ToTo Man
the band not the dog
Early on in the MoFi interview it was said that whenever it isn't possible to receive the master tape at the MoFi studio they ship a Studer rig and technician to wherever the master tape is being held and do a flat transfer on site. At first I thought they meant they were using the Studer to make a tape copy simultaneously with a 4xDSD version, but Kreig later said he wasn't a fan of making tape copies of the master tape, so the Studer rig must be used to play back the master tape and the only copy made is a 4xDSD version?
Here’s the In Groove interview. It reads to me that they regularly copy a ‘master’ tape to hi-res digital and cut from that. I certainly no longer view MoFi as being a full analogue chain. There is enough here to sink that marketing and they still have a lot of explaining to do and as a result now need to detail the mastering process for every single release in their catalogue to clear the air IMHO.
Here’s a comeback from Michael 45rpm and Michael Fremer. Fremer really doesn’t cover himself in glory here IMO, much comes over as butt-hurt. He is clearly furious that an “amateur” like Mike got to go rather than a “professional interviewer” such as himself. Lots of digs such as “Mike is just a record dealer, what does he know?” and conveniently ignoring the fact (inadvertently admitted here) that Fremer himself actually knew much of this story but had sat on it. We are only here because of Mike being honest enough to stand up for record buyers, his own principles, and not giving a crap what he knocked down in the process. Sure, there are some questions I wish he’d asked, but we got enough to know that there has been some dishonesty in the way MoFi have described their product. Some are clearly digitally sourced. The end.
PS Michael Fremer’s claim he can always hear digital looks to be coming unstuck too and some of this video came across as post-rationalisation there. There is little doubt MoFi hung Fremer out to dry and I definitely feel sorry for him here, but this was not the best way to handle that situation. Michael 45rpm always comes across as the knowledgeable vinyl consumer I’m sure he’d describe himself as. He’s a good bloke. The butt hurt here is in one place only.
It would be interesting to know, for the master tapes that they are still able to bring to the MoFi studio, whether they do actually still make an all-analogue cut when possible, or if conversion to 4xDSD is always done. Cutting a lacquer direct from the master tape may be easy if all you're doing is a flat transfer, but if each track needs different EQ adjustments etc, then doing this on the fly is very difficult unless the console is automated.
I'd love to know what their workflow was before they started transferring to 4xDSD. Presumably they weren't actually playing the master tape over and over again when they were deciding what EQ adjustments etc to make? It would make sense to me that they digitised to 24/192, used this to experiment with EQ etc, then once they had their settings perfected they would apply these during the final playback of the master tape as it was being cut to lacquer?