Todd Rundgren 12 inch Acetate 4 PRO 597 Side 2 The Ikon

$

200

1974 Todd Rundgren 12 inch Acetate for Side 2 of PRO 597 The Ikon

This one takes a little explaining. This is a 12 inch one-sided acetate that is for one side of a promo only album that was released in 1974 called Bearsville PRO 597 that was released to promote Todd Rundgren and his new band called Utopia. The first release of the band Utopia left many radio programmers scratching their heads and this was meant to make Utopia more accessible

Side one of the disk called PRO 597 was an interview with Todd Rundgren explaining to the uninitiated who he is. This acetate, however, is for what is described as the "meat of the platter" Side 2.

Basically Side 2 of PRO 597 is the song "The Ikon" broken down into 7 seperate radio friendly length songs. "The Ikon" ran over 30 minutes long, was all of side 2 of the first Utopia LP and in 1974, radio wasn't having no 30 min songs in regular radio play rotation. So they edited the song into 7 radio sized pieces and that was the side two meat of PRO 597.

And that is what this acetate is. Side two of PRO 597. What is really interesting are all the hand written notes written on the front of the cover for this acetate. The notes kind of say what the beginning of this description do, except in a much cooler pre production kind of way.

Check it out. The disc is VG+, no deep scratches just a few surface scrapes. Quite nice actually. The cover is VG due mostly to a 3 inch seam split at the front bottom of the cover. No biggie.

For those of you who don't know what an acetate is, here is an article on the subject.

What is an Acetate?

by Christopher Chatman

"MANY TIMES I’VE BEEN ASKED ‘WHAT ARE ACETATES AND TEST PRESSINGS?’ FOLLOWED CLOSELY BY ‘WHY DO THEY COST SO MUCH?’. RECORD COLLECTORS ARE CONTINUALLY IN SEARCH OF THE ‘RAREST RECORDS’, THE ‘BEST PRESSINGS’. THIS HAS MUCH TO DO WITH THE DEMAND OF PROMOTIONAL RECORDS: THEY ARE USUALLY MUCH RARER THAN THE STOCK COPIES AND, BECAUSE, OF THEIR LIMITED PRESS RUNS, BETTER SOUNDING. HOWEVER, PROMOTIONAL COPIES - AND EVEN TEST PRESSINGS - PALE IN COMPARISON TO ACETATES, BOTH IN TERMS OF SOUND QUALITY AND PARTICULARLY IN RARETY.

 ACETATES (a.k.a reference lacquers, reference discs and masters) ARE THE FIRST STEP IN THE TRANSFER OF MUSIC FROM AN ELECTRONIC SIGNAL TO THE ACTUAL PRESSED RECORD. THEY ALLOW THE MUSICIANS AND PRODUCERS TO HEAR WHAT THE FINISHED RECORD WILL SOUND LIKE WITHOUT GOING THROUGH THE TIME AND EXPENSE OF THE PLATING AND PRESSING. AFTER ALL, THEY MAY DECIDE THAT THEY DON’T LIKE A PARTICULAR VERSION OF A SONG AND CHANGE IT OR NOT RELEASE IT AT ALL. ACETATES ARE USUALLY BLACK 7" AND 12" IN DIAMETER.

WHILE MOST OF RECORDS ARE MADE OF VINYL, ACETATES ARE MADE OUT OF ALUMINIUM COATED WITH CELLULOSE ACETATE. THUS, WHILE THEY LOOK LIKE RECORDS, THEY WEIGH APPROXIMATELY FIVE TIMES AS MUCH. THE CELLULOSE ACETATE FOR THESE LACQUERS IS MADE AT A VERY HIGH LEVEL OF QUALITY CONTROL. ACETATES ARE VERY EXPENSIVE TO MANUFACTURE, THEREFORE RECORD COMPANIES NORMALLY MAKE ONLY FIVE COPIES OF ANY ONE RECORD. RECENTLY, WITH THE SHARP REDUCTION OF VINYL RECORDS, THE NUMBER OF ACETATES MADE HAS DROPPED DRAMATICALLY. AFTER A RECORDING HAS BEEN TAPED, EDITED AND EQUALIZED, AN UNCUT ACETATE, OR ‘BLANK’, IS SENT TO THE MASTERING LAB WHERE IT IS PLACED ON THE TURNTABLE OF AN ELECTRONIC LATHE SYSTEM. THE MASTER TAPE IS PLAYED THROUGH A LATHE SYSTEM AND ELECTRONICALLY TRANSMITTED TO THE CUTTING NEEDLE SO THAT THE MUSIC LITTERALLY CUTS MICROSCOPIC WIGGLES ANALOGOUS TO THE SOUND WAVES THAT THEY REPRESENT DIRECTLY INTO THE ACETATE COATING. BECAUSE OF THIS DIRECT CUTTING FROM THE MASTER TAPE AND THE HIGH QUALITY OF THE CELLULOSE, THE SOUND IS SUBSTANTIALLY BETTER THAN A RECORD. AN ACETATE WHICH HAS RECEIVED APPROVAL IS CALLED A MASTER LACQUER. AFTER A LACQUER HAS BEEN CUT IT IS SENT TO A FACTORY TO BE ELECTROPLATED WITH NICKEL. A LABEL FROM ETHER THE MASTERING LAB OR THE RECORD COMPANY IS USUALLY GLUED TO THE DISC; REFERENCE DISCS MAY HAVE NO LABEL AT ALL AND MASTER LACQUER RARELY DO. ALTHOUGH ACETATES ARE NORMALLY PACKAGED IN PLAIN WHITE SLEEVES,IN RECENT YEARS MANY ARE SHIPPED IN SPECIAL BOXES WITH COVERS; THIS EXTRA PACKAGING TENDS TO ENHANCE THE DESIRABILITY OF THE ACETATE.

