Where no better remasterings of the best US or UK remastering labels (or from some overseas who contract engineers in the US) exist, many of the SHM are probably some of the next best versions. And that’s probably not because those US or UK based studios really master directly from the tapes. And that’s where I say…the SHM masterings in my experience usually can’t compare with those done by the big names in the US or UK (Abbey road studios etc.). Simply because (aside of losses within the digital copy processes, which will probably be much less for SHM products than ordinary CD’s) the skill and equiment of the mastering engineer plays a much bigger role. There may be SHM discs with great sound, even if they were not mastered directly from the analog tapes but from DSD master copies, it’s not that relevant. This just isn’t a quality batch, as we all know how crappy most (usual CD reissues) sound. Not many from DSD copies as the SHM, but from redbook copies. I don’t see the real benefit of a statement like on the SHM discs in the digital world because practically all CD’s are somehow from digital copies of original masters. This goes in the direction of what ELK said with " They are manufactured from already existing digital masters": Why? Probably due to his better mastering equipment and skill.Ĭonclusion: mastering (the DSD master or whatever source) matters most, even if it’s a straight, untweaked transfer. But very easy to make all your libary set to same volume output and you can also change bitrade easily between mp3 files or make them to waves. Anyway it will sound far inferior to a remastering of Kevin Gray for Analogue Productions also done from the original analog tapes for SACD. If I would choose any program to re-encode music files, it would be platinum notes (not for free). Better than the SHM, this was indeed mastered for SACD at Fantasy studios from the analog tapes (not even from DSD master copies).
![platinum notes mastering platinum notes mastering](https://www.musicandvideo.it/inc/catalog/image_thumb.php?bg=ffffff&w=770&h=770&img=http:%2F%2Fadmin.abc.sm%2Fupload%2F4952%2Fcatalogodinamico%2Fprodotti%2Fimg_737871_152053limhd023.jpg)
![platinum notes mastering platinum notes mastering](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cb/a7/1b/cba71bf75ca90114bae3ab0197e8d2bf.jpg)
So the statements made above on the SHM discs are still “true”…they used DSD masters which made use of the analog tapes…but this must be a 2nd generation digital copy of the original analog master if my conclusions above are right.įinally all that isn’t that relevant it seems.Ĭompare a Jazz SACD of a Riverside or any other album from the Fantasy label group, which was done at Fantasy studios usually mastered by Joe Tarrantino. They for sure didn’t send this one DSD file or disc overseas, but a copy. the Stones were not recorded to DSD at the time, I can only imagine, that the big record labels make a DSD copy of the analog mastertapes for the vaults and to base some digital releases on in a simplified process compared to mastering from analog tapes directly (also for safety reasons to not only depend on the analog tapes for the upcoming years). When they speak of “using the DSD master based on the original analog tape” and “DSD remastering using original master tapes”, they seem to say that digital dupes of the DSD master (which is the digital copy of the analog mastertape) were sent overseas.Īs e.g. Thanks for this link! And I think there’s a point where we probably meet: