Why not copy the greats- vinyl LP question

the business model is tough, look what happened to Classic…busted pressing unauthorized copies….

@lowrider57: The pertinent number is how many LP’s are pressed by each stamper. With each LP pressed, a stamper becomes a little more "worn". White hot stamper LP’s are those records made when a new stamper has been installed in the pressing machine. How many white hot stamper LP’s can one fresh stamper make? After how many LP’s are pressed does QRP change out a stamper?

I don’t know, but it’s a number lower than LP’s pressed at non-audiophile pressing plants, now or in the past. Records made by the major labels in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s may have used one stamper to make thousands of LP’s. The sound quality of the resulting records was in part a matter of how fresh the stamper was when any given LP was made.

But remember: those labels were NOT using the master tape as the source---they were using a "production" tape (also called a "safety" tape). That could be a copy of the 2-track master mixdown tape, or even a copy of a copy. Analogue Productions used the actual 3-track master tape of Kind Of Blue as the source for their new reissue of that Miles Davis album. Not a 2-track master mixdown tape, but the actual 3-track master. Bernie Grundman cut a lacquer mixing the 3-track master tape down to a 2-track mix, but without doing it to tape. He bypassed the step of making a 2-track master tape! I don’t care how fresh the stamper was that made a white hot stamper LP, it was still cut from a production copy of a 2-track mixdown tape.

Chad Kassem purchased all the Mastering Lab equipment after the passing of Doug Sax (maker of the legendary direct-2-disc Sheffield Records), and spent a lot of money building the Quality Record Pressing facility in Salina, Kansas. The presses are isolated from terra firma and from other vibration-producing machines (pumps, compressors, etc.). The complete pressing process is done with maximum quality in mind, including slower pressing and longer cooling time of the vinyl. The result is flat, quiet 180 gram LP’s. He has the jackets made by Stoughton Printing, long considered the best in the business. And every LP is slipped into a high quality poly sleeve. I consider $35 a fair price for such quality. 

@bdp24 
Thanks for that in-depth answer. And for including the info about "Kind of Blue"...fascinating.
Used AP releases on Ebay can fetch high prices. And a modern reissue from a major label costs the same as your $35 gem.

I've collected early and 1st issues so I'm aware of the  process. I have a pressing that has -1/-1 in the dead wax; 1st stamper, 1st run. But I learned it could mean I have pressing #1 or pressing #2000.

Exactly @lowrider57, the info in the dead wax gets one only so far. That info tells you nothing about when in a stampers lifespan the LP was made.

It was Chad Kassem and his team who made the startling discovery that all pressings of Cat Stevens’ Tea For The Tillerman album---including the original "pink label" Island LP---had been made assuming the master tape was Dolby-encoded. It wasn’t! The Analogue Productions version of that album---Dolby-free----provides a huge, dramatic improvement over all previous versions, including that by Mobile Fidelity.

Speaking of going back to multi track masters with digital mixing, I recently got a copy of Zappa's Roxy Performances, where Craig Parker Adams went back to the 16 track 30 IPS multi tracks, digitized at 24/96 and re-mixed (not sure of process,  I haven't read the below article yet)

The fidelity is outstanding, and far superior to any previous Roxy release.  Unfortunately it's only 16/44.1. but if enough people request a hi res Like I did, who knows.

Craig was nice enough to email me back, and mentioned he did very little cleanup wise, and he thinks he might not have even used compression!  If only all live recordings sounded like this one.  But it does speak to all the typical intermediates and generations used in LP process causing huge sonic loss.
https://www.soundonsound.com/people/craig-parker-adams-mixing-frank-zappa