New Half-Speed Mastered Vinyl series launched by Universal

Universal Music have launched a new series of special vinyl releases, including classic titles from The Rolling Stones, Simple Minds and The Police, under the ‘Half Speed Mastering’ banner…

Half-speed mastering is a vinyl cutting technique where the source is played back at half its normal speed while the turntable on the vinyl cutting lathe also runs at half-speed (16 2/3 to be precise). Everything plays back as normal on your turntable at home.

The idea with this method is that the recording stylus has twice as long to carve the intricate groove into the master lacquer and high-frequency information is easy to cut because it’s not high frequency any more – when played half speed it’s mid-range, which is easier to cut. The advantages are supposed to be a record that is capable of an ‘extremely clean and unforced high-frequency response’ and a detailed and solid stereo image.

When these releases were first posted on Universal’s Udiscover store there was much talk of ‘artisan processes’ and going back to ‘original master tapes’. An eyebrow or two was raised here at SDE at the possibility that a new remastering of The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street had been created from the original tapes, so we asked Universal to clarify the sources for each album on the release schedule. The following is what they came back with (these are written by Miles Showell, mastering engineer at Abbey Road Studios).

The Rolling Stones / Exile On Main Street (half-speed mastered vinyl)

Source: 24bit/96khz digital transfers supplied by the Stones made from original ¼” tapes

This album was cut from a high-resolution digital transfer from the best known analogue tape in existence. Only minimal sympathetic equalisation was applied to the transfer to keep everything as pure as possible. Also, as this was an analogue, vinyl only high quality release, I did not apply any digital limiting. This is added to almost all digital releases to make them appear to be loud and is responsible for “the loudness war” and in almost every case is anything but natural and pure sounding.

Free / Fire and Water (half-speed mastered vinyl)

Source: Digital transfers from the original ¼” tapes, recently prepared by Free remastering engineer Andy Pearce.

This album was cut from a high-resolution digital transfer from the best known analogue tape in existence. Only minimal sympathetic equalisation was applied to the transfer to keep everything as pure as possible. Also, as this was an analogue, vinyl only high quality release, I did not apply any digital limiting. This is added to almost all digital releases to make them appear to be loud and is responsible for “the loudness war” and in almost every case is anything but natural and pure sounding.

The Police / Ghost in the Machine (half-speed mastered vinyl)

This album was cut from a high-resolution digital transfer from the best known ¼ analogue tape in existence. The tapes were re-played on an Ampex ATR-102 fitted with custom extended bass response playback heads. Only minimal sympathetic equalisation was applied to the transfer to keep everything as pure as possible.

Also, as this was an analogue, vinyl only high quality release, I did not apply any digital limiting. This is added to almost all digital releases to make them appear to be loud and is responsible for “the loudness war” and in almost every case is anything but natural and pure sounding.

Simple Minds / New Gold Dream (half-speed mastered vinyl)

This album was cut from a high-resolution digital transfer from the original ½” analogue masters. The tapes were re-played on an Ampex ATR- 102 fitted with custom extended bass response playback heads. Only minimal sympathetic equalisation was applied to the transfer to keep everything as pure as possible. Also, as this was an analogue, vinyl only high quality release, I did not apply any digital limiting. This is added to almost all digital releases to make them appear to be loud and is responsible for “the loudness war” and in almost every case is anything but natural and pure sounding.

John Martyn / Solid Air (half-speed mastered vinyl)

This album was cut from a high-resolution digital transfer from the ¼” analogue masters. The tapes were re-played on an Ampex ATR-102 fitted with custom extended bass response playback heads. Only minimal sympathetic equalisation was applied to the transfer to keep everything as pure as possible. Also, as this was an analogue, vinyl only high quality release, I did not apply any digital limiting. This is added to almost all digital releases to make them appear to be loud and is responsible for “the loudness war” and in almost every case is anything but natural and pure sounding.

Cream / Disraeli Gears (half-speed mastered vinyl)

Source: Digital transfers made from the original ¼” MONO masters (with edits) from Atlantic Studios NYC, 1967 – transfers were made at Sterling Sound, NYC, in 2013

This album was cut from a high-resolution digital transfer from the best known analogue tape in existence. Only minimal sympathetic equalisation was applied to the transfer to keep everything as pure as possible. Also, as this was an analogue, vinyl only high quality release, I did not apply any digital limiting. This is added to almost all digital releases to make them appear to be loud and is responsible for “the loudness war” and in almost every case is anything but natural and pure sounding.

This information and more is now available over at the uDiscoverMusic store.