Hot Stamper Pressing of the Music of Joni Mitchell Available Now
As anyone familiar with album knows, Court and Spark has loud vocal choruses on a number of tracks. More often than not, during the loudest sections they sound like they are either breaking up or threatening to. This quality of “almost breaking up” is most easily heard on Down to You.
I always assumed it was compressor or board overload. But on the best of the best copies there doesn’t seem to be any breakup — the voices get loud and stay clean throughout.
Which means that instead of being on the master tape, it might be compressor distortion that is occurring during the mastering.
Regardless of the source of the distortion, or lack thereof, the loudest choruses are a tough test for any system.
Setup Advice
If you have one of our hottest Hot Stampers, try adjusting your setup — VTA, Tracking Weight, Azimuth, Anti-Skate — Especially! Audiophiles often overlook this one, at their peril — and note how cleanly the loudest passages play using various combinations of settings.