Hemiolia Records

An interview with Claudio Valeri

About the work of Hemiolia records - an interview with Claudio Valeri

The story of this great interview began at HIGH END 2024 at the Hemiolia records stand. When I asked for a review of the master tape copy GETZ/GILBERTO, I got talking to Claudio Valeri. It didn't take long for us to arrive at the specialist topics about master tape copies. During a spontaneously arranged interview, we decided that Claudio Valeri would unpack the tape and explain the production process at Hemiolia records (see the photo series at the left). We optimized the text for the interview afterwards. You can find the review of GETZ/GILBERTO at:

https://www.audiotapereview.com/0762024getzgilberto

Claus Müller: How long has Hemiolia records been around and how did you get started?

Claudio Valeri: I have been enthusiastic about analog devices since my youth. Tape recorders have always fascinated me. I got my first tape recorder from my father when I was 14 years old. It was a Sony. Following this shared passion, which my father also had, I started collecting and using tape recorders of all brands, initially in the home category. After the 80s, when many recording studios, radio stations and TV stations switched to digital and used professional tape recorders could be found on the market, I also started collecting these with my father. The idea for Hemiolia records was born in my head in 2007 and realized in 2011. It was basically born out of a passion; the same passion that still drives us today and makes us produce state of the art master tapes. Without this passion, we could never achieve this result. The mantra of our company is the overall quality of the products. We take care of every detail and try to incorporate improvements at every moment.

Claus Müller: The tapes of Luciano Pavarotti 's work made Hemiolia records famous. How did that start?

Claudio Valeri: We had already released several titles before we started with the work of master Luciano Pavarotti, which was certainly our first important release. Pavarotti asked the sound engineers for a recording of each concert on magnetic tape for his personal archive. Decca was responsible for the official recordings that were used over time for the various releases. The tapes from the master's archives were later kept in the archives of the foundation dedicated to him. They were exposed to a certain degree of deterioration. The Pavarotti Foundation first commissioned Hemiolia records to digitize the tapes to preserve their contents. In the course of this work, we at Hemiolia came up with the idea of asking the Foundation for the possibility of restoring the tapes and using them for remastering to make copies for tape lovers. Hemiolia records, in collaboration with the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation, has undertaken the ambitious project of restoring this extensive music archive. Today, Hemiolia records can make the music available to all fans of the unforgettable tenor in the best possible condition. The artistically and historically valuable heritage includes many unpublished works. Each tape has been physically examined and tested. The tapes, all two- or four-track stereo tapes with different technical characteristics in terms of the carrier material used, equalization and recording speed, were carefully restored structurally and physically, as time had gnawed away at them. Most of them were stuck and had to be baked in a special oven at a temperature between 50° C and 55° C for a period ranging from one hour to several days, depending on the degree of degradation of the binder of each of the tapes studied. The effects of this treatment are temporary and allow a processing period of one or two weeks at most. During this phase, we also determine the equalization and playback speed of each tape. In some cases, they were affected by mold. Backup copies were made on RTM SM900 magnetic tapes, in stereo, two-track, at 15 ips. The skillful hands of Pietro Benini, Hemiola’s sound and mastering engineer, then carried out the restoration in a sophisticated, lengthy and very difficult work process.

For Hemiolia records, the challenge was not “just” to create a good master tape, which would certainly have had and still has great historical and musical value, but to achieve a result that is outstanding in terms of quality and emotion when listening. Everything had to be done in a 100% analog way. We found multi-track and two-track tapes, they were recordings from different environments, with different orchestras. Almost all the recordings had phase problems and wrong balances, because these tapes were not made for future music productions, but with the stage mixers of the live concerts for the master's personal archive. In addition, there were unknown technical characteristics, as the tapes had incomplete, damaged or missing labels. Several times we found different types of tapes on one reel. It was over two years of continuous work in the Hemiolia workroom in Italy to complete the restoration and create the master tapes you can hear today.

The work we did to get to the result was enormously complex and had never been done before in this form. It is anything but a simple copy of the original tapes.

Claus Müller: How is it possible to obtain the rights for the releases?

