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Bach Goldberg variations played by Glenn Gould analogue master

The 1981 recording of the Goldberg was released on CD and was all digital. I've listened to it for years.
this past week I purchased the vinyl release of the analogue safety tape. 
Its warmer and has more connective tissue than the CD. I hear more of the wooden sound board. It flows a bit better too and I can hear Gould singing in the background just like the digital recording. The silence between the notes seems more interesting too.  With the CD I hear more of the hammer hitting the strings. The CD has more focus on the attack of the piano which I find interesting as well. Both CD and vinyl have something to offer. The vinyl allows the very strong rhythmic pulse of Glenn Gould too breath a bit more than on the CD. 
I can also hear that the analogue tape was stored improperly- occasionally i can hear the bleed through of the next musical passage. Some tape speed variation can be heard as well. Overall it's a very nice record to have.




jetrexpro

Showing 1 response by bdp24

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bdp24
9,412 posts
 

"Improper storage" of master tapes refers to (at least) two different things:

1- The temperature and humidity of the room the tape is stored in. Major tape vaults (Capitol Records in Los Angeles for one) are climate controlled, being not too hot or cold, and with humidity not too high or low.

2- The tape is stored after being fast-forwarded or fast-rewinded, rather than at playing speed. The high speed forwarding and rewinding brings each layer of the tape into closer proximity to the next (because the tape is wound tighter), causing the magnetic signal to "bleed" from one layer to the next. If you hear a recording with pre or post "ghost-echoes" (I have), that is probably the cause. A tape that is in it’s middle at the end of a session is allowed to run at normal running speed (15 or 30 ips) to it’s end, the tape then being "tail out", and stored that way. That is why tapes are usually stored tail out, not for any other reason. The next time the tape is used for new recording it is rewound back to the beginning of it’s unrecorded portion.

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