How were masters protected before digital?
On Jun 27, 8:37 pm, Marc Wielage wrote:
On Jun 27, 2007, commented:
EMI did not use noise-reduction on the Beatles tapes.
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Not during the original sessions, no. Dolby A NR started in 1966, but for
whatever reason, it wasn't used often at EMI until the late 1960s (and never
on a Beatles session, as far as I know).
But as far as computerized noise cleanup processing goes, EMI has used either
NoNoise or CEDAR for some of the remastered 1990s CD reissues, particularly
the "The Beatles: 1962-1966" and "The Beatles: 1967-1970" boxed sets, plus
the "Yellow Submarine Soundtrack," among others.
Fans have a mixed reaction to NoNoise, some citing artifacts and a loss of
ambience (particularly in some of George Harrison's and John Lennon's solo
albums on CD).
--MFW
Point taken, but beyond the official releases you mentioned, I also
reference some of the unofficial or bootleg releases, such as
Sessions, Ultra Rare Trax, Back Track, Unsupassed Masters and the John
Barrett Tapes. Of these, only Sessions was likely to have used
NoNoise. URT, BT and UM apparently came from "liberated copies" (and
possibly a pilfered session tape), and the Barrett Tape came from
cassette copies. I am STILL amazed at how well they've stood up, even
without NR. There is a small amount of hiss, but the fidelity is
phenomenal for tapes of this vintage.
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