DID MFSL' have a Digitalgate 1.0 back in 1981? Is Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits digital? DSOM master recorded over with a SuperTramp song? MFSL Beatles box set more then 25,000? Find out. Link to the article I referenced: web.archive.or...
Hopefully you did your research & checked the source. A good idea would be to contact Kevin Gray, he cut the 2003 DSOTM reissues from the original master tapes?
Makes me wonder what else they might have done this type of work on back then? Obviously, and besides the MoFi people, nobody ever knew about it or could tell. So it didn't really make any big difference it seems. But it does make me wonder if they did something like this on their 1982 pressing of Journey's 1981 Escape album or many of the other albums they did back then 🤔 I've always wanted to find a copy of that Journey album but people charge ridiculous prices for it (like $1,500 to $3000). It'd be kind of funny to spend that kind of money and then find out it was digitally remastered or cut. Not to say I would ever come close to paying that kind of ridiculous money for the album either 🙂 Brian in Fort Worth 🎶
Very interesting. I recently acquired this Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits Mofi. I think it sounds really great to be honest. It doesn’t sound digital to me!
It was openly admitted at the time But they dubbed the original master tapes at half speed to digital 44k and cut the lp at half speed from the 44k tape, hence them claiming that at full speed it was like 88k digital I think even Greg Schnitzer mentioned it in one of his interviews
Not laziness. I guess they are just not reputable or trustworthy enough for labels to let them or their mastering/cutting engineers have the original master tapes to work with at their premises. Others like AP, Impex, … and their cooperation with BG, KG, RKS, … have that trust.
When was Kenny Rogers on A&M? That hits set was from Liberty Records, which soon folded and was handled by Capitol/EMI, then he signed a record contract with RCA (breaking a then-huge contract they just signed with Diana Ross, who left Motown after an then-ugly fallout with Motown) and his career remained very strong with more huge hits, tours and more classics. Guess the Blu-ray Audio and SA0-CD DARK SIDE releases are form that MOFI version?
@stevewestman7774 steve I just noticed Rhino has the ZZ Top box set records on sale individually, great move by Rhino they have been killing it lately
In fairness to MOFI, in 1980 or 1981 the transfer of individual analog tracks via a digital intermediary step to an analog medium (vinyl LP) would probably have been hailed as sonic wizardry. Digital recording and mastering were still quite new to most music consumers at that time, and widely seen as a step in the right direction away from noisy vinyl and shite pressings. That's not to diminish the importance of transparency, but the now widespread obsession with AAA as a kind of sonic holy grail is relatively new.
I find it funny that about all the hysteria about this digital step MoFi uses. I own plenty of MoFi recordings and they sound wonderful! If you want to send all of your MoFi recordings back go ahead Mine sound great and I’ll be keeping mine A lot of this is unnecessary hysteria among audiophiles
Very interesting Steve. My interpretation of what he said about the Beatles albums was that there were 25,000 cut for the box sets. Because all the albums were also sold as single copies as well , then more were cut, probably bringing the total cut to 50,000 for each album. As for multiple copies of the low numbered box sets, didn't the same thing happen with the original Apple releases of 'The White Album'. It is rumoured that there were multiple copies of the range 1-10 .....
So interesting. Can you add a link to the original article. Seems like it’s less a digital caper and more of a way to push Sony into improving they’re technology sooner
Interesting sleuthing Steve. I think in the end…if they standup and sound good…. Who cares. All sorts of silliness occurred with tape and vinyl too. It’s a messy process to get from artist to your device in your home. Lots of trickery. I am ok with it…. As long as it sounds great to me. Most mofi sound excellent…. All mediums have problems. Those ticks that Allan mentioned is a great example. Without digital you couldn’t fix that. This is why we have many many pressings. Lots of people and different problem solving along the way. Fun stuff. Another thing to note is that the older PCM machines were not from these “chip” based PCM. The old ones like the Telarc sound stream….. actually sound like analog. Digital done right is pretty darn good
MoFi cassettes were "1 to 1 real time dubs" on Scotch chrome tapes. The BVH-1000 was a professional 1-inch helical scan videotape format used in television production. I believe the specs on the Sony PCM-1600 recorder were greater than the consumer oriented PCM-F1. On MoFi did releases a handful of music on pre-recorded VHS digital audio tapes and Panasonic had made a VHS player to play those tapes.
If it’s true that the Kenny Rogers album has a digital step then it sounds terrible. But if it isn’t true then it sounds great. Once I know for sure I can tell you definitively how the record sounds.
Now the cat is out of the bag, Mofi already “led people behind the spruce” over 40 years ago😂. Does that change anything? Do albums with a digital step now suddenly sound worse? If I spend a lot of money, then I want a very good sounding record. It doesn't matter how this is achieved. Most of the time, Mofi's sound has worked. So be happy about good sounding albums and stop whining. If you feel like shit😖, then just don't buy the stuff.