AFTER THE MUSIC ON A REFERENCE DISC HAS BEEEN REVIEWED AND THE RECORD PRESSED, THE ACETATE IS THEN DISCARDED. ACETATES SHOULD BE TREATED EVEN MORE CAREFULLY THAN RECORDS. DUE TO THE BRITTLENESS OF THE CELLULOSE, THE ACTION OF PLAYING AN ACETATE WITH A PHONOGRPAH NEEDLE IS QUITE DAMAGING TO THE DISC’S SURFACE. AFTER FIVE PLAYS, THE NEEDLE BEGINS TO CUT AWAY THE FINER MICROSCOPIC GROOVES WHICH PRODUCE THE HIGH FREQUENCIES. IT IS THEREFORE ADVISABLE TO PLAY AN ACETTATE ONCE, RECORD IT ON TAPE, AND THEN CAREFULLY STORE IT AWAY. ALSO, ACETATES CHIP EASILY; HANDLE WITH CARE. THE NICKEL PLATING IS THEN PEELED AWAY, WHICH RESULTS IN A NEGATIVE METAL PRINT OF THE LACQUER COMMONLY REFERRED TO AS A ‘MOTHER’. THE FIRST PRESSINGS TO BE RUN OFF THE MOTHER ARE TEST PRESSINGS; THE FINAL STOP BEFORE THE RECORD IS ACTUALLY MANUFATURED FOR MASS CONSUMPTION. TEST PRESSINGS ARE VINYL FACSIMILES OF THE ACTUAL ALBUM; THAT IS, THEY ARE 12" RECORDS PRESSED IN EXTREMELY LIMITED RUNS, USUALLY AT A PLANT THAT SPECIALIZES IN TEST PRESSINGS. IT IS NOT FEASIBLE FOR THE LARGE COMPANIES TO TURN THEIR ENORMOUS MACHINES TO PRINT A HANDFUL OF RECORDS.THESE RECORDS ALLOW THE PEOPLE INVOLVED TO ACTUALLY HEAR WHAT THE RECORD WILL SOUND LIKE AS AN LP. THEY MAY HAVE SPECIAL LABELS OR THEY MAY BE BLANK. TEST PRESSINGS ARE CHECKED FOR SOUND QUALITY AND TECHNICAL DEFECTS; IF THEY ARE SATISFACTORY, THEN THE PROMOTIONAL COPIES ARE PRESSED, GENERALLY FOR DISTRIBUTION TO RADIO STATIONS. FINALLY, THE COMMERCIAL, OR STOCK, COPIES ARE PRESSED FOR SALE IN YOUR FAVORITE ENDANGERED RECORD STORE.

A RECENT VARIATION OF THE USUAL TYPE OF ACETATE IS THE DIRECT METAL MASTER, OR DMM. INSTEAD OF BEING MADE OF ALUMINIM COATED WITH CELLULOSE ACETATE, THEY ARE MADE OF STAINLESS STEEL COATED WITH POLISHED COPPER. THE SIGNAL FROM THE MASTER TAPE IS CUT DIRECTLY INTO THE COPPER. THIS TECHNOLOGY, DESIGNED TO IMPROVE THE SOUND QUALITY OF RECORDS, WAS DESIGNED JUST AS THE DOMINANCE OF COMPACT DISC WAS FORCING RECORDS INTO RELATIVE OBSCURITY. THIS, COMBINED WITH THE FACT THAT DMM IS VERY EXPENSIVE TO CONVERT HAS RESULTED IN FEW MASTERING LABS INVESTING IN THIS NEW METHOD. THEREFORE, DMMM ACETATES ARE VERY RARE AND, BECAUSE OF THEIR BEAUTY, HIGHLY PRIZED BY COLLECTORS."

It's a historical piece of Todd history. Ya know?

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