The Sheffield Track Record

Very rare smart clean Direct to Disc  vinyl with a very smart gloss cover. Includes inserts.

The Sheffield Track Record:
(Bill Schnee, producer, engineer. Doug Sax, executive producer. Recorded May 22, 1982, Sheffield Lab Studios at MGM, Culver City, California.)

The Sheffield Track Record is designed to test the capabilities of a sound system. Producer/engineer Bill Schnee sought first to capture the instruments that are the foundation of rock music, the drum set and the electric bass. This underpinning supports guitars, keyboards, and other elements that are the instrumental ingredients in a rock and roll record. A stereo system which reproduces the impact, low end transients, percussive clarity, dynamic and frequency ranges of "The Sheffield Track Record", is capable of handling the demands of most any recording, be it rock, pop, jazz, or classical.

The four basic elements in rock-oriented pop music are bass, drums, guitar, and keyboard. Engineers, producers, and studio musicians all agree that for sheer impact and exhilarating energy, these basic accompaniment instruments, which are usually recorded on separate tracks, considerably surpass the "final" record which is the end product of compromised audio quality due to overdubbing, mix-down, and editing.

For this project, Bill Schnee assembled a group of the most in demand musicians in the Los Angeles recording studios, instrumentalists for whom rock is a natural language, bringing great musical interest to the record. Highlights of the recording are the two original compositions by James Newton Howard and Robbie Buchanan, "Amuseum" and "Le Ballade", both with appealing melodies that lent themselves to the complete arrangements heard here.

"The Sheffield Track Record" is not only a tool for the evaluation of a sound system, but a musical statement that will stand the test of time.