Soulful Journey Vol. II — SOB & the CZYKS

The story of Soulful Journey

As stories go, they either start with an idea or with a wish. Ours is one of the wishful ones: We wanted to sit in at a recording session in a professional studio. Did we forsee that sitting in would not be the end of the story? No. In short: We not only sat in, we ended up with the first LP and a record label. The road from A to Z inevitably crosses L and P. And this to us means: Records made with TLC. So SG001 also sets the direction that we will take with all following LPs. What’s so special, you ask?

For instance:

• 100 percent analog: as analog as LP productions go – from the microphone to the lacquer, not one single bit was involved. Yes, even the preview was purely analog, just in case you wonder.

• Live to two track: the band plays live in the studio, the mic feeds are mixed in real time, summed to stereo and recorded directly to ¼” two track. Yep. No overdubs, no re-mix, no punch-ins, no plug–ins or effects, no nothing, period

• Mastering with the original session tapes: We cut the selected takes from the reels of the session tapes and joined them for the production master. At least two generations less than conventional multitrack recordings.

• One-step pressing (1SP): The stamper is pulled directly from the lacquer and not over the usual three steps of galvanisataion (lacquer > father > mother > son/stamper). The lacquer suffers or is destroyed in the process i.e. 1sp requires one lacquer per stamper (for 500 records). This makes 1SP an expensive way to produce records, but results in better sound: less copies, more details, more live in the studio.

• Strictly limited edition: 1000 hand numbered records, no more than 500 LPs per stamper.

• Special vinyl formula with particularly low groove and surface noise—our goal are the unequalled japanese super pressings of the 1970s and 1980s

• Pressed on 140 grams of vinyl – sometimes less is more. Compared to 180 grams, you get less resonances and less warps with 140 gram vinyl disks than with 180.

• Rigorous QC (1): Visual inspection of each and every LP in the pressing plant; one out of 75 LPs is also controlled with real time playback. (And of course these LPs will not be sold.).