DVD Only MUDDY WATERS – FOLK SINGER DVD-A Near Mint The most talked about “true audiophile” blues recording finally received the Classic vinyl treatment. Captured from the original 1964 Chess Analog Master Tapes, this is an intimate and spooky studio production. FOLK SINGER is a heralded recording from the King of the Delta Blues equally for its sonic qualities as for its content. Originally released on Chess in 1964, this title has repeatedly surfaced on Audiophile’s Top 20 Lists for its superior sound, (this Pressing is unquestionably the best ever) Rare for most true pre-80’s Blues recordings. FOLK SINGER represents a departure from the electric urban Blues sound that Muddy Waters pioneered. It is an all acoustic collection of recordings that illustrates his deep rooted rural Blues influences reminiscent of the recordings he made nearly 25 years prior in Mississippi. This release features Muddy Waters on Vocals and Guitar supported by the great Buddy Guy on Guitar, Blues Legend, Willie Dixon on Bass, and Clifton James on occasional Drums. Tracks include MY HOME IS IN THE DELTA – LONG DISTANCE - GOOD MORNING LITTLE SCHOOL GIRL – COLD WEATHER BLUES – BIG LEG WOMAN and much more. The Classic Records 24/96 Digital Audio Disc DAD is designed to be an audiophile musical reference. The process starts with the encoding of an analog signal from a live microphone feed or more commonly from an analog master tape. The highly sophisticated Analog to Digital converter (A to D) samples the analog signal 96,000 times per second (96kHz) and assigns a numerical value to each sample point.. the 96kHz sampling rate is more than twice the 44,100 (44kHz) sampling rate used on standard CDs. The numerical value assigned at 96kHz – about every 10.4 microseconds – is stored as a 24 bit digital word. The significance of a 24 bit digital word is that there are 16.8 million different potential values for each 24 bit word. By contrast there are only 65,536 different potential values for a 16 bit word on a normal CD. The additional 8 bits on a DAD allows for over 16 million additional voltage values to represent the original analog signal. Further, 24 bit resolution offers 144dB of dynamic range from the softest to the loudest musical note. At 144 dB of dynamic range we greatly exceed even the dynamic range available on the world’s finest analog tape machines. For the first time in history of digital audio, we can provide Master Tape Sound MTS. After the analog signal is encoded, the resulting 24 bit/96kHz digital data stream is stored on a large computer hard disk. The raw data is then transferred to a post production facility for “authoring” – a process that results in the creation of a digital tape called a DLT that is sent to the disc manufacturing plant. At the plant, the DLT is used to make a “glass master” which produces stampers that are used to injection mold DAD discs. In all, the process is quite a bit more involved than making CDs but is worth the extra effort when you hear what this technological wonder has to offer.
