Revitalized legacy audio you can feel.
Revitalized legacy audio you can feel.
Introducing the ‘Reference Transfer Station 2.0’ featuring the Technics SL-1000RE-S.
"It all starts here. Because it has to."
Coming in 2025!
When everything comes together...
“It’s a Fresh Vintage Sound.”
Not every legacy recording was tailor-made for the vinyl medium but many were and it is our job to find them.
And then you have those legacy vinyl pressings where, in addition, everything just came together during that incredible era of post-production to create something truly special in sound. These can become something extraordinary especially when given the right treatment(s).
And finally, you have those rare occasions where you discover the actual ‘true master’ of a legacy recording (or at least what should have been) only found on the master disc cut.
All have something in common - they deserve to be heard.
For example, here are six samples taken from six very special-select legacy pressings:
It’s audio with impact, audio you can feel.
And so as it goes, the above audio samples are from the exact type legacy pressings that we seek out. And there are many of them. In fact, it appears more than not. But more importantly, once found, we believe it is time to officially designate them (by the industry), a ‘Legacy Vinyl Master’ to be ‘set aside’ forever for a vital purpose because of the potential that lies within. Read on………
And so it’s time to get re-acquainted with them in this powerful new era of digitized vinyl translations that within itself, can create something quite astounding in sound. But the work doesn’t stop there. We need the help of our prolific analog mastering engineers to ‘do it right’ and ‘finish the job’, so to speak, to be able to fully realize their full potential. We’ve done all the legwork with some light post processing to get it this far and by partnering with the big studios, these newly digitized legacy vinyl translations can then be put to good use and add value to the mainstream market of the legacy audio industry as a whole. In other words, we would love to see the legacy audio industry re-energized and transformed and so part of that involves what we can provide. And you’ll find some of them we have prepared on our Audio Portfolio page.
Get to know them again “the way they were meant to be heard” and now, highly accessible and revitalized for a fresh, new listen in order to ‘live and breathe’ again in the digital age and then……..”consider the possibilities.”
Serving to help fill a vital need in today's legacy audio post-production environment.
From new ideas come new solutions....
“Can mastering studios working on legacy audio projects today benefit from vinyl-sourced audio?”
“Can today’s mainstream reissued legacy vinyl sound like it once did?”
“Is it time to start talking about officially designating “The Vinyl Master”?”
Translating vinyl-to-digital today is not what it used to be. It has moved to a whole new level and is now good enough to be included in today’s legacy recording conversion conversations.
It is both a specialty and oddity craft that demands a high degree of special attention and specialization that falls outside anything normal in audio post-production.
Your journey to the Audio Portfolio page starts here.
The Transfer Stations A-to-D World Class Converter - The Prism Sound ADA8XR
Coming in 2025!
“…….that sweet analog sound.”
Can digital sound analog? Yes, if mastered properly……….
Notable Quotable….Quotes
…….”It’s Audio You Can Feel”……
“Feel the impact......hear the audio purity.”
In fact, the legacy sound characteristics of the studio exudes immense clarity, analog warmth and impact. In addition, it is also rich in texture and detail, lush at times, and oft times, delivers quite an impactful ‘wallop’ drawing from those rich embellishments laid down in the disc groove years ago and that helps make for an engaging listen. And finally, it is a very organic and proper sound that just so happens to be a sound that is very natural to the human ear. Further, the sound is a direct digital derivative of this, oft times, very profound analog sound otherwise known as the ‘master cut-to-disc’ sound that was originally(and intentionally) crafted specifically for what turned out to be the very controlled environment of a grooved disc that contained extremely tight thresholds that had to be adhered to.
And so now, since technology allows us to exploit this sound to its fullest, finding the right special-select legacy pressing of this very same, specially crafted and engineered, master cut-to-disc sound of a legacy recording becomes all the more critical. And it takes a high degree of specialization from a studio that knows how to find and recognize it when it is located. Once found, these special-select legacy pressings should be forever marked and declared ‘masters’ by the industry and preserved accordingly. We think we’ve more than made the case and so it is up to those individuals in the industry to recognize it for what it is and take appropriate action where needed.
It bears repeating that this was not just any sound that was engineered at an unprecedented time but, in fact, it was a very special sound that come along at the right time when multiple industries came together for the first time(something that is miraculous by itself) to produce it during this incredible and prolific era of music production and reproduction unseen since.
And as a result, we now recognize the era as far exceeding anyone’s expectations at the time and it remains to this day unprecedented in terms of what was achieved. And so on top of all of that, to think that today we are still peeling back these levels of complexity and uncovering more of the totality and fullness of this special sound to be made accessible in today’s digital age. And this studio believes the time is now for this sound to re-emerge, only now even better because of what digital technology can do with it. And so the studio is poised and positioned to take advantage and excited to see what the future holds for it.
“Because working from the right pressing matters.”
…….”Connecting With The Music”……
“Shouldn't all our digitized legacy recordings sound this way in today's digital age of mainstream legacy music?“
Achieving true and proper, high fidelity sound, digitally, from special-select, original legacy pressings. A sound that we seem to connect with the best - the master cut-to-disc sound. In fact, the sound is so agreeable and a ‘natural fit’ to our human ears and it seems to check all the boxes, now that technology affords it to be professionally produced this way.
…….”The Total Digital Conversion Equation”……
“Could it be that digitally converting from just the master tape of a legacy recording is only part of the ‘total digital conversion equation’”?
This really applies to the use of these digital translations from an alternative source to be used for Referencing purposes by the studios when performing their legacy recording conversions as a ‘checks and balance’ measure, more than anything. Since mastering engineers perform referencing tasks as part of a conversion process, to have these readily accessible for comparison as well, would only add value.
A thorough comparative/analytical critical listening experiment as part of a semester senior project in college shed some light on why it could add value to include them. In addition, the studio recently spent an entire year examining the original master cut-to-disc sound from the legacy era and then fine tuning the studio. It was a massive undertaking that involved procuring several hundred, carefully chosen, special-select legacy pressings and singling out the ones that had ‘the most to give’ in order to then have them run through the studio. The results were then compiled and used to not only get a better handle on the legacy sound itself but also to fine tune the various pieces and parts of the post-production process of the studio in order to get the most out of ‘the potential that lies within’.
…….”The Potential That Lies Within”……
This studio(and others like it) has the potential to help the big studios produce what can serve to re-energize the mainstream digital legacy market when it comes to digitally converting our treasured legacy recordings. And so when we start talking about the potential that lies within, words such as ‘transformative and re-energize’ start to enter the conversation. And as already pointed out, the evidence seems to suggest the same. And we are relying on our incredible mastering engineers to finish the legwork we provide for them.
…….”Hearing Is Believing”……
One sure way to do that is to spend a few minutes on the studio’s audio portfolio page and then listen to the various audio selections. You’ll be glad you did.
Studio Owner and Legacy Sound Craftsman, Jeff Brown