🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <23843@clyde.ATT.COM>, gwu@clyde.ATT.COM (George Wu) writes:
> 
> In article <619@acf3.NYU.EDU> tmy6405@acf3.UUCP (Ted M. Young) writes:
> >One word of caution...a friend of mine who is very involved in the
> >field, tells me that some of the CDs that you get from the club may
> >NOT be as good as the ones that you would buy in the store!  Seems
>      I'm inclined to disagree here. You say the original label company
> won't give a club the original *digital* master. This can be interpretted
> to mean that the club gets either a digital copy of the master, or an
> analog reproduction.
> 
>      Let's consider the analog reproduction first. This further implies that

While at the Apple CD/ROM conference last month, I conversed with a person
who ran a CD pressing shop. He did audio CD's, and wanted to get the scoop
on being prepared for the digital data CD/ROM's revolution. OK.
Anyone who knows more than I remember, correct me please. Faulty memory
may cause blathering in the below comments.

A master tape (analog or digital, the final mix tape) is delivered to the
mastering shop. There it is corrected (?) and eventually converted to
CD-compatible digital and 'burned' onto a nickel master. This master is
then used to 'stamp' glass masters. It is apparently good for not that
many glass masters, I do not remember the number but is less than 100.
The nickel master goes into the vault. The glass masters are then used
to 'stamp' the plastic CD's. They wear out after some number of thousand
pressings and are discarded. The size of a CD production run is generally
controlled by the number of glass masters made * number of output copies
per glass master. The reason the glass masters are 'used up' is because
they have a shelf life of about 1-2 months (breakdown mechanism? I don't
know). The nickel master has a shelf life (in the vault) of no more than
6 months.
So.
When someone else is 'licensed' to press CD's, they start from either the
mix tape (often in analog) or maybe (rarely?) the final digital repro
tape. This is why there is definite differences in quality (mainly noise
floor) between different pressings of the same music (Pink Floyd's DSOTM 
is a prime example). They are using different masters.
I hope this is somewhat enlightening, and not too incorrect (as it is
coming from volatile organic memory).

-- 
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