RDK Posted September 26, 2003 Report Share Posted September 26, 2003 Though a bit technical, this thread over at the Hoffman forum might interest a few RVG fans over here (especially if you're into vinyl)... http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthre...20&pagenumber=1 Steve's initial post: There is something about Rudy Van Gelder master tapes from the late 1950's and early 1960's that Neumann cutting lathes HATE! There is a very high frequency oscillation in those tapes that loves to burn up cutter heads and cutting amps. I was cutting LUSH LIFE today with Kevin and I couldn't believe how crazy the equipment was getting. We slowed down the master tape to about 5 inches per second and FOUND IT! A pesky tone, embedded in the Van Gelder tapes that is around 20,000 cycles. ONLY on the cymbals, or when the cymbals hit. I have no idea why this happens, but we speculate that it is some kind of RCA limiter reaction to the crash sound; much worse than limiter splatter. As Kevin and I were pulling out (just his) hair over this, we were talking about the Neumann cutting system he has. Get a load of this: It is a Neumann SX-74, built in West Berlin, Germany in very late 1973. It was shipped new to Whitney Recording Studios in Glendale in 1974 and was sold to LRS (Location Recording Service) in 1976 where it stayed until 1999 when Kevin Gray bought it For AcousTech Mastering in Camarillo. Kevin estimates that (conservatively) he has cut 40,000 sides with this unit since 1978. An amazing amount of vinyl! Now, here is the blow-mind part: The unit cuts flat from 2 hz to 27,000 cycles! Imagine that. So, in the 1950's and '60's, the Van Gelder stuff was cut with Scully/Westrex systems that started rolling off around 12k. No one had any problem cutting these tapes. With the advent of the Neumann system (which had to be able to cut an RCA CD-4 quadraphonic carrier tone on the disc with no problem) things got bad, quickly. I remember when I cut the original DCC LUSH LIFE LP with Stan Ricker we were both dumbfounded at the wacky things the tape was doing to the machinery. Today brought it all back. Oh, we finally "got it", but it was tough! Love that Neumann SX-74 though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolff Posted September 28, 2003 Report Share Posted September 28, 2003 (edited) Great, thanks. I guess he his remastering Lush Life for Acoustic Sounds 45rpm LP's. I have the DCC he did. How about this comment? "Yes, we are trying to figure out what the hell is happening to the cutting amps. Stan figured that Van Gelder sabotaged his tapes so that no one else could cut them but him, heh" Ricker's work on the Blue Note mono titles is great. I guess he learned something. I'd like to see Hoffman do some. Edited September 28, 2003 by wolff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDK Posted September 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2003 There're a few more comments about this on the Hoffman forum since this was posted last week. What I find really interesting about this is the idea that Rudy was probably unaware that this errant tone was even on the old tapes and that it wasn't a big deal at the time since the old record cutting technology didn't even recognize it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrdlu Posted September 29, 2003 Report Share Posted September 29, 2003 I wonder if this affects the CD mastering process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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