and it's not the Da Vinci code.
My recent ECM excursion has brought me some aAD cd's and some DDD cd's. I have noticed before some of my Beatles cd's are AAD for the earlier and ADD for the later.
I know what they mean as they are explained on the cd insert but a few questions come to mind.
Why would you have some Beatles albums AAD and some ADD?
For DDD what is a "digital" recording?
ECM are renowned for sound quality so are digital recordings better?
Most cd's don't have this nomenclature, dose this absence indicate one format or another?
Does anyone know (or care?)
SJB
Posted on: 19 May 2006 by Cosmoliu
Been a long time since I read the code key, but I seem to remember that the very first CDs were all AAD because the original recording was put down on (analog) audio tape, the master was also analog and of course all CDs must have the final initial as a D, else it wouldn't be a shiny plastic disc. Then, as now, the "common wisdom" was that digital was better, so the next step in selling all of us digital copies of the LPs we already owned was to convert the original analog tapes to digital masters so the releases could be advertised as ADD, meant to imply to the consumer that it was "better". Then, as contemporary recordings were laid down to digital tape, the recording company could advertise DDD: the best of all (perfect sound forever, or some such nonsense). As LPs faded further and further into our memories, it seemed that record companies saw little marketing advantage to telling us that the contents of the jewel box were AAD vs ADD vs DDD, and to some of us they all sounded equally poor in comparison to our vinyl libraries. I think that if a CD in question does not note the nomenclature, you can pretty much assume that it is DDD.
BTW, I bought a used Andre Watts LP on Audiogon a while back, hoping to get a rich recording of Liszt shorts and was sorely disappointed to find a proud proclamation in the liner notes that the LP was pressed from digital master tape! Come to think of it, I have the same situation with a Nautilus re-issue LP of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours". Now why would anyone take a perfectly good analog master tape, convert it to digital, then press it into vinyl???
Norman
Posted on: 20 May 2006 by bhazen
I always thought that ADD referred to the medical state the mastering engineer was dealing with when the final tech stuff was being done for the CD.
