I just wanted to thank you for your fervent passion to keep vinyl alive in these digital times. I have been a big fan of Analog Planet since my early years of collecting. I am 17 years old now but I have been collecting vinyl since I was 12. My first time stepping into a record store was a monumental experience that will always be a watershed moment in my life. It also became my college essay (trying to convert the admissions offices).
Recorded music comes to us pressed in plastic and frozen in time. The work leading up to the master often gets lost, tossed or erased and recorded over without a thought that it might be of interest to anyone. That’s most often true. Alternate takes, when they do surface, usually make clear why they were passed over in favor of the one programmed into your brain, though there are exceptions.
Our friend Lux, who we recently interviewed was record shopping at Mill Valley Music when he ran into Martha Reeves who was there doing the same thing. The Motown fan and Ms. Reeves hit it off big time!
Today’s show was all Beatles from vinyl but with a “nerdy” twist (I guess we’re all nerds). For some tunes you get multiple versions to compare. For instance there are four versions of “I’ll Cry Instead”.
About a decade ago my friend and fellow audio writer Ken Kessler flew over from the U.K. to review the Continuum Caliburn turntable. At the end of a day’s listening it occurred to me that I had on hand not one but two “record demagnetizers"—both in unopened boxes. One was from Furutech, the other from Acoustic Revive.
Here's the first side of the Classic Records reissue of The Royal Ballet with Ernest Ansermet conducting the Royal Opera House Orchestra. This was recorded in famed Kingsway Hall in 1957 for the British Decca Record company and licensed to RCA for sale in America.
Here are two hours of vinyl-created Christmas music for you to play and share with your loved ones, curated and hosted by Analogplanet editor Michael Fremer.
Personal effects belonging to the late Harry Pearson, founder of The Absolute Sound—and it can be argued the modern high performance audio industry, are currently being auctioned on Audiogon and Ebay.
A recent sales blurb from UMe's "The Sound of Vinyl" website reads:
"Using the original analog master tapes this artisan process results in cuts that have superior high frequency response (treble) and very solid and stable stereo images. In short, a very high quality master that helps to create a very high quality record."