Claudio Valeri: For Hemiolia records, as for any professional record label, the issue of music rights is fundamental and often complex to handle. As far as the recordings we produce directly are concerned, the agreements are made directly with the performing artists and regulated by contracts that vary from case to case. For the Pavarotti titles, we have a contract with the Pavarotti Foundation. Decca was also involved, as it held the rights even after Maestro Pavarotti's death. For the titles of the great jazz series and other classical and ethnic titles, we signed a contract with the Ermitage Distribution label, represented by Mr. Gianni Salvioni, who also provides us with the first-generation production tapes that we use for remastering. This contract is long-term and provides for the gradual distribution of about two hundred important historical titles, of which we release one per month on average.

Claus Müller: What tapes are available to you as source material for your work?

Claudio Valeri: The issue of source tapes has often led to incorrect or even completely inappropriate comments. For this project we only use first generation production masters in stereo, 2-track, 1/4” format. There were and are some rare exceptions, such as Ascenseur Pour L'Échaufaud by Miles Davis, of which we have a mono production master because the music was only recorded in this format. In this case, we have decided to release a remastering in stereo, although we have not ruled out the possibility of creating a mono version in the future.

Claus Müller: How does Hemiolia records remaster or master the historical tapes?

Claudio Valeri: I would like to go into more detail about the Hemiolia records production criteria. The complete analog remastering is carried out by our sound engineer Pietro Benini. His decades of experience, his great technical know-how and his artistic sensibility are the fundamental elements that allow us to achieve the best results. Pietro Benini is one of the few sound engineers who has mastered the analog audio world in its entire process: from recording to mixing to editing the final mastering. He is one of the few who can carry out mechanical editing of tapes with absolute precision. He is perfectly familiar with most professional two-track and multi-track machines. He also has the technical skills to maintain, upgrade and mechanically and electronically calibrate the equipment. In the forty years of his work, he has never given up on the analog world and can look back on several hundred productions that were carried out entirely in the analog world. This also applies to the other analog equipment. This includes old and current equipment, all of which is of high quality and needs to be perfectly maintained and calibrated. Some of them have been specially adapted by him to maximize their performance.

In the specific case of the titles of the Jazz, classical and ethnic series published in collaboration with Ermitage all the production masters we use for remastering are stored with the utmost care at the Ermitage headquarters in Paris and from time to time are personally transported by Mr. Salvioni to the Savio headquarters, where the studio where the remasterings are created is located. Each production master tape we receive is first subjected to physical support treatments by Pietro Benini to compensate for any problems with gluing or the presence of mold. The tapes are then analyzed with the utmost care according to a scientific method to prove their analogous coherence. Technical characteristics are checked to determine whether the parameters are consistent and meet our restrictive criteria for publication. If these criteria are met, we move on to the remastering phase and then to production, which is carried out with a 1:1 duplication criterion, also with our very restrictive and costly criteria and processes in terms of the use of human and economic resources. The production masters that Ermitage provides us with are downmixes of the original session tapes, which can be multi-tracked from three to 24 tracks depending on the case (e.g. Kind of Blue is a downmix of the original session tape, which has three tracks). They have no compression and/or other alterations, as they were not originally prepared for special applications such as vinyl or cassette production. Essentially, they are a linear copy of the first generation of the original downmix. I would like to note that, in contrast, most production masters circulating on the legal or illegal market and used as a source for creating numerous legal or illegal copies for the audiophile world are production copies that were originally created for the production of vinyl or cassettes and therefore contain technical interventions that were necessary for such productions and have a significant impact on the original content.

The first stage of work after we have analyzed the Ermitage production masters is the creation of a working copy. As it is mechanically stressed by constant playback, rewinding and fast-forwarding, its sole purpose is to allow Pietro Benini to set all the necessary parameters for the final remastering with the utmost precision. For each individual song and, if necessary, for sections of the same song, various intervention parameters are tested and adjusted using various old or current analog devices.

