Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: nyu notesfiles V1.1 4/1/84; site petrus.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!petrus!dhc
From: dhc@petrus.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: SuperFi LPs
Message-ID: <7000001@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Apr-85 14:49:00 EST
Article-I.D.: petrus.7000001
Posted: Mon Apr  1 14:49:00 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Apr-85 06:02:07 EST
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc.
Lines: 24
Nf-ID: #N:petrus:7000001:000:1259
Nf-From: petrus!dhc    Apr  1 14:49:00 1985

OK netland, I spotted this item in Soundboard.  Does anybody
know anything about it?  (Reprinted without permission)

  (Music News Service) STORRS, Ct., March 24, 1985--Julia Speakes,
one of the pioneers of high-fidelity in the fifties, has emerged
from retirement to announce the formation of "SemiSound, Inc.,"
a new ultra-fidelity label.  SSI hopes to cater to the dedicated
analog LP audiophile, an endangered species in the era of the
digital compact disc.

  SSI plans to offer to the public the ultimate analog recording--
half-speed direct-to-disc LPs.  "We won't just be offering the
Chipmunks," Speakes said, "there are many instruments, particularly
in the woodwind family, that can be played one octave below score,
and sound natural when the playback speed is doubled."

  Speakes went on to observe that half-speed live recording will
make it possible to capture performances of some of the most difficult
music ever written, more accurately than the composer dreamed
possible.  Some critics have objected on the grounds that human
composers were well aware of human performance limitations when
putting notes to paper, and intended a certain rough-hewn quality
in the performance.  Speakes' recordings will be inhumanly,
mechanically perfect.