance, especially one with his kids, is not going to be aesthetically proper music. Everyone played acoustic, except a son on electric bass. Electric bass on an acoustic jazz record? You heard right. What the hell were they thinking? The cover was pretty cool. Featuring Stanton Magnetics' (another Gibson 'success' story, /sarc) dual tipped stamper needle in the background. In fact, the album cover was the best part of the package.
/QUOTE]

I do own that Dave Brubeck one. Yes, it was often said that the content of DtDs were not good, and they where short. Being short is easily explained: Without a pre-cue system in place the groove distance had to be fixed and wide.
For content: Not many musicians liked playing 15 minutes without break and no chance to cut. I believe the ones that did DtD were brave and deserve credit just for that. Dave Brubeck toured the world during those times with his kids - let us not go into reasons. So his recording is not the DtD’s problem.
There were great big band DtDs from Woody Herman and Budy Rich and Louis Bellson and then of course Harry James. The argument was, that Big Band are used to play live a lot hence DtD was a piece of cake for them - that seemed to be true. But I I agree that some of the smaller no-name groups were more recorded for sound-checks, like Drum or Bass only DtD. But then again there was Phil Woods and LA4 and....
It would be interesting to see if there is a DtD and a Cd release of a parallel digital recording. The said Harry James DtD has been released on CD, but sounds not as good, I guess it was cut from the tape that run in parallel. A release on Sacd or DVD-A would be interesting.

 

[Robin L]

I was lucky enough to be working at Ray Avery's Rare Records back in 1977/78. Happened to be working there as the first Telarc and Sheffield Labs records appeared. I recalled going to audio boutiques, hearing the bass drum in the Holst/Handel Frederick Fennell or the Shaw/Atlanta "Firebird". Found the Leinsdorf/Los Angeles Philharmonic Sheffield discs very disappointing, the Thelma Houston kinda cool. My favorite D to D disc was "For Duke". Truth to tell, there wasn't enough difference in SQ to justify the effort and trouble.

 

[LTig]

[..]
I don't even know if anyone is making DtD records anymore.

Anne Bisson Trio: Four Seasons In Jazz: Live At Bernie's

 

[LTig]

Hello,
I am new in this forum but enjoying a lot already.
Talking about Vinyl - what about direct-to-disc?
I think they still sound fantastic. I am still not certain why. Even in the late 70‘s, when they were made, reel tape had better specs than vinyl and it is not clear why even the „second generation“ DtoD ( the ones cut from that tape) did not sound as good as the original one.
DtoD recordings like the Harry James sessions on Sheffield compare very well to any recordings available today, or even better. Shows how good, or little, mastering helps. Still like to learn what made those discs so great. And I do not think it is nostalgica that makes me believe that

Jeton also made very good DtD discs in the 80ies. I have Airplay by Lenny Mac Dowell (great dynamic) and me by Alexis Korner. Both bought used in the 90ies.

The only other DtD discs I have are from Crystal Clear Records: Virgil Fox - The Fox Touch Volume 1 (1977) which I bought new end of the 70ies, and Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops - Capriccio Italien - Capriccio Espagnole (1978) which I bought used last year for €1 (seen in a junk box at a record dealer) - just had to invest a few more € for a professional cleaning.

 

[scott wurcer]

except the early Sheffield ones where I sadly only own one

A local store put them in the $1 bin.

 

[JoachimStrobel]

Anne Bisson Trio: Four Seasons In Jazz: Live At Bernie's

There is this one which is direct to 2track reel and then to disc, it sells for 20€, I may get it later.

 

[JoachimStrobel]

A local store put them in the $1 bin.

Yeah, and at one time I thought I could retire on my DtD collection .... And then came the digital age. So it goes...

 

[Theo]

The only direct-to-disc LP I purchased was Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker - I've Got The Music In Me. The MFL discs were expensive in Australia at the time and I didn't purchase any others. Now I wish I had from an investment viewpoint. From the snap, crackle and pop perspective not so.

As was said, the catalogue is rather thin. I suspect that the audiophile market willing to pay for those (they were more expensive) was probably too small. And recording stress (live, no edits!) for both musicians and recording engineer was high.
I have one : Art Blakey plays "Night in Tunisia" in 1979 in Japan! I was impressed at the time by the dynamics of the recording. I suppose that it has to do with a minimum processing in the recording chain, may be very little if no compression. not much with the medium! It still sounds good though, with a DR of 17 !

.
However, there is a lot of distortion on the cymbals... And they couldn't fit more than one 15' tune on the first side!

 

[Robin L]

Jeton also made very good DtD discs in the 80ies. I have Airplay by Lenny Mac Dowell (great dynamic) and me by Alexis Korner. Both bought used in the 90ies.

The only other DtD discs I have are from Crystal Clear Records: Virgil Fox - The Fox Touch Volume 1 (1977) which I bought new end of the 70ies, and Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops - Capriccio Italien - Capriccio Espagnole (1978) which I bought used last year for €1 (seen in a junk box at a record dealer) - just had to invest a few more € for a professional cleaning.

Also found the Fiedler disc in similar circumstances, a real torture test for turntable rumble as its average volume is so low. There's a reason recordings are compressed, this is a fine example of "Why".