Octave Record’s first release, pianist Don Grusin’s Out Of Thin Air, was a huge success and much loved by those who bought it on SACD or download. We’re nearly sold out of the final edition of the SACD.
The recording is one I am very familiar with, having heard it any number of times on the big system. It’s one of the best piano recordings I have ever heard.
And now we’re getting closer to releasing Out Of Thin Air on vinyl. We will press a limited edition of 500 copies on 180-gram virgin vinyl, mastered at 45 rpm and released on 4-discs.
But here’s the crazy thing. Having been personally involved in the process from day one, as Gus worked with the cutting engineer, I am flabbergasted by the sound. It is Soooo different (in a magical sort of way) than the master DSD from which it was cut.
How can this be?
These discs were cut directly from the DSD master, something almost never done (as we’ve learned). To facilitate the transfer our chief engineer, Bob Stadtherr, designed a DSD delay splitter that made certain the real-time cutting head feed (that sets the groove width in accordance with the signal amplitude) is identical to the delayed musical signal. Every step of the way we made certain the purity of the original master DSD tracks were perfectly preserved.
It should sound pretty darned close to the master.
It does not. There’s a vinyl magic that sets it apart from its source.
This drives me frickin’ bonkers. I know we’ve been many times down this road, but still…
It’ll likely be a few months before we have the finished discs so you can hear for yourself.
I think I am going to go run some cold water over my head.
