Vinyl & Transcriptions

PRIVATE RECORDINGS & IN-HOUSE RELEASES
In addition to recordings from the major commercial and larger independent record companies, the collection contains many 100’s of Private Recordings and In-House releases.

PRIVATE RECORDINGS
A one copy only recording, made using non-professional equipment, either reel-to-reel, cassette or DAT recorder, recorded by the Director of Music or someone connected with the choir. These recordings have never been copied or issued and in many cases have remained, unheard, with the person who made the recording.

These unique recordings are, for the most part, of the greatest historical importance and represent some of the gems of the Collection. The Collection contains either the original recording or a one-off copy, made by myself with permission or a copy donated by the owner of the recording, exclusively for the Collection.

IN-HOUSE RELEASES
In-House releases  are catalogued either by the recording company commissioned by the choir, or where no recording company is named, they are classified as ‘No label’ This type of recording was mostly for sale locally but sometimes put general sale and is recorded and produced in various ways.

1. A recording undertaken by someone associated with the choir using their own equipment, designing the artwork and ‘home-copying’ small quantities for members of the choir or those associated with the choir.

2. A recording undertaken by someone associated with the choir using their own equipment, with the master recording being sent to a company specialising in short run pressings, from a few copies to a few hundred copies. Recordings of this type are catalogued by the name of the company with the legend (p) appearing after the name of the company to indicate a specialisation in private pressings.

3. A recording which is commissioned by the choir and undertaken by a small independent recording company, issued under the choirs own label or with no label, who specialise in short runs from 50 or so upwards. The finished recordings come complete with artwork. ready for sale by the choir.

4. A recording undertaken by a small independent recording company specialising in private pressings of choirs and issued under the name and logo of that recording company.   These are either commissioned by the choir or instigated by the recording company themselves and are available commercially but usually only in the area of the choir or directly from the recording company.    Recordings of this type are catalogued by the name of the company with an * appearing after their name to indicate a specialisation in private pressings.

5. In-House releases are also undertaken by commercial record companies but are not part of their main catalogue.   This type of recording is catalogued by the label of the recording company but with (p) after the catalogue number to indicate an In-House release.

VINYL TRANSCRIPTIONS AND RE-ISSUES TO CD

In order to make the collection more accessible and convenient to use all vinyl records are in the process of being transcribed to CD, as have all tapes, cassettes and 78rpm records. There are two types of vinyl to CD transcriptions in the collection; those undertaken by myself and commercial CD re-issues by the record companies.

The Discography lists only the original recording with release date and catalogue number. Commercial CD re-issues of vinyl are not separately catalogued, but they are identified in the Discography. nor does the collection contain re-issued CDs or compilation vinyl's/CDs of previously issued tracks.

Original vinyl’s frequently contains extra photographs and other information which the re-issues don’t and of course, the glorious 12 inch artwork so often found on the front cover.

Vinyl transcriptions undertaken by myself

The majority of vinyl recordings in the collection have not had a commercial CD re-issue and the transcription is undertaken by myself. Before transcription, the record is cleaned on the ‘Moth cleaning machine’ to give the best surface possible.

The vinyl sleeve artwork is scanned, colour printed and used as the CD transcription cover. Refer to the original vinyl for complete sleeve notes and sometimes extra photographs.

Many Directors of Music, etc., have loaned recordings, particularly rare private pressings and in these instances only the CD transcription is part of the collection. All CD transcriptions are track numbered for ease of use.

Commercial CD re-issues of Vinyl recordings

Vinyl recordings from various Cathedral and Oxbridge choirs, particularly King’s, St John’s and Christ Church have been re-issued onto CD, often many times over from full price to budget CDs, or as part of compilation CDs of a particular choir or composer.

The collection contains the commercial CD re-issues of vinyl, which saves me the task of transcribing; r after the vinyl shelf number, (eg..V23r) indicates the transcription is a commercial CD re-issue. In the few instances where the collection has the CD re-issue only, the is indicated by * after the shelf number.

The original vinyl sleeve is scanned as the case cover for the CD re-issue, except in the rare instance when the CD re-issue cover is the same as the original vinyl.

There are occasions when the CD re-issue does not contain all the tracks from the vinyl, or when the tracks are spread over a double CD with tracks from other recordings included or the running order of the original has been changed.

In those cases, I have used the CD re-issue as the basis for a correct transcription, adding any missing tracks from the vinyl and collating the running order correctly. Relevant information as to how this transcription was complied is noted on the inlay.