Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab ( MFSL or MoFi ) is a record label specializing in the production of audiophile recordings. The company is famous for its limited edition recording of LPs, solid discs, and Super Audio CDs but has also produced other formats.
In the late 1970s, the label gained a reputation for high quality audio from the Original Master Recorded LP, which had been recorded with a half-speed mastery process. The company went bust in 1999 but was bought by Music Direct in Chicago. In the 21st century, Mobile Fidelity's sales grew with renewed interest in vinyl.
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In the 1950s and 1960s, it was common for record labels to suppress relatively heavy recordings on new vinyl or "virgin". During the economic downturn of the 1970s, the cost of record emphasis increased, and many record labels cut costs by suppressing light recording of recycled materials, which contained impurities. Narrow vinyl recycling often shows pops, clicks, and surface noise.
The process of transferring sound from magnetic tape to LP is a very complicated process. Apprentice engineers usually spend several years learning how to become experts in mastering the disk. A mastered engineer may need to adjust and/or compromise the sound quality of the recording to maintain loudness and make the groove trackable by the recording player's stylus using low-quality phono cartridges. Often, the voice has been mastered with additional compression, restriction, and evenness. To reduce wear on the master most disks are not sourced from the original parent tape. The source tape used may be many generations removed from the original. Typically, engineers will bypass the first press and "cut master" tape in parallel. The next emphasis is cut directly from the cutting master. Some pressure is even cut from the copy of the master cutting ribbon. Each copy of the next recording adds an additional level of sizzling tape, and wow and flutter, lowering the sound quality.
Maps Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
Establishment
Recording engineer Brad Miller (1939-1998) created the first recording on the Mobile Fidelity label during the late 1950s and 1960s. It is an environmental sound recording, locomotive and orchestral music, which attracts audiophiles but gets little attention from the public. Although Miller was located in Burbank, California in 1971, the company released several pop recordings and orchestras. This included a 7 "45 rpm single produced by Miller," Saunders Ferry Lane "/" Early Morning. "The record was credited to" Clare "and sung by British vocalist Clare Torry, who later gained fame from her performance on the Pink Floyd song" Performances great in the sky ".
Original Master Records
In 1977, Mobile Fidelity began producing a series of recordings known as the "Original Recording Master" record. The albums were previously released by another company, licensed by Mobile Fidelity, and restored by a process called half-speed mastery. During mastery, the sound is transferred from the magnetic tape to the disk while the lathe cutting is moved at half speed. The albums were remade from original analog master cassettes, without compression, and with minimal equalization. The tape was pressed on high-quality vinyl called JVC Supervinyl, a plastic compound created by JVC to compensate for Quadrophonic record requests, which had begun to emerge in the 1970s. Supervinyl JVC is more durable than ordinary vinyl, with lower surface noise and fewer pops and clicks. Fidelity phones packed their albums on heavy cardboard sleeves, inside cardboard confessors, and plastic liners.
Half speed mastery has been done before. Decca Records used the same process on its classic album from 1958 to 1967. MFSL revived the practice, refined it, and made it a corporate selling point. Half-speed mastery takes more time than usual mastery, and this presents a technical challenge. Its use has never been widespread by any other company despite its sonic superiority.
Stan Ricker (nÃÆ' Â © Stanley Forbes Ricker, 1935-2015) mastered the start of Mobile Fidelity LPs. Ricker's works can be identified by the "SR/2" signature engraved on a dead wax. Jack Hunt ("JH/2") mastered numerous LP MFSL releases in the 1970s and 1980s. Several titles were later ruled by John LeMay and Paul Stubblebine, with some unverified releases. Currently, Shawn R. Britton and Rob LoVerde control most of the records for MFSL. CD, SACD, and audio cassette mastering have been performed by Britton's most recent engineers. The company has few engineers in its history.
LP, CD, SACD
MFSL's first four-and-a-half masters master album is a pop orchestra title by Mystic Moods Orchestra. Then MFSL offers famous titles of rock, pop, and jazz that are licensed from major record companies. The first is Crime of the Century by Supertramp, originally released by A & amp; M Records in 1974. The greatest success of the current label is Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon i> (1973) when it was reissued in the Original Master Recording series in 1979.
In 1981 MFSL produced a set of record boxes by The Beatles. The box set consists of all 12 original English versions of their album, which are mastered from the original Abbey Road Studios tape master, plus the Magical Mystery Tour (1967) sourced from copies of US recordings prepared by Capitol Records. An album-sized book featuring original album art is also included. This project is the first and only time the Beatles master tape ever left Abbey Road Studios.
During the 1980s, Mobile Fidelity began selling CDs other than LPs. In the 2000s the company started selling SACD. Like LPs, CDs and SACD are diremaster of the original analog master. SACD uses Direct Stream Digital (DSD) coding rather than more general pulse-code modulation (PCM). Mobile Fidelity sells its remaster in a limited edition of 5,000 copies or fewer.
Bankruptcy and revival
In November 1999, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab closed after the bankruptcy of M. S. Distributing, one of its largest distributors. In 2001, MFSL assets were acquired by Music Direct. Acquisitions switched to Company's intellectual Music Direct and the rights to technology used in the chain of property ownership.
Mobile loyalty has benefited from a revival of interest in vinyl. From 2007 to 2013, sales of vinyl albums grew nearly 500%.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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