I've had the great pleasure as of late to listen to a couple of new reels from UltraAnalogue Recordings. These are made with his latest updates to an already insane recording setup. The updates involve replacing power supplies with hi-end batteries... but I'll let the gentlemen at UltraAnalogue get into the specifics if they haven't already in another thread.


Both of these new tapes contain Live Sonatas (Beethoven) with some other little surprises, recorded in NAB at 15 IPS. There is a feeling of spontaneity between the musicians and audience along with a fun dynamic tension that brings a truly live feeling to the listening experience.  In contrast to a studio recording it is so much more... and it's live two-track so mistakes and all are what you're going to get, except there are no mistakes... just batteries and glowing fire bottles and slowly rotating disk shaped reels taking it all in like UFO's.


My comments about these two tapes are to follow, but in short they let me know what it's like to be rich with an uncanny believability... which is always pretty entertaining for anyone who's not rich.

The Instrument quality. The Musician's incredible skills. The Acoustics of the room - each excellent in their own right - come together to create these tapes. It's an amazing balance of extreme refinement in all three categories.  

The efforts continue to pay off with such inky black backgrounds (for no dolby - haha) that it literally removes your playback system from the perception... making it possible to tip the grand illusion from really good, to really real.

Since this is two piece chamber music it is possible to pretend that you have a large music parlor with live music one night a week because it sounds completely real - therefor believable. And 9/10th of reality is what you believe your senses are telling you.



The way I look at it, is you can pay a few hundred dollars for a tape that can transport you to another parallel reality where you're rich and listening to live music in your parlor with your favorite drink, OR you could actually get rich, build a home with a music room and hire the best musicians to perform for you.

-Steve

Thank you Steve for following my journey, for the love of this music...

1) foremost, this is the most enduring music of all time - the music I
    love.  
2) to chase passionate performances of this music with the most
    beautiful sounding instruments.
3) to record these events with the most transparent electronics possible
    for the audiophile to enjoy... (15 ips 2 track analogue tape...)

I feel, we're in a very good spot right now... waiting to try the tape playback amp using a pair of NOS vintage 1956 WE300b...

These were magical in the mic pre amp & I'm sure they will do something wonderful in the tape playback amp....  stay tuned...!

Ed