I Believe In You
New Thresholds In Sound
Sid Ramin And OrchestraRCA Victor LPM-2658
1963
This is essentially a demonstration record. Sid Ramin was given marching orders to compose light pop, with lots of high/low frequency and quick tempo changes, or in other words, contrasts in an effort to impressively introduce Dynagroove technology.
RCA used "electronic brains" (computers) to modify the audio signal fed to the recording stylus to make the groove shape conform to the tracing requirements of the playback stylus. Dynagroove recordings were mastered on Magnetic Tape.
Dyangroove was not well received by some industry commentators and was discontinued, without fanfare in the late 1970s. J. Gordon Holt, a noted audio engineer and writer of the 1960s and 70s claimed that Dynagroove introduced "pre-distortion" into the mastering process, making the records sound worse if they were played on high-quality phono systems.
Strangely enough, this album (my copy) was released in 1963 in mono! The back cover is blank with the exception of a copy block that reveals nothing about the actual process of Dynagroove.
All I can say, Command and Mercury releases of the same period, sound as good or better.
Nice! Pretty orchestral music with alot of energy!
ReplyDeleteIt could be that todays LP or even CD Mastering Engineers apply similiar ideas. As you may know, Dynagroove did not only the stylus drive in a special way, the sound itself was modified. So, I am sure, that today some mastering engineers do a apply similar or even sasme ideas influencing the sound but do not mention it. It is their own mastering-process. Phil Gorgonzola, Mastering Engineer.
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