Woochifer
06-10-2008, 01:51 PM
With the demise of DVD-A, Warner seems to be trying some new things to sell to the audiophile market.
I got the new album from Mudcrutch last week. In case you don't know, this is Tom Petty's original band, and it's their "debut" album. Altogether a very good album -- easily Tom Petty's best album since at least Full Moon Fever, if not all the way back to Long After Dark. Aside from Mudcrutch being a good album, it's also one of the better rock recordings I've heard in a while. Shouldn't be surprising considering that the album was recorded live-in-studio with live vocals and no overdubbing.
Well, one item of curiosity included with the CD is a flyer describing the upcoming LP version. This has all of the trappings of what's now increasingly common for LP releases -- double album, mastered at 45 RPM, gatefold packaging, and a list price of $30. The LP has become almost exclusively a niche market aimed at audiophiles.
But, the Mudcrutch LP release has one additional intriguing feature -- a bonus "full dynamic range" CD. They describe this CD as transferred from the same "uncompressed" master tape used to create the LP version. It also means that the "enhanced" CD was transferred at a lower level, while the regular CD obviously was dynamic range compressed to raise the average level.
It brings up some intriguing questions, like why do CDs have to be issued separately as "full dynamic range" versions, when all that they did was lower the transfer level? And why would an LP use an "uncompressed" master tape, when in fact the CD has a much wider dynamic range? I understand that direct metal mastering, 45 RPM mastering, and shorter sides can all raise the dynamic range that can go into a vinyl release. I guess that the common practice of compressing the dynamic range of an LP out of concern for mistracking has gone by the wayside, now that vinyl is no longer a mass market format?
Another interesting set of releases coming out is Warner's Metallica LP reissues. These will all be issued as 45 RPM double albums, half-speed mastered by Stan Ricker (of Mobile Fidelity), and issued on 180-gram vinyl. And Justice For All in particular will be a 4-LP set (I have the original DMM-plated release that crammed the entire 70+ minute album onto a single LP, which turned the levels WAY down).
Here's the link to Warner's audiophile website. Lot of other interesting releases. Looking through them, it seems that Warner has not yet settled on a single strategy to selling audiophile releases. Some of their audiophile releases are CD/DVD sets that include 96/24 PCM tracks on the DVD, others are plain LPs (selling for $17), others are the 45 RPM double albums ($30). Some releases include regular CDs with the LP, others are pressed on 200-gram vinyl.
http://www.becausesoundmatters.com
I got the new album from Mudcrutch last week. In case you don't know, this is Tom Petty's original band, and it's their "debut" album. Altogether a very good album -- easily Tom Petty's best album since at least Full Moon Fever, if not all the way back to Long After Dark. Aside from Mudcrutch being a good album, it's also one of the better rock recordings I've heard in a while. Shouldn't be surprising considering that the album was recorded live-in-studio with live vocals and no overdubbing.
Well, one item of curiosity included with the CD is a flyer describing the upcoming LP version. This has all of the trappings of what's now increasingly common for LP releases -- double album, mastered at 45 RPM, gatefold packaging, and a list price of $30. The LP has become almost exclusively a niche market aimed at audiophiles.
But, the Mudcrutch LP release has one additional intriguing feature -- a bonus "full dynamic range" CD. They describe this CD as transferred from the same "uncompressed" master tape used to create the LP version. It also means that the "enhanced" CD was transferred at a lower level, while the regular CD obviously was dynamic range compressed to raise the average level.
It brings up some intriguing questions, like why do CDs have to be issued separately as "full dynamic range" versions, when all that they did was lower the transfer level? And why would an LP use an "uncompressed" master tape, when in fact the CD has a much wider dynamic range? I understand that direct metal mastering, 45 RPM mastering, and shorter sides can all raise the dynamic range that can go into a vinyl release. I guess that the common practice of compressing the dynamic range of an LP out of concern for mistracking has gone by the wayside, now that vinyl is no longer a mass market format?
Another interesting set of releases coming out is Warner's Metallica LP reissues. These will all be issued as 45 RPM double albums, half-speed mastered by Stan Ricker (of Mobile Fidelity), and issued on 180-gram vinyl. And Justice For All in particular will be a 4-LP set (I have the original DMM-plated release that crammed the entire 70+ minute album onto a single LP, which turned the levels WAY down).
Here's the link to Warner's audiophile website. Lot of other interesting releases. Looking through them, it seems that Warner has not yet settled on a single strategy to selling audiophile releases. Some of their audiophile releases are CD/DVD sets that include 96/24 PCM tracks on the DVD, others are plain LPs (selling for $17), others are the 45 RPM double albums ($30). Some releases include regular CDs with the LP, others are pressed on 200-gram vinyl.
http://www.becausesoundmatters.com