Fink The LowSwing Sessions Master Quality Reel To Reel Tape (1 Reel)

Master Quality Reel To Reel Tape!
Studio Master Copy with 1 Metal Reel!
In April 2023, British singer Fink went into the studio with LowSwing Records producer Guy Sternberg to record what would later become known as "The LowSwing Sessions". As Fink later wrote: "The session was the catalyst of musical longing... a few days in a real recording studio with a few friends, stellar session musicians, and nothing to think about except singing and playing."
The "stellar" musicians Fink is talking about are some of the world's best musicians right now: Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie's bassist in Black Star), drummer Earl Harvin (Seal, Jeff Beck), Thomas Moked Blum (Patricia Kaas), Haggai Cohen-Milo and Doron Segal. During the two-day session, Fink and the band recorded some of Fink's favorite songs by Bowie and The Smiths, some of Guy's favorite songs from Soundgarden and Little Feat, and some of Fink's own classics.
The album was recorded and mixed in one of the oldest studios in Berlin, the Tritonus, where Nick Cave, Erasure, Element of Crime and many others also made their records. The recordings were made on a 2-inch 24-track Studer A827 and mixed on a Studer A80 1/2-inch machine with 30ips.
LowSwing recordings are recorded and mixed analogue on tape, no computers, digital mixes or AD/DA conversions are used for mastering. The album uses LowSwing's unique collection of vintage gear from the 1960s and 70s, many of which have been modified to their own specifications.
DOES HORCH HOUSE DO ANY KIND OF REMASTERING DURING THE COPYING PROCESS?
Absolutely not! Why mess with the best? The whole point of what they do lies in capturing the magic of the original analogue master tape in its purest, most faithful form possible.
'Remastering' can be compared to using computer software to edit an original photograph. The benefits are that you can remove unwanted marks or noise, clean things up, remove distortion and boost clarity. The downside is that in doing so, you often lose the natural essence of the original and the result can seem rather synthetic, lacking in real life character.
The unfortunate fact is that tapes, like photographs, do tend to age over time, and most analogue masters are now between 30-80+ years old.
So Horch House undertake a painstaking 'soft refurbishing' process, which is key to recapturing the original quality of a master tape.
CAPTURING THE MAGIC OF MASTER TAPE
How exactly does Horch House translate an original analogue master tape into faithful copies on reel-to-reel tape and vinyl records?
They use a process that's been meticulously researched and developed by their expert team of sound engineers, with input from some of the world's leading specialists.
The first step is to carefully assess the sound quality of the original master tape, which their experts do in great detail. The unfortunate fact is that tapes do tend to age over time, and most analogue masters are now between 30-80+ years old. What they're looking to do, therefore, as an integral part of their copying process, is to restore the sound quality back to its original level. They want you to hear exactly what the first sound engineers heard (and indeed the musicians themselves), on the day that the original recording was made. This is in stark contrast to any kind of 'remastering', which they most definitely do not do! They're not looking to 'improve' the recording in any way, but rather to return it as closely as possible to its full original beauty.
They call this their 'soft refurbishing' process.
HOW CLOSE ARE HORCH HOUSE COPIES TO THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES?
Horch House believe that they're as close as it's possible to get - not simply to the master tape in its current condition, but to that master tape's original condition. Thanks to their detailed 'soft refurbishing' process, their master tape copies could, in a sense, now be considered as better than the current originals because they've been lovingly restored to deliver the same sound quality that the originals had on the day they were first recorded.
WHAT ABOUT COPYRIGHT? ARE MASTER TAPE COPIES LEGAL?
All Horch House master tape copies are fully authorized, licensed and approved by the relevant record label/music publisher.
The label HORCH HOUSE from Germany has stood for purely analogue sound enjoyment for 10 years and has specialized in tapes. We work exclusively with historical and new analogue tapes, which are carefully restored on analogue equipment at csmastering in Vienna if necessary. The tape copies are produced manually on meticulously maintained machines from Studer. The catalogue contains titles from the genres of classical, jazz, blues, rock/pop and easy listening. The packaging is appropriately stable for the medium, of high quality and excellently transportable and archivable.
** It is standard practice in all recording studios to keep the tape "tail out". This reduces "pre-echo" and it means that the tape should be placed on the right hand side of the recorder, re-wound and then played.

Features:

• Studio Master Copy
• 1-Reel Tape
• Label: LowSwing
• Tape Material: RTM LPR90
• Recording Speed: 15IPS - 38cm/sec
• Rec. Level (mag flux): 320 nWb/m
• Equalisation: CCIR
• Width & Tracks: 1/4" - 2 Track
• Reels: Metal - 10.5" - 26,5 cm
• Production on Studer Machines Refurbished to Factory Specification
• Handmade
• Recorded in the private studio of Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer
• Recording director & engineer: Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer
• Fully authorized, licensed & approved by the record label/music publisher
• Horch House Deluxe Packaging

Musicians:

• Fin Greenall, vocals, acoustic guitar
• Tim Lefebvre, bass guitar
• Earl Harvin, drums
• Tomer Moked-Blum, acoustic and electric guitars, viola
• Doron Segal, piano, fender rhodes
• Haggai Cohen-Milo, upright bass
• Guy Sternberg, modular synth

Selections:

1. Modern Love
2. Black Hole Sun
3. You Got To Take Sick And Die
4. Long Distance Love
5. What Difference Does It Make
6. Trouble's What You're In
7. Q And A vs. Brown Paper Bag