Markus Schirmer – Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (180g LP)

Half-Speed Mastered on 180g Vinyl!

Inspiring Tube Sound!B-Side PLAYS BACKWARDS!

Pianist Markus Schirmer performs the classic composition from Mussorgsky, Pictures At An Exhibition.

Half-speed is literally half the speed. But only during the production! When being played, everything runs perfectly normally again. This record requires no special treatment at all; it simply sounds better. It is as if the craftsman had taken twice as much time for his work. Not only the tempo is reduced at half speed, but also the pitch by a factor of 2. For example, a note of 40 kHz – Tacet recordings do indeed contain such high notes! – is transferred like a 20-kHz tone of a standard recording. Through this, electronics can process higher frequencies and the cutting stylus calmly cuts all the details into the lacquer foil.

The procedure appears quite simple. However, before it is cut, the signal still has to run through a filter – the RIAA curve, which lowers low notes and raises high ones. This technically necessary alteration is corrected in your system’s phono-preampliflier. Unfortunately, the filter processes the wrong frequencies during a half-speed cutting, namely an octave too high. But we have also mastered this task. Convince yourself of the natural and unaltered timbres on this LP. Enjoy the refined difference between clarinets and basset horn, the soft cantilenas of the oboes, the huge color spectrum of the horns, the ensemble playing of the bassoons with the double bass.