AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head
Tacet - L207 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - AAA 100% Analogue
Limited Edition - Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering
Play backwards - Pressed at Pallas Germany
This record could not be missed! Even if the technique of an inside out LP, a "reverse" running record was not new, so it was for quite a lot of vinyl fans something quite surprising, which they did not know before. For the LP "Bolero, La Valse", you do not have to run your disc plate in the opposite direction - no, it is only meant that the groove from the inside of the record (where the "run-out groove") to the outside of the LP running. Reason: Especially at the Bolero you have a very quiet passage at the beginning, which builds itself up to the end dynamically and consequently requires an ever wider groove - just from the inside to the outside! The result of this technique, which Tacet already with its tube technology already already technically advanced to the top: fulminant! 5/5 Vinylfan
Wonderful rendition of Bolero and a dynamic finish. La Valse is equally detailed and the first time the kettle drum cut in, it made me jump. Starting the record at the "end" took a few trys the first time, but it seems to do the trick. Absolutely the best recording of the Bolero ever! Incredible! No true audiophile or Ravel fan should be without it! AV review
it is a disk that is absolutely worth buying, both for the execution and for the peculiarity of the burning of the lacquer.Does the system work? Yes, of course it works. Timpani, bass drum and horns can be unleashed on the outside of the disc without creating tracing problems and solving one of the crucial problems of vinyl recordings Audio Review
Maurice Ravel
Boléro, La Valse
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Carlo Rizzi, conductor
play backwards!
Inspiring Tube Sound - 180 g
Well, then, here comes the big festival now, at least for vinyl fans. Never before, we dare to predict, has Bolero sounded as good on an LP as it does here. How is that possible? It's amazingly simple: place the needle in the groove on the inside, instead of, as is customary, on the outside. And as the needle slowly wanders outwards, the ability of the record player becomes better able, along with the increased tension in the music, to scan ever higher volumes. If you don't believe it, listen to it.
The cover to this record advises, "Play backwards!" Why? Has it just been discovered that Ravel encoded satanic messages into these scores, or that, when you hear them backwards, you hear "Turn me on, dead Composer", or perhaps, "I buried Claude"? No, nothing of the sort. more...
Tacet has used this inventive approach to make a sumptuously rich, stunningly detailed, and immensely powerful (bass drums are positively tectonic) rendering of Ravel’s two sonic showpieces, played here with tonal sheen and brio by the Netherlands Philharmonic under Carlo Rizzi.
No conductor, no semiconductor--I beg your pardon?
Q: Just what's going on here? No conductor? No transistors (=semi-conductor)?
A: New recordings and new old techniques.
About 50 years ago the transistor was invented - and it changed our world! No computer, no piece of household equipment can be imagined without it. But what about audio technique? We were curious. Did something get lost? And if so, what? - a LP without transistors? Is that feasible?
Maurice Ravel: Boléro, La Valse - Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Carlo Rizzi
There are hundreds of pieces of music that can be played backwards – so-called palindromes. But nobody has ever seen a long-playing record that plays backwards. Until now that is! The present LP is Tacet’s latest production – a company that is always good for surprises regarding recording techniques. Unlike a 'normal' LP the needle is put down at the lead-out groove and moves outwards. Behind this apparent gag is nothing other than the wish to achieve the very best sound possible with the general awareness that music often begins softly and ends loudly. A great pity that this phenomenon is not taken into account when employing the usual cutting technique, for the further the pick-up arm moves towards the centre, the more information has to be stored per groove centimetre with a constant revolution speed. The result: with an increasing level of sound the high notes tend to suffer from distortion. In order to demonstrate that this undesirable effect can be compensated, the director of Tacet, Andreas Spreer, chose to put Ravel’s Boléro – one of the direst examples of dynamics – to the test. The result is 16 minutes of excitement and brilliant sound, which escalates with every millimetre that the needle progresses along the groove to its final climax.
Recorded March and April 2012 at Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, by Andreas Spreer and Roland Kistner
Inspiring Tube Sound:
What is it that makes "tube sound" what it is? The advantages of tubes over transistors are difficult to describe in technical terms. Perhaps the reference to the higher and different type of distortion with tube amplifiers is most applicable, although "distortion" has a rather negative meaning: the more distortion, the worse it is. So this can't be entirely right. Besides, the distortions of these microphones of 1947 are much too slight to be really noticeable. The recording of the Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach with Florin Paul is, for me, although meanwhile almost 23 years old, still the best example in our TACET catalogue of the special quality of tube microphones. The two U 47 microphones by Neumann made their contribution.
For the LP, however, (except for rare exceptions, justified for musical reasons) the signal is even stored on a tube tape recorder and then mastered with valve equipment, so that one would be right in saying that for the entire production not a single transistor was used.
We have always been especially pleased to receive so much feedback about our Tube Only productions. This motivates us even more to keep working with this technology and rescue it from oblivion. People have told us that the music sounds warmer, without losing any of its TACET brilliance. The timbres glow more. We have also heard that people have the impression of a more homogeneous sound, whatever that is meant to be. So let everyone listen to their own hearts and to the Tube Only recordings and feel something special! Even the sheer joy of this slightly nostalgic outstanding technology can be reason enough to like these productions. Yet what would it all be without the wonderful work of the artists!
Musicians:
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Carlo Rizzi, conductor
Selections:
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Side A:
1. Bolero
Side B:
1. La Valse
Tube Only” means: only tube microphones and amplifiers were used for the recording.
For the LP, (except for rare exceptions, justified for musical reasons) the signal is even stored on a tube tape recorder and then mastered with valve equipment, so that one would be right in saying that for the entire production not a single transistor was used.
We have always been especially pleased to receive so much feedback about our Tube Only productions. This motivates us even more to keep working with this technology and rescue it from oblivion. People have told us that the music sounds warmer, without losing any of its TACET brilliance. The timbres glow more. We have also heard that people have the impression of a more homogeneous sound, whatever that is meant to be. So let everyone listen to their own hearts and to the Tube Only recordings and feel something special! Even the sheer joy of this slightly nostalgic outstanding technology can be reason enough to like these productions. Yet what would it all be without the wonderful work of the artists!
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