Magic and mystery of master tape

Lowrider,

I've had a few dozen older vintage tapes in the past, seen the 'sticky shed' and related issues, and after trying to mess with them I returned them to the seller as I realized that was not the part of the hobby I was prepared to deal with.

those tapes were likely recoverable by someone with the requisite patience, skills and tools. i'd rather just get the modern formulation dub from those efforts.

one problem is that the transports they were originally recorded on are not the most tape friendly. later master recorders had much advanced levels of tape handling.

i'm a plug and play kinda guy and the reality is that if you commit sufficient assets to tape it can be real world easy to use and sound superb.

Mike, i love the world of reel to reel. I worked in the studio, but must be a joy for you to have good gear and good quality sources at home.

Hi ZD542 - I guess the phrase 'close to master tape' normally attaches to sources, in the same way as one uses the term 'studio sound' for speakers.

So, as more high-res albums are offered for download, there seems to be a question regarding how high the resolution of the source can ever be. If master analog tapes were archived digitally, what was that resolution? Where's the weakest link in the album's history,especially the older ones?

you have a few different cases.

there are the 80's and 90's digitally recorded but mastered to tape examples. in this case, such as 'Famous Blue Raincoat', there is an analog master tape that is digitally sourced. the best example is going to be the artist approved analog tape. who knows how the digital work parts might compare?

then you have the digitally archived 50's, 60's and 70's recordings. no way to predict exactly what would be best. potentially no doubt that the original analog tapes would be best. and i'd expect finding a well preserved 'safety' would be the best possible source if the original master is damaged.

then there are the original analog masters that are still good enough. these are best. most of my tapes are from these or safeties sourced from these.

I have seen cases where the vinyl is the best source for a an original analog tape recording where the tape has been lost.

much has been written on this subject and i'm only scratching the surface on this issue.

Even mastertapes from the 1950's can sound great today, if they were stored properly. Witness the recent floods of jazz reissues.