These are for example:

- Maselec MLA-4 (Eq. Compressor Expander Triband)

- Studer D19 (Pre Amplifier Controller Valve Drive)

- Tube Tech CL 1B (Compressor Valve)

- Orban 536 A (Dynamic Sibilance Controller)

- Drawmer 1960 (Pre Amplifier Compressor Valve)

- AKG BX 20 (Analog Natural Ambience spring Reverb)

- …and many others

This lengthy process takes Pietro on average around three/four weeks full time to achieve the best possible result in every respect for each new title: Technically, musically and emotionally, but always with full respect for the original work and the work of the artists and technicians who created it. Once this goal has been achieved, each intervention parameter is noted down on paper (song by song, section by section) with the utmost precision, so that it can then be repeated in real time during the final stage of making the Hemiolia production tape. We do everything we can to keep the length of the chain in our production processes to an absolute minimum.

Claus Müller: How do the copying process and quality control for the tapes work?

Claudio Valeri: The next step of the final duplication process is, in my opinion, unique in the spectrum of production companies in this sector. In recent years, we have unfortunately experienced defects in new tape media. This forced us to introduce a very restrictive procedure for the quality control of these media. These defects occur randomly in various forms: Drops, substrate and/or surface pigment defects, oxide loss or elongation in the initial area. We also notice a significant difference in the sensitivity of the tape, which can be as much as 1.5 dB compared to the reference value (which we set for all our production at 320 nWb/m) at different frequencies, between different batches and tapes. For many, this may not be a problem. In discussions with some of our colleagues, we found that they do not apply systematic and in-depth control criteria. At Hemiolia, we have set very restrictive criteria for our entire production chain: The tolerances for hardware and tapes must not exceed 0.2 dB.

When we receive the new tapes, we carry out an initial spot check by analyzing three tapes from each batch of 20.Using a special analyzer, which is very rare as it was historically only made in very few copies by an English company called Second Base for the BBC and is called a Reclamation Unit , we are able to check for the presence of drops by indicating their number, position and unit. If the defects are evenly distributed within a batch of 20 pieces, we can perform an initial screening and react to obvious defects by excluding the entire batch. Tapes that pass our test are then eligible for the production phase. Before the tapes are used for copying, each individual tape is visually inspected for the possible presence of substrate defects using an Otari MTR15, which we use to make the final copies for sale. If there are mechanical stretching defects in the initial part, the defective parts of the tape are removed. The tape is then fully rewound, played for a few minutes and then rewound again to check for oxide loss.

If these stages are passed, we move on to the next step: We record three short test tones on two different sections of tape to check the levels, which must match the quality parameters specified in our quality manual. The recording device is calibrated to each individual tape so that the resulting copy perfectly matches the production master. We then proceed to the triple phase of erasing the recorded sounds. The tape is rewound to the beginning, and we create a 1:1 copy at the speed of 15 ips (38 cm/s). Any tape that does not pass even one check of the phases described is out of the question for our productions. We know how expensive this process is in terms of time, machine wear and economy in terms of waste, but our company philosophy is to produce highly accurate master tape copies.

All the recording and studio equipment we use is constantly subjected to strict mechanical and electronic controls. Our maintenance program includes various daily, monthly and semi-annual checks, depending on the type of equipment. The recording heads we use are not re-lapped at the end of their service life but are always replaced with new heads. All empty and ready-to-sell tapes are stored in a climate-controlled environment with active humidity and temperature control.

We worked on this difficult task with a great deal of passion, enthusiasm and commitment. The result we have achieved compensates us for all our efforts.

Claus Müller: I have seen that you also offer your own recordings.

Claudio Valeri: Yes, we have our own studio (one of three studios designed and built in Italy in the early 1990s by the famous English company ADG-Audio Design Group) for recording new titles, such as the album Ao Amigo Guinga. We also have a mobile studio that is used to record in external environments, such as all the titles of the Live series of the catalog, or Correnteza, Mencarelli and Pannozzo.

Claus Müller: When an order arrives at Hemiolia records, what is the procedure?

Claudio Valeri: It is possible to buy Hemiolia tapes directly from our website from all countries where there is no importer. Normally, the preparation of the ordered tapes starts within two days of the order. They are shipped within seven days to the utmost. In the countries where our importers are present, the customer contacts them directly for the purchase. They usually have a stock of titles. If some are not available in their warehouse, we take care of it immediately, so the waiting times for delivery are very limited. For Germany, we have an import contract with in-akustik.

Claus Müller: Thank you very much for the interview and the deep insights into the production process at Hemiolia records.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)