Xref: utzoo misc.consumers:4358 rec.music.misc:10639 sci.electronics:2599
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!gwu
From: gwu@clyde.ATT.COM (George Wu)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,rec.music.misc,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Experience with Compact Disc Club?
Summary: Inferior DIGITAL masters?
Keywords: CD clubs, masters, CBS
Message-ID: <23843@clyde.ATT.COM>
Date: 25 Mar 88 21:53:50 GMT
References: <253@antares.aero.org> <1510010@hpfcbpr.HP.COM> <328@mergvax.UUCP> <619@acf3.NYU.EDU>
Reply-To: gwu@clyde.UUCP (George Wu)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany NJ
Lines: 44

NOTE: I have added sci.electronics to the newsgroups. REMOVE IT BEFORE REPLYING
unless your reply is technical in nature. If a final conclusion/consensus
(about inferior CDs) is reached on one group, but not another, I'll make sure
it gets posted to the other group(s). Just trying to keep down the net volume.

In article <619@acf3.NYU.EDU> tmy6405@acf3.UUCP (Ted M. Young) writes:
>One word of caution...a friend of mine who is very involved in the
>field, tells me that some of the CDs that you get from the club may
>NOT be as good as the ones that you would buy in the store!  Seems
>that some record companies don't want to give the CD Clubs the digital
>masters, so the Clubs (with their record licenses, I guess) are making
>CDs using INFERIOR masters!  (You didn't think the CD & record clubs
>buy the actual product from the record companies, did you? That's why
>it says "licensed for manufacture...." etc. on the back!

     I'm inclined to disagree here. You say the original label company
won't give a club the original *digital* master. This can be interpretted
to mean that the club gets either a digital copy of the master, or an
analog reproduction.

     Let's consider the analog reproduction first. This further implies that
the club must redigitize the recording. This would indeed degrade the quality
of the recording, so I'd be inclined to agree with you. A hunch tells me
this is NOT what is done.

     However, if the club uses a digital master, be it umpteenth-hand, how
can the recording be degraded? First, we need to know how CDs and their masters
are made. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they're made by "scorching"
the disk in a particular way in represent high logic (1 bit, whatever), and
another way to represent low logic (0 bit). If this is the case, then there's
no degradation in reproducing a digital recording. This is essentially an
all digital process, so one need merely reproduce all ones as ones, and all
zeroes as zeroes. Likewise for any other digital process.

     Only, if there's something analog involved, such as the way vinyl LPs
are produced by "stamping" the blank with a master to make an impression, is
there degradation.

     As you can see, I think I remember how CDs are produced, but am not sure.
If someone out there is sure, please followup.-- 
					George J Wu

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