Original masters used for Dire Straits and Knopfler half-speed vinyl

Abbey Road mastering engineer Miles Showell has confirmed to SDE that the forthcoming vinyl reissues of both Dire Straits‘ Brothers in Arms and Mark Knopfler‘s Local Hero soundtrack were half-speed mastered from the very original master tapes.

We can hopefully provide more details on this soon (which tapes, how they were located etc.), but Miles confirmed the tape situation after some SDE enquiries and said he was particularly pleased with Local Hero which required some detective work to track down the original master.

In essence, even if you are sceptical about benefits of half-speed mastering, the sources for the mastering of these two titles were as good as they could be (better than previous reissues) and so, in theory, they should sound about as good as they can on vinyl. Brothers in Arms was cut at 45PRM while Local Hero was done at 33RPM.

Both albums are released on 19 March 2021.

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Dire Straits

Brothers in Arms - 2LP half-speed vinyl

Shop Price gbp Stock Amazon uk   42.75 Order Amazon de   42.99 Order Amazon usa   48.99 Order Amazon fr   54.64 Order Amazon it   49.99 Order Amazon es   55.36 Order Amazon ca   53.88 Order Amazon jp   5276.00 Order JPC de   44.99 Order Rough Trade uk   37.99 pre-order

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Mark Knopfler

Local Hero - half-speed mastered vinyl

Shop Price gbp Stock Amazon uk   31.69 Order Amazon de   33.59 Order Amazon usa   36.2 Order Amazon fr   43.33 Order Amazon it   36.99 Order Amazon es   38.45 Order Amazon ca   44 Order Amazon jp   3685.00 Order JPC de   34.99 Order

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Brothers in Arms 2LP half-speed mastered vinyl

Side 1

1. So Far Away
2. Money For Nothing

Side 2

1. Walk Of Life
2. Your Latest Trick

Side 3

1. Why Worry
2. Ride Across The River

Side 4

1. The Man’s Too Strong
2. One World
3. Brothers In Arms

Local Hero half-speed mastered vinyl LP

Side 1

1. The Rocks And The Water
2. Wild Theme
3. Freeway Flyer
4. Boomtown (Variation Louis’ Favourite)
5. The Way It Always Starts
6. The Rocks And The Thunder
7. The Ceilidh And The Northern Lights

Side 2

1. The Mist Covered Mountains
2. The Ceilidh: Louis’ Favourite / Billy’s Tune
3. Whistle Theme
4. Smooching
5. Stargazer
6. The Rocks And The Thunder
7. Going Home: Theme Of The Local Hero