Description
AL- FATIHAH TRACKLISTING:
SIDE ONE
BIRTH, LIFE, AND DEATH (10:27)
IN LIGHT OF BLACKNESS (9:59)
SIDE TWO
OPENING PRAYER (1:13)
JOHN’S VISION (9:18)
AL·NISA (4:42)
FINAL EXPRESSION (3:01)
Musicians:
Abdul Wadud
Yusuf Mumin
Hasan Al-Hut
Liner Notes: Ras Moshe Burnett
Audio Restoration & Remastering Engineer: Paul Blakemore
Cutting Engineers: Clint Holley & Dave Polster
GrooveCoated Stamper Plating Performed by Nipro Optics
Manufactured by Gotta Groove Records
A GROOVECOATED PRESSING
All stampers (which are the molds used to “stamp” the groove into records) are made of nickel. GrooveCoated stampers have a specialized lubricious coating applied after nickel formation that reduces surface tension and increases surface hardness. These factors combined can lead to greater high frequency reproduction and consistency throughout the pressing.
MASTERING NOTES
Original Scotch 201 master tape playback was done with a Mike Spitz, ATR Services rebuilt Ampex ATR100 series tape machine equipped with new Flux Magnetics heads using the finest Aria (David Neill – Cranesong) discrete class-A reproduce amplifiers. A Maselec MTC-2 transfer console was used for analog routing and monitor control. Audio was monitored using main ATC SCM-150 and alternate Ocean Way HR4-S tri-amplified monitor speakers. Clicks and hum were fixed using iZotope RX-7 audio restoration software running at 384 kHz sampling rate, 32 bit floating point. New analog cutting master tapes were recorded using the same ATR100 series tape machine precisely calibrated for use with Recording The Masters SM911 low print, high output tape, at 15 IPS, 2-track stereo. Merging Horus digital to analog converters at 384 kHz sampling rate were used to reproduce the restored audio. There is virtually no loss in sound quality from the original analog recording when using this extremely high resolution digital setup for restoration work. The frequency range of 10 Hz – 192 kHz of such a system is even capable of preserving the residual bias signal from the original tapes and is well over twice the audio frequency range that can be recorded onto analog tape. The dynamic range of more than 120 dB is also much greater than the dynamic range of typical analog tape, which is about 90 dB. The new analog master tapes for lacquer cutting retain the warmth of analog audio but with underlying imperfections in the original source corrected.
Cut on MDC lacquers in an all-analog chain by Clint Holley & Dave Polster on September 21, 2020.