Spinning Today - What Are You Listening To Right Now? (Part 4)

[rmcin626]

[Dom66]

[Macca]

Classic, I've not listened to that in a long, long time. I'll have to get the CD.

[Macca]

1984 CD release - since found out that it is the supposedly rare Steve Hoffman mastering, only 5000 were pressed and 4000 recalled.

It has the correct barcode number and MCA catalogue number anyway. The 'official' 1984 release was mastered by Roger Nicholls.

''According to Nichols and ICE magazine, in either 1981 or 1982, Nichols transferred all of the Steely Dan master tapes to Scotch 3M digital tape, with the intention that these digital flat transfers, not the original analog masters (which Nichols later said “were in terrible shape, due to improper storage, and had poor fidelity”), would be used for subsequent CD releases. (Notably, the master tape for the b-side of Aja could not be found, and a tape copy was used for the digital transfer.) ''

''According to mastering engineer Steve Hoffman, when it came time to master Aja for its first CD release, Hoffman mastered it at Bruce Botnick’s Digital Magnetics studio in Hollywood from the original analog tape, not Nichols’s digital transfer.

According to Hoffman, the Aja master tape “sounded quite dull” and had a “midrange suckout problem,” which he attributed to it being mixed on horn speakers that exaggerated the midrange. So, Hoffman’s mastering “fill[ed] in the midrange hole” by boosting the mids a bit, but was otherwise a flat transfer of the analog master.''

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/the-b...%99s-aja-r772/

[Barry]

I have Aja on vinyl - sounds OK to me.

Some Scotch 3M tape has since been discovered to have deteriorated badly ("sticky-shed" syndrome), so I don't know what they would use for future remasters etc.

[Macca]

I have Aja on vinyl - sounds OK to me.

Some Scotch 3M tape has since been discovered to have deteriorated badly ("sticky-shed" syndrome), so I don't know what they would use for future remasters etc.

The beauty of digital is that it's an exact copy. There's no distinction between the CD and the master it is made from.

[Barry]

Agreed - but what is the master stored on?

[Macca]

Agreed - but what is the master stored on?

There's at least 7 different masters according to the article I linked to. All are now on CD, SACD or streaming. So multiple formats and servers.

[Idlewithnodrive]

[Idlewithnodrive]