Album Information:
Artist: Elvis Costello
Album: My Aim Is True
Year: 1977
Label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs 1-329
Track Listing:
A1 - Welcome To The Working Week
A2 - Miracle Man
A3 - No Dancing
A4 - Blame It On Cain
A5 - Alison
A6 - Sneaky Feelings
A7 - Watching The Detectives
B1 - (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
B2 - Less Than Zero
B3 - Mystery Dance
B4 - Pay It Back
B5 - I'm Not Angry
B6 - Waiting For The End Of The World
Equipment:
Custom KAB Technics SL-1200 MK2 with the following mods:
- Cardas Tonearm rewire
- KAB Fluid Dampener
- Heavy audiophile rubber mat
- KAB rubber record clamp w/ bubble level
KAB Ortofon S30 (an Ortofon Concorde DJ cartridge body with an OM30 audiophile stylus)
Cambridge 640P Preamp
Mogami Interconnects
EMU 0202 USB
Cleaning:
1. Apply Phoenix cleaning fluid w/ enzymes and scrub with Mobile Fidelity brush
2. Steam #1 with McCulloch steamer and wipe clean
3. Steam #2 Rinse with RO/DI water
4. Dry with microfiber cloth
5. Air dry on drying rack
6. Clean stylus w/ Mr. Clean magic eraser and dry brush with Audioquest brush prior to needledrop
Capture:
1. Capture entire side in 32bit - 96khz with Adobe Audition 3.0, adjust gain levels on EMU 0202 so that peaks are around -3db
2. Check RMS statistics, level off left and right power levels if necessary (not needed here)
3. ClickRepair on 10 / Decrackle 0 / Wavelet x2 / Reverse / PP
3. Manual repair of remaining clicks using Adobe Audition
4. Run fade-in/fade-out routines, cut sides into individual 32 bit WAV files
5. Run IsotopeRX Advanced for SRC/Dither to 24/96 and/or 16/44
About the Music:
Contrary to my last release, I think just about everyone will recognize this one. _My Aim Is True_ is beloved by music fans everywhere and is regarded as one of the finest debut albums of all time. It was ranked #177 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums, and in my book is the best New Wave album ever. I love this record with every fiber of my being.
Technical Notes:
My Aim Is True will never be mistaken for an audiophile recording, that's for sure. Even though the album was remastered by MoFi, there are things on the master tape (artifacts, distortion) that were rightly left untouched. However, this makes a vinyl transfer quite a headache because it's hard to discern whether a pop/tick/distortion was created by the ripping process or if it was always there on the master tape. To combat this and to make sure I was removing what I was supposed to be removing and leaving in what needed to be left in, I used the Rykodisc CD release as a verification tool and did the absolute best job I could. All in all, this one was far more challenging than I expected. I mean, brand new record, should be a slam dunk, right? Wrong. Mobile Fidelity states that there may be unusual pops and ticks on initial playback, and that playing the record through a few times will allow the stylus to polish the groove walls and clean up the sound. So, I went through about 2-3 plays per side and then did the rip.
There are a couple little weird things about the MoFi vinyl -- Mystery Dance ends abruptly on the "not" in "I can't do it anymore and I'm not satisfied" which is unusual. There are places where the distorted bits on the master tape seem a little more promiment - I guess this is to be expected after many more years in the vault.
As far as the sound quality of the MFSL release, (and indeed, this transfer) I think that Shawn Britton did an excellent job. This version absolutely smokes my Columbia US vinyl, and the buzz around the Internet is that it also bests the original UK Stiff release. I can't confirm this since I haven't heard a clean UK Stiff, but it's pretty high praise to call it better than a George Peckham (Porky) cut. I had quite a few "A-ha!" moments when comparing the sound to the CD during the ripping process. I'm a huge, huge fan of this album and have to commend MoFi for a job well done on challenging source material.
Enjoy!
- bogglor