Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Ramones on Direct Metal Mastering


The final development of the vinyl mastering technology was made in Germany in the 1980's. After that the compact disc swept the vinyl away. This last way of making vinyl records was called DMM, Direct Metal Mastering. Instead of cutting the audio modulation onto lacquer DMM cuts straight into metal (copper).
The advantage of this technique is a sound with more upper frequency levels and less surface noice. But DMM records was not a big success, many felt that the records sounded to harsh. I can't hear any big differences but maybe my sound system isn't good enough...
Anyway, there are at least two albums with the Ramones that are made with the DMM technique, both are made in Germany.
The first one is Brain Drain. Chrysalis released two versions of the album in Germany, one "old school"-pressing and a DMM-version.
There are some differences between the sleeves of the two editions, besides separate catalog numbers. The "old school"-version have glossier sleeve and insert. But the biggest difference is that all the text on the back of the DMM sleeve is white instead of red, see picture below.
The other album that in a normal version and a DMM version in Germany is Loco Live. The worst record Ramones ever released, but that's another story...

Album: Brain Drain
Number: Chrysalis 1C 064-3 21725 1
Year: 1989
Country: Germany.
Notes: Labels marked with DMM. Printed inner sleeve. 




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Album: Brain Drain
Number: Chrysalis 209 998
Year: 1989
Country: Germany.
Notes: Printed inner sleeve. 




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Album: Loco Live
Number: Chrysalis 1C 064-3 21901 1
Year: 1991
Country: Germany.
Notes: Labels marked with DMM. 



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Album: Loco Live
Number: Chrysalis 066 3219011
Year: 1991
Country: Germany.
Notes: "Normal" pressing.

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