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The Plangent Process playback system? Huh?

This from the Acoustic Sounds description of the upcoming box of the first seven Springsteen albums:

"Using the Plangent Process playback system, noted for its ability to correct pitch errors and other distortions in the magnetic tape, this is, hands down, the most detailed take on Springsteen's high-energy studio performances anywhere."

I've never heard of this Plangent thing. Does anyone know anything about it?

I'll be buying this box no matter -- I've long loved these records -- but would be absolutely thrilled if they were somehow made to actually sound, well, better than they used to. Even when I was spinning "Darkness on the Edge of Town" on a crappy little department store stereo back in the 1970s, I remember thinking that the record didn't sound so good. Growing up to a real system only confirmed that, and made me long for more. Here's hoping these remasters will give us what we've been missing all this time.

Thanks.

-- Howard
hodu
jamieh
3 posts
 
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Are you familiar with other kinds of distortion besides second and third harmonic? What about intermodulation distortion - sum and difference non-harmonically related sidebands caused by frequency modulation of the audio by the transport.

The Process fixes that - IM is on tape at levels that if it were a preamp or amp you'd s**tcan it, but because it's caused by the transport, and called and measured as "flutter" it's real hard for some folks to get their head around the idea --- an almost aggro backlash response to basic FM theory that's been around since dirt.
rja's avatar
rja
2,382 posts
 
IMO: The new Boss CD set sounds excellent. Not sure how much the Plangent system contributed to that but obviously it didn't hurt.
emrofsemanon's avatar
emrofsemanon
292 posts
 
"judder" is a sniglet or neologism [aka "portmanteau"] formed from 2 or more words being morphed together to form a novel word, such as "giant+enormous=GINORMOUS." in judder’s case it is a combo of shudder and jitter, describing for the first time the psychovisual phenom of flicker in 24 frame-per-second projected motion picture material esp. when further distorted by the telecine process lacking proper 3:2 pulldown. i myself can’t easily watch large-screen movies for that reason, i get a queasy feeling akin to seasickness, when i see that shake magnified a jillion times up there.
jafant's avatar
jafant
20,185 posts
 
I own several CDs mastered with the Plangent Process. All discs sound incredible.

Happy Listening!
thompsonkirk's avatar
thompsonkirk
1 posts
 
See article in July-Aug 2021 TAS!
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