|
Me as well for the live work and also start to finish production - a lot of what I do has always been that way. I'm usually selling a client a total solution for a project, start to finish. Mastering-only is more of a sideline, though one I hope to increase some, since another sideline has always been restoration work.
Since in NYC I often use studios of folks who compete with me, differentiating along quality and other avenues becomes impt to justify why I should get the gig rather than others.
I do generate some stuff out in the burbs, too- but a lot of it is still city-based to get the talent etc clients want. It's 35 miles -- but with traffic gotta allow like 2 hours when going there.
What led to the Clover for me was (besides wanting to be able to know more
what was going on) that many clients had been seeing problems with stuff done by competitors, and so though it wasn't the case with stuff I did, I figured it was high time to be able to understand more why and also to be able to provide documentation of what was going on with masters when they left here. I've also got work because others produced CDs that plants rejected - sometimes several times. Also more routine things like whoever did the work had no concept of average and peak level in some cases!
The Clover guy told me he also has seen same variation situation with the MAM-A's in more recent times- says he's been using the Taiyos more with the duplicators they also build. Guess he offers short run duping services too.
I'm only "sold" on the Taiyos for the moment. I have a bunch on hand, along with a bunch of MAM-A silvers from diff batches. I try to pull about 25 pcs from each batch and hold them awhile just to have a benchmark, though I do that less with the golds since they've been good except for the 80s.
The older MAM-As are often more consistent from disc to disc than current
production, though that's a somewhat subjective call. Anything that still says Mitsui on it has been very consistent for most part.
Send the MAM-A guy's info whenever convenient and I'll inquire.
I've seen less variation in the packaged MAM-As than the bulk ones. For convenience, I buy some silvers in jewel cases in cartons of 25, and use those for cassette masters which get burned at higher speeds than CD masters, though usually just at 4 or 8x tops.
Have not tried the MAM-A DVD-R's in quite a while so will get M/Supply to send me a few next order. The Verbatims though have been great. Not so with cheapos like Optodisc and Ritek - as you'd expect.
Sure hope your health matter worked out OK.
|