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In Reply to: RE: Most MFSLs are cut at a lower volume-sadly posted by mspc on June 27, 2012 at 11:12:42
To the vinly is it's quietness. MoFi were not alone in being able to produce LPs as quiet as they did back in those days. I believe that Reference Recordings also had their LPs pressed at JVC Japan on Super Vinyl but I don't own any of these so someone else will have to chime in to verify this. Nautilus and some other speciality pressings used a very quiet vinyl as well.
There are some that perpetuate a rumor that MoFi used some sort of equalization boosting or some such nonsense. I own over 40 MoFis from that era and I also own the corresponding commercial pressings for a lot of those. I have played both the MoFi and the corresponding commercial pressings more than a handful of times and there is nothing in the way of boosting or cutting of any specific frequency that I can figure out.
What I can figure out is that MoFi did cut their lacquers at a lower level, most likely due to the fact they had an additional 3db of head room, due to the vinyl being used at JVC Japan. They also use less compression and peak limiting, again due to the fact they had more headroom.
Whatever they used they used less of it compared to commercial pressings. This sometimes worked in favor of MoFi and sometimes people didn't like the outcome. MoFi pressings sometimes sound less dynamic than commercial pressings. The word "dynamic" amuses me since the MoFi pressing is, in fact, much more dynamic. I think a better word might be "drive".
Whatever word you use, MoFi produced a pressing on better vinyl, that I believe was more faithful to the original stereo master tape. If you prefer the commercial pressing then it is probably due to the fact that the resulting product benefitted from whatever the mastering engineer did when they cut the lacquer.
MoFi did screw up. I have a copy of that abomination they did for Jethro Tull - Aqualung. I don't know if this was what they were handed to use (Aqualung had a few masters floating around due to the state of the original master) or they were somehow asked to do this, whatever it was the LP ended up with way too much bass energy and an opportunity was lost.
Producing LPs is as much an art form as a product of engineering. MoFi produced some damm fine art work and some things that didn't quite work out. All of them are collectors items and they are all damm fine pressings.
You can't ask much more from a record company.
Ed
PS The new MoFi is a damm good operation as well.
We don't shush around here!
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof
Follow Ups:
I don't think there is a 'rumor' about the EQ on the early MFSL product. Can't find the link but as I recall Stan Ricker himself stated he used the EQ because that is what they wanted. And my ears tell me many of titles had a fair amount of boost at the extreme. Some with like this others will not.
Some of the early MFSL records are fantastic. Some of them are turds. Like anything else. Listen to Steely Dan 'Aja' and tell me they did not use a huge amount of EQ boosting the frequency extremes. The thing is unlistenable. The standard ABC pressing simply smokes the MFSL version.
There are others.
When MFSL got it right they were a revelation like the bulk of the Beatles catalogue. When they got it wrong they were barking dogs. Every title must be evaluated on their own merit.
I actually find the second generation MFSL, once the original company got back into vinyl, to be far more consistent title-to-title than the original catalogue.
Hard to make a generalization about any labels product.
I have both MFSL Aja and the orginal ABC pressing. I'll make 24/96 WAVs of a track on that LP, match levels on the digital recordings, post it on my web site where everyone can get to it and be back.Aja is not my favorite Steely Dan LP so it gets little play but I'll drag it out for a test.
Ed
We don't shush around here!
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof
Edits: 06/29/12
nt
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read"
he might have talked about it in his long interview in positive feedback...i think the cardas site has the interview in three parts. i know in that interview he talks about the jvc super vinyl being harder than anything available in the US and jvc was where he met brad miller of mofi
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