Sony Music Italy opens to the public, for the first time, its archives and the result is the Legacy Master Tapes series: the most important works of the artists and bands that have written the history of Italian music are published on tape in the quality of the recordings original analog. The vast Sony Music archive has a heritage of masters that goes back to the 90s, when technology turned off the analog tape button to go digital: with Legacy Master Tapes, this heritage will not be lost.
For the first series, the record label has chosen eleven historical Italian titles: Lucio Battisti, My free song; Claudio Baglioni, Saturday afternoon; Franco Battiato, Fetus; Edoardo Bennato, The Tower of Babel; Lucio Dalla, Lucio Dalla; Francesco De Gregori, Long live Italy; Fabrizio De André, Story of an employee; Antonello Venditti, Lilly; Premiata forneria Marconi, One minute story; Mutual aid bank, Mutual aid bank; Area, Crac.
Every single copy of this limited edition edition is made by the original master: unique pieces produced on request, bookable and orderable exclusively on the major’s website just opened. “Among the huge number of analogue sound enthusiasts around the world, there is a vast array of reel-to-reel aficionados who have never had the opportunity to purchase large reel recordings,” said Stefano Patara, Sony Legacy Director. “Master Tapes wants to begin to fill this gap starting from the studio masterpieces of Italian music proposed in a product of the highest level. It is another step taken by Sony Music in the direction of preserving and re-proposing the quality of the recordings of its catalog in the belief that in future interest in analogue sound and high quality audio in general is bound to increase. ”
“For the realization of this exclusive edition, the two-track master tapes of the various works were reproduced, using a Studer A820 MKII recorder without any intermediate stage of processing,” explains Sony. “To preserve the original sound of the work, no changes were made to the signal of any kind (such as noise reduction or equalizations). All possible signal alterations and any other interference have been avoided by using high quality mains filters, stabilizers and signal cables. All these procedures have helped to reduce the noise of the tape in the lower frequency spectrum, and to enhance the warmth of the harmonics typical of analog recordings ”.