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This past Saturday, vinyl mastering gurus Bernie Grundman and Ryan K. Smith, together with Acoustic Sounds founder and CEO Chad Kassem, joined Michael Ludwig of 45 RPM Audiophile on YouTube for an intriguing livestream event, during which they discussed a wide variety of topics, many (if not most!) of them analog-centric in nature.

“What we do every day is, we try to figure out how to make the best recording that can be mass-produced, and get it to the public,” noted Grundman at the outset of the discussion. “The only way you're really gonna know is by your ears. Your ears are gonna tell you the truth. . . . Nothing can measure [music] except for your ears.”

“Typically, we get them [i.e., Bernie and/or Ryan] the original analog master tape, because there’s only one original. Start with the best. Give them the best tool to work with,” outlined Kassem — in essence, laying out the M.O. we prefer to hear is being followed for vinyl releases.

“It’s also about getting closer to the original intent of the producers, the engineers, and the artists who made it,” added Smith. “When they walked out of the recording studio, they had tapes they deemed to be the best of what they did to deliver off to mastering. Anything that gets copied or duplicated beyond that is going to lose something from what they heard on the day that they said, ‘This is done.’”

These telling statements are but a taste of the broad range of topics covered by Grundman, Smith, and Kassem during the livestream, which lasted for 2 hours and 25 minutes all told. It's all worthwhile to watch, listen to, and learn more about the processes these experts follow when they’re working on the vinyl we ultimately decide to pay good money for and put on our turntables.

Rather than me giving away any more of what they’ve said, you can check out the entire discussion here, then feel free to share your thoughts about all that was discussed in the Comments section below.