Fine Tunes #17 Letter

A relevant letter appeared in March 2000:

EAR & Water Lily

Editor: I have just read Jonathan Scull's review of the Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD player in November 1999. Jonathan mentioned Jon Hassell's Fascinoma recording (Water Lily CS-70-CD) I must correct one statement, where Jonathan mentioned the noise and hiss that he heard on this recording. This noise is not due to the 1" Analog Master tape machine that I built for Kavi Alexander, which is some 8-10dB lower than the noise of the microphone and microphone preamplifier. This is very nearly comparable with digital systems with a dynamic range of over 90dB.

In fact the noises on Fascinoma were some hum from Ry Cooder's guitar amp and some breath noise from the flute and trumpet which was played at very low levels, since this is Jon Hassell's technique.

I just wish I could get it into people's heads that analog tape is indeed very quiet. There are now many examples of my 1" analog tape machines on Water Lily and other labels.---Tim de Paravicini, EAR

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