MoFi controversy

I think the bottom line is that the vast majority of studios are all digital.  And almost all remasters (and wow have they improved some classic rock!) are performed digitally.  So all they will have to work with, are 24 bit/96-192 ksps masters.

Now i think this is a good thing.  There is ample evidence that digititis is not actually a fault of the digital process, but of lousy implementations, errors, etc.

As to why one would want an analog rendition of a digital original - aside from the cuddly reasons, some may like analog artifacts the same way many like tube artifacts.

I see nothing wrong with this.

A friend of mine, who cuts lacquers with a Neumann VMS 80, has explained to me in the past that it is much more difficult to get a good cut with an all analog master tape than a digital one.  Most lathes preview the a digital file which allows the lathe to cut within its safe parameters. All analog cuts that turn out great might be "minor miracles".  I'm sure @atmasphere can explain the preview process better. 

  Good luck finding any vinyl (from the last 10? 15? years) that wasn't pressed from an original digital master. I'm sure someone, somewhere, is still using tape but they would be the rare exception proving the rule.

Most lathes preview the a digital file which allows the lathe to cut within its safe parameters. All analog cuts that turn out great might be "minor miracles".  I'm sure @atmasphere can explain the preview process better. 

The preview process is simply looking for the quiet and loud spots so you can speed up the lead screws that drive the cutter head so as to prevent over-cutting (overwriteing a prior groove) and also so as to take advantage of space that is possible when the music is quiet.

The 'preview' can be done several ways. One way if you have a reel to reel machine is to place a tape head about 2 seconds upstream from the playback head- this head is often referred to as a 'digital preview' head because its output is used to digitally create the correct speed for the motor driving the lead screws. The Compucut system made in the 1980s used this technique.

You can also create speed information by playing the project first and then playing the speed file back while synchronized with the actual audio. That is the technique we used.

There are other techniques as well.

The reason its harder to do an analog master tape is the tape does not have normalization like is often found with digital source files. Its important to understand that an LP mastering lathe is almost impossible to overload. IOW the cutter head can easily cut grooves that no cartridge has a hope of tracking. So you have to be careful to not exceed playback limits. Especially if you are not using compressors or limiters this can be tricky and may require a bit of engineering time working with the project doing test cuts to see how problem areas work out.

@atmasphere Thank you for the post.  I learned something today.

@sns I agree with you related to Mofi's "questionable" marketing where the expectation is established that their customers are going to incorrectly "connect the dots" and assume their analog product is "pure" analog.

I've developed a term I call "Factually Correct, Intellectually Dishonest Reporting", or "True Lies". Simply stated, if there is some factual information in a statement, the broad consensus is that the presenter is not technically "lying" even though information can be taken out if context, other relevant information excluded, or quote "others" statements as fact without verifying the information to be true or false.  Political pundits are masters at this.  It's called "propaganda."

In Mofi's case, their statements are, in fact, "True Lies" in that they omitted relevant information that should have provided "informed consent" to their customers.   Such as: "These are hybrid recordings". This is covertly manipulative and, yes, intellectually dishonest.