| From: | Don Cox |
| Date: | 7 Aug 2000 at 11:13:23 |
| Subject: | Re: Fudge, No Recipe |
On 07-Aug-00, greenboy wrote:
>> The Mercury classical recordings are interesting because the
>> transfers are supervised by the original producer (widow of the
>> engineer) and no noise reduction is used. The best of them are
>> superb.
>
> Chances are this stuff was recorded at 30 IPS, where using noise
> reduction is easily more debatable. The bad thing about 30 inches per
> second is tape costs, and less low end then 15 or 7-1/2. But
> orchestras don't really need that kind of low end anyway. The better
> response elsewhere is a good tradeoff.
I don't know the speed. The tapes are three-track half-inch, but some of
the recordings are on 35mm magnetic film (as used for editing film
soundtracks), again 3 track. The film has a larger area, so less noise.
The 3 tracks were mixed down to two at the disc cutting stage, but
2-track masters were made at the same time. In some cases the original
3-track tapes are lost but the 2-track version survive.
Omnidirectional microphones were used rather than cardioids. I think
this helps.
Anyway, most of the Mercury CDs are great to listen to.
Regards
Quote carefully and read all ADMIN:README mails