Source: Press Release, Last Accessed: 2019/12/12

Pro-Ject announced a new audiophile record for the first time under the Pro-Ject Records label. Available as a 180gr double LP and a direct master tape copy, this production is a landmark release for Pro-Ject Audio Systems. The record is easy to listen to, with great atmosphere: Jazz classic on its best.
According to the press release, the company, from time-to-time has invited great musicians to perform in their headquarters in Mistelbach, Austria. They have always been playing with the idea to record these sessions, but only using real analogue tape with minimal use of microphones, captured live in true stereo with no compression or extensive editing – just live. Now, together with Austria‘s own 7RAY - a singer, musician and keen audiophile - the company developed a concept to make both a special studio album, and a live recording, giving any listener the ability to hear a direct comparison of recording styles. 7RAY impressed the Hollywood film industry with his theme songs for movies such as “The Informers” with Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton, "Unthinkable“ with Samuel Jackson, Carry Anne Moss and more. The production used only the finest, all analogue, recording equipment with reduced, but carefully thought out miking techniques, to capture the essence of what Pro-Ject stands for: Bringing great music to their customer‘s homes in an authentic and pure way.
Studio Baumgarten, a special analogue hot spot in Vienna, has produced multiple historical recordings since the 1960s. Due to the discrete analog technology and the large recording concert hall, equipped with a Boesendorfer Imperial grand piano (the largest Boesendorfer model, Grand 305 cm), the premises represent an exceptional recording situation for today‘s professionals. The entire recording chain was kept fully analogue - from beginning to end. No additional compressors or limiters were used in the entire production process. This is putting all the more weight on the finely tuned microphone placement and choice, where some of the finest vintage (tube) microphones were used. Among them, the classic Neumann U47 and m49a models. The original dynamics are intact, only gently smoothed by the tape it was recorded on and the microphone and preamp characteristics themselves. The performance was directly recorded to an Otari 8-track tape machine via an old refurbished Acousta mixing desk without any editing. In the studio, the 8-track recording was carefully mixed down to 2-track on Studer tape machines and a CADAC studio console from 1974. Again, the mixing and mastering was kept 100% analogue.
At the Pro-Ject Headquarters, no monitor speakers were used during the recording, in order to guarantee an absolutely sound-neutral, dynamic live stereo image during live recording, as, with speakers in the recording room, there would be uncontrollable crosstalk and undesired interference, which would severely affect the quality of the recording.
The 180gr vinyl LP‘s (MSRP €39.90, incl. VAT) are handmade in Austria by Austrovinyl, ensuring that nothing of the recording is lost during the transfer from tape to vinyl. Direct Master Tape copies (MSRP €499.00 incl. VAT) are also available and are being made in a strictly controlled 1:1 copy process on carefully maintained Studer tape machines using archive quality studio-tape.

For more information: https://www.project-audio.com/

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