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Features
Analogplanet Visits London's Electric Mastering
Michael Fremer  |  May 25, 2013  |  6 comments
After the Munich High End Show I went to the U.K. on some other business and while there paid a visit to Electric Mastering, the parent company of reissue label The Electric Recording Co.
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Features
A Kensington Garden Run
Michael Fremer  |  May 19, 2013  |  4 comments
While in the U.K. last week I took a run in the famous Kensington Gardens with the GoPro on my head.
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Features
TAD's Andrew Jones Designs Surprising Sounding Budget Speakers For Pioneer (Pricing corrected)
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 24, 2013  |  24 comments
A young reader inherited a turntable and asked about a modestly priced system he could assemble around it. We know where this will lead and we can all cheer him on, mindful of the fun and fetishing to follow. And we can all sympathize with his bank account—assuming he has one!

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Features
Win a Blu-ray Copy of "Paul Simon Live In New York City" (Contest Cancelled)
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 30, 2012  |  6 comments
We have a copy to give away of Paul Simon's new concert Blu-ray disc "Live in New York City," courtesy Concord Music. WARNING: It will not play on your turntable!
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Features
From an Analog Corner to an Analog Planet!
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 01, 2012  |  9 comments
My feelings about CDs were expressed early and often. Here with VPI's Harry Weisfeld. It’s a nerdy question, but do you remember where you were when you heard your first Compact Disc? For me it was at a Los Angeles Audio Engineering Society convention in 1982.

I’m neither a recording engineer nor an AES member. My invitation was courtesy the head of the sound department at Walt Disney, where I was then supervising the soundtrack to the movie TRON.”

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Features
Saxophone Colossus Remains a Towering Presence
Roger Hahn  |  Dec 31, 2011  |  2 comments

Editor’s note: Sonny Rollins, the last of the pioneering bebop giants and a seminal figure in modern jazz throughout the second half of the 20th century, has entered his ninth decade still blowing full force.

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Features
Audio Fidelity Gets CS&N Off the Couch and Into Your Room
Randy Wells  |  Dec 31, 2011  |  1 comments

The day I learned Steve Hoffman was going to re-master Crosby, Stills & Nash for an Audio Fidelity gold CD edition turned out to be the same day he actually did it. I found out early enough in the day to secure an invitation to Marsh Mastering in Los Angeles, and because I happened to be staying with friends that day only an hour away, managed to arrive in time to witness the entire session. CS&N has been a favorite since I was a teen, so for me, this was like winning the lottery.

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Features
We'll Get It Wrong In The Mix
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 31, 2010  |  0 comments
I wrote this article, originally published in Music Connection magazine, back in 1985 after becoming increasingly disgusted with and alarmed by the deteriorating sonic quality of new releases from familiar artists. Little did I realize then that 1985 was a 'golden age' of good sound compared to what most pop and rock recordings sound like in 2008! I remain grateful to editor Bud Scoppa for giving me the platform to spout a then unpopular view in a magazine read by Los Angeles engineers, artists and music business executives.

When The Absolute Sound's Harry Pearson announced he was looking for a new popular music editor, I applied for the job by sending him this article. He liked it enough to give me the job. That gave me an ideal platform from which to advocate saving the vinyl record and extolling its unique set of virtues, sonic and otherwise.

Watching the LP section at the huge Tower Records on Sunset shrink by the week, never did I imagine that in 2008 the LP would be back and Tower would be gone. —Michael Fremer, 1/15/08

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Features
The Beatles Remasters: A Splendid Time Is Guaranteed For Most
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 31, 2010  |  0 comments

How bad were the original Beatles CDs issued back in 1987? So bad that even the clueless conditioned to believe that CDs represented an automatic sonic step up from vinyl noticed something was terribly wrong.

Amusing to some observers was the nature of the complaints: “they sound tinny,” “they sound flat,” “they sound thin and bright,” “they’re harsh and edgy,” “where’s the warmth?” etc.

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Features
Think Too Much: The S&G Album That Wasn't
Robin Platts  |  Dec 31, 2010  |  0 comments

August 22, 1983. A packed concert at the newly constructed BC Place stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are halfway through a set on the last leg of their North American tour, billed as “A Summer Night with Simon and Garfunkel.

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Features
New Pressing Plant Opens in Cleveland
Keith Benson  |  Jul 31, 2010  |  0 comments

Cleveland’s newest, and so far only vinyl pressing plant is open for business. Gotta Groove Records seeks to inject more life into two supposedly dormant entities: vinyl records and the city of Cleveland. While the latter has certainly had its troubles, the LP market continues to grow as young buyers discover its superiority over other formats.

Gotta Groove’s owner, Vince Slusarz, had always been into plastics (though it’s unclear how much of a role “The Graduate” played in his career).

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Features
A Virtual Tour of the PortalSpaceRecords Pressing Plant
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  0 comments
All that's left of the original Hayes-Middlesex EMI record manufacturing facility is the landmark smokestack shown in the top photo.The current PortalSpace pressing plant resides in the buildings shown on the left of the second photo.The third photo shows the busy PortalSpaceRecords loading dock.

Once inside, you come upon the packing department, where on the day of my visit, I found workers placing George Harrison's Living In The Material World LPs into jackets. The finished package is then shrinkwrapped and boxed for worldwide shipment.

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Features
Long-Awaited The Doors Vinyl Box From Rhino Arrives
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  1 comments
The long awaited faux lizard skin clad, seven 180g LP The Doors box set has finally arrived, two years late, at a higher than originally announced cost, and for now (May, 2008), in very short supply.
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Features
The Doors and The Elektra Records Sound Part 2
Matthew Greenwald  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  0 comments

MG: Jumping back into some old groups that you recorded, Brazil 66....

BB: I really loved that time. That was for Herb Alpert, who was the producer. I prefer Brazil 66, the first album, over Equinox, sonically, because that was another case where it was done on four-track, tube all the way. Also the fact that it was all new to us and it was a big sound, I really liked it.

MG: Was that done at Gold Star Studios?

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Features
New Orleans Music Festival Turns 40 Part 1
Roger Hahn  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  0 comments

Our Man in New Orleans, Roger Hahn reports from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 2009. You'll think you went!

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