CBS Half Speeds? Digital?

Most of the CBS half speeds I’ve listened to have noticeable bass on them. It just seems like the same interview with Greg S. from the 80’s at MOFI has been parroted over and over again on the internet: ’CBS didn’t adjust the EQ and drop it down an octave." By the tone of the interview, it certainly seemed like this guy at MOFI was peeved with CBS, and certainly had reason to malign the series. Of course, his observations may have also been spot on. The half speed mastering process itself is lauded by some, while dismissed by others. My point is has there ever been anyone else that was involved in the record industry in the early 80’s (not affiliated with MOFI that lost potential sales because CBS did their own titles) that has confirmed there was in fact an EQ problem on some/and or all of the CBS releases? If there was, I can’t find any confirmation or evidence of it. It would be great to get some first hand information on this if it's out there.

I’ve collected a few (CBS) ^ throughout the decades. Never thought of them as a reference label.

addman27

CBS did not use ’virgin vinyl’ for these, just standard vinyl at their Terre Haute pressing plant.

I have only a few of the CBS half-speed releases, but here's what the insert sez from the Boston release RE 34188:

"CBS has developed a new compound that offers substantial advantages over earlier formulations. Noise has been reduced significantly over early premium compounds, which themselves were better than much of the vinyl used in the record industry today. The molding characteristics ... have been greatly improved ... The molding process has been extensively modified for Mastersound pressings ..."

Obviously this pressing is something other than "standard vinyl" and it sounds like it, too.

I just took out and re-read that in the insert. It also said that the Mastersound records used 12% more vinyl than standard pressings, so they were slightly different than standard records. When the insert stated: "CBS has developed a new compound that offers substantial advantages over earlier formulations." I assumed that their ’new compound’ was being used on all their vinyl pressings, but you’re right, the half-speeds don’t sound like standard vinyl. CBS didn’t need JVC super vinyl.

I’ve had some of these half speed titles for decades, and recently took them out and listed to them again and I got to say, I’m mostly impressed. It seems like a few people maligned the series and that's fine, but I’m not sure they were mastered incorrectly. CBS was the biggest record label in the world at that time, with some of the best talent and mastering engineers in the world. Half speed mastering was invented decades before MOFI started doing it. It’s very hard to believe that CBS didn’t do their research and screwed up the whole series, yet somehow got a few titles like "Wish You Were Here" and "Boston" right.

I'm with @addman27 , the CBS Half Speeds I own are mostly very good, some even exceptional (Bolling Suite for Jazz Flute with Galway is very much worth owning). I even am a fan of many of the Nautilus releases. All the CBS HS I own have the blue label, and also vinyl quality is very good.