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Which Brahms performances are these? Boult? Klemperer? Are they digital remasters? Have you actually compared these to the analogue originals?
They are by Gunther Wand with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, and are original digital recordings by EMI, so there is nothing to compare them with.
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When you were talking about end of side "dynamics" (did you mean end of side distortion?) I meant dynamics throughout the whole LP side.
Both, no end of side distortion nor reduction in sound level.
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Yeah, that piqued my curiosity, too ... the problem of length in an LP side is reduced dynamic range across the whole side, not just the end. But maybe Basil meant something else.
That was the case using lacquer mastering, but with DMM, extended playing times are possible with no drop in sound level. Using the Wand Brahms recordings as a reference sound level. I played a few of my other Brahms 1st symphony recordings and they were no louder at the same volume setting.
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The problems began when the record was no longer quite pristine. The cracks and pops were huge! I never cared for the very long sides either as the Dual TT I had did not track them any better than the lacquer based forebears! I came to accept the fact the a short side with a lacquer based master was generally preferable in every way, excepthte need to chnge four sides for example on the late (DG) Bohm recording of the Choral Symphony as opposed to the two on the Klemperer (EMI) re-release. In fact I was not discriminatory in particular of the actual sonority as it was all that there was, but the extraneous noise eventually made me hate DMM, and long sides, possible with the method.
Frederik,
What you’re describing is the huge reduction in quality control that took place when vinyl was being phased out, and has nothing at all to do with the mastering process. I would say the problem you describe is due to the records being pressed using re-cycled vinyl.
