Bob James-Earl Klugh_One On One_VinylRip_FLAC

General Information

Type.................: Music (Redbook CD tracks made from 12" LP vinyl record).
Part Size............: 20,971,520 bytes
Number of Parts......: 8
Compression Format...: FLAC (de-compress to .wav before burning to CD!)
File Validation......: SFV

Artist...............: Bob James & Earl Klugh
Album................: One On One
Year.................: 1979 Tappan Zee Records
Genre................: Jazz
Type.................: 44.1kHz/16bit
Duration.............: 35:14
Number of Songs......: 6
Cover(s) Included....: yes (1)

Post Information

Posted by............: vinylnut
Posted on............: 4/1/2014

Notes

These 4416 tracks sound better than most 9624 tracks I have heard.
The sound is wide, open and engaging, not brittle. In part, this is due to the
nature of the low-output moving coil cartridge- a sound that MM type carts cannot
hope to achieve. Additionally, my restoration procedure may be unique. See below:

PROCEDURE:
All records are first thoroughly cleaned. A pink-noise track on a test record
is recorded in Sound Forge Pro 10, and a Behringer Ultra-Curve 24bit dual DSP
31-band  constant Q mainframe is used to compensate for the tonal coloration of
the  tonearm/cartridge combination, bringing the frequency response to perfectly
flat +/-0.5db from 25-20,000 Hz. Everything below 25Hz is rolled off at 18db/octave.
There is not a tonearm/cartridge made at any cost that has this  perfectly flat
response. Therefore, your multi-thousand dollar phono pre-amp is only reproducing
the color spectrum of your TT/tonearm/cart combination. Furthermore, you may spend
10 or $15k on a cartridge and still not have flat frequency response! As an example,
most low-output MC carts have a frequency spike on the high end. Some carts are
woefully lacking in the bass register, others are more pronounced, etc. As far as I
know, my hardware setup is something which has never been tried before. High sample
rates have never been shown to improve the sound of any music, and I certainly don't
see an improvement. Therefore I record at 44/24. Most recording engineers will record
a project at whatever sample rate the finished product is going to be at! What does
this tell you? I personally have many hdtracks albums that sound pitiful when
compared to the 44/16 tracks I offer to you here, and I think we all have CDs that
sound so good they just blow the average hdtrack out of the water. Sound engineers
know that the quality of the input signal and mastering tools are the most important
factors in determining the "listenability" of the final product.

HARDWARE:
Turntable: Sota Star Sapphire (vacuum hold-down). The Star Sapphire uses a 17lb
platter, under which is an inverted bearing that consists of a sapphire thrust
plate and zirconium ball. The clamping action of the vacuum holding the record to
the platter causes the stylus to "see" each record as a 17lb chunk of vinyl, and
every record plays absolutely 100% flat on the platter.
Tonearm: SME V, using no damping whatsoever.
Cartridge: AT OC9ml/II, at 1.75 grams. Pre-amp: Yamaha CX-1, loaded to 20 ohms.

SOFTWARE:
The master file is recorded at 44.1kHz/24bit in Sound Forge Pro 10, using an ESI
Juli@ soundcard (not a typo, it's really Juli@) with +4dBm balanced ins & outs.
Waves X-click, X-crackle, X-hum, and X-noise plug-ins are used to make these files
as quiet as CD tracks. The transparency and  clarity of Waves plug-ins is astounding,
to say the least. However, since the  source is vinyl you may hear (rarely) a click
or a noise that has been missed during restoration. Most of my records are quiet
enough that I just let the software run on automatic most of the time. After
noise reduction the Waves L-1 Ultramaximizer is used to bring the level of the
whole sound file up a couple of decibels. The L-1 is a world-renowned look-ahead
peak limiter, which, as with all the Waves software I have used, is astonishingly
clear and  transparent.