General Asylum: RE: So was Wilma Cosart Fine lying? :-) by Mel General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

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Posted by Mel (A ) on May 24, 2023 at 14:12:14

In Reply to: So was Wilma Cosart Fine lying? :-) posted by Analog Scott on May 24, 2023 at 12:28:52:

"WCF: I had to prepare myself well and I had to note beforehand which passages needed small adjustments. Too much correction is not good. That would disturb the natural sound balance of the orchestra." I stand corrected. I didn't realize she did that.

"Also pretty sure George Piros had to set the groove pitch manually. Unless WCF is lying....

WCF: No, only one lacquer was cut. Of course things did go wrong sometimes. You know, the groove with a high level of dynamics need more space. It can be done by the cutting machine automatically. We did it manually. I would say to the technician who was cutting the lacquer: 'Here comes the loud passage' and he then varied the distance between the grooves."

Yes this is exactly what I said, what was "done 'on the fly' in the early days was the groove spacing for louder and softer passages." WCF retired in 1964 and MLP continued to release LPs through 1968.

Session tapes are created during the performance. Here they are 3 track. A master tape is generally understood to be a stereo tape made from the session tape. The mixing and "small adjustments" like WCF made are generally made upon the creation of the master. Mercury made master tapes for safe-keeping. As I wrote, they were used by Philips. The common practice for almost all other companies was to cut the lacquer from the master, rather than from the session tapes.

In any event we, Mercury recording devotees, have probably gone too deep here. As I said, my point was that in another arena 65 year old analog tapes are still bringing quality sound.

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