keskiviikko 1. marraskuuta 2017 12.07.07 UTC+2 Jim Lesurf kirjoitti:

Following the success of the "Decca Sound" CD box sets a few years ago
they
also released a box of the "Phase Four" recordings. Having listened to
them, what struck me was that the recordings D'Amato were credited with
were louder and more distorted than the recordings made by others. So
overall the results varied from 'spectacular' to 'awful'.

That said, I confess I had similar reactions to some of the "Living
Presence" CDs. Although there in some cases, from measurements, I'm not
sure to what extent the clipping was during transfer to CD or of the tape
machines.

Tony D'Amato, whom I knew well, was trying to make the loudest and most
spectacular MOR recordings available at that time. He was an excellent orchestral producer. He used to set up a music stand above the bridge of the console facing the engineer, where he could see the stereo meter pair, and give every cue with great clarity. So as an engineer you knew exactly what was going on in the piece without having to even glance at your own score.

His exaggerated "fortissimo" and "sforzsando" meant that the engineer responding to them was in danger of driving the tape into distortion. So Decca engineers used to align the stereo master recorder 4dB "hot" on replay, and turn the record level down by a similar amount, So that the peak
levels would appear to be the same. Mr D'Amato soon got wise to this :-)

Interestingly on Phase Four classical sessions, and on sessions with the Ted Heath Orchestra, Edmundo Ros, Frank Chacksfield, Stanley Black etc, his quest for high levels was not so much in evidence. But the "spectacular" productions had to be loud.

Iain