| Main Pressing plants Pennyroyal Tea Test pressings Collection |
| Digital Audio Disc Corp./ Sony DADC | |||||
|
Digital Audio Disc Corporation was the first company to manufacture CDs in USA. It was established in 1983 by Sony and CBS, owning half the company each. Production started in Terre Haute, IN, in 1984. Sony acquired CBS Records from CBS in 1988, which resulted in DADC being a wholly-owned subsidiary to Sony. CD production in their Pitman, NJ, facilities started the same year. (This facility had manufactured vinyl records since 1960, possibly a former CBS pressing plant.) The North American plants were called Digital Audio Disc Corp. up to April 2004, when Sony Disc Manufacturing and Sony DADC unified worldwide production (except in Japan, where it is called Sony Music Entertainment Japan Ltd.) under the name Sony DADC. The matrix codes are very simple for all the North American facilities. As an example, let us look at an early pressing of Nevermind: DIDX-011927 3 ¤ ¤¤ ¤¤¤¤¤ DIDX identifies DADC, while the following six-digit number is their cataloging system. Each release is given a number, just like record labels assign catalog numbers to their releases. The next one- (or two-) digit number shows how many times a master has been created for one particular release. I call this number the MGM number. The first will get a 1, the second a 2, and so on. Nevermind was mastered at least seven times by DADC. The number three here suggests this was a relatively early pressing, done sometime in 1992. The MGM number may or may not also be equal to the pressing number (at this pressing plant). Several MGMs could have been created simultaneously for quicker processing and production, which means all seven or more different Nevermind matrix variations were pressed at the same time. These pressings may also be months apart. It makes sense that it's the biggest-selling releases which had most MGMs made over time, but also that several MGMs were created simultaneously for quicker production. Incesticide discs with the same MGM number have been found with different mould IFPIs, indicating that they kept the MGM/ made several stampers from one MGM. This seems to be done on a case-to-case basis. Sometimes they make a new MGM every time they are ordered to press a re-issue (but several stampers may be made out of each MGM, for production on several lines at the same time), sometimes they make several MGMs at the same time for quicker production, and sometimes an MGM is kept so that reissues can be made from new stampers made from the same MGM. It's hard to say because of the limited matrix and IFPI data I have available. The DADC plants seem to have aquired their IFPI repertoires relatively late. An LBR IFPI was first spotted on a 1995 promo sampler (DIDX-029025 1), while IFPI 50** first appeared on another promo sampler (DIDX-043827 1), from 1996. An Incesticide longbox with a lower DIDX number (DIDX-015356 1) than both these promo samplers have an IFPI 50. This cannot have been a 1992 first pressing as IFPI codes were not available before late 1993, and the absence of IFPI codes on promo samplers from 1994-1995 suggests that it is in fact a 1995 or later pressing. (This is odd, as longboxes were a dying packaging format by then.) This disc has the MGM number 1, which indicates that this was made using an old master as the DIDX number was superseded years ago. Another problem is that Sony DADC's website only mentions two plants in USA, while I have three IFPI repertoires which belong to American plants. Most likely the IFPI 50 and 51 repertoires belong to the Terre Haute plant, while IFPI 72 belong to the Pitman plant. According to IFPI guidelines, a single plant should only have one mould IFPI repertoire. It is possible that they may have received equipment from another site. Although I have very little data to base this on, as DADC didn't press many Nirvana discs after 1995, IFPI 50 has only been found on older releases, and IFPI 51 on newer (With The Lights Off box), so it seems that they today follow IFPI's guidelines and have only one repertoire, IFPI 51. The number of cross hairs vary. It seems to be ¤ ¤¤ ¤¤¤¤¤ on early releases, and ¤ ¤¤ ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ from sometime in 1993 and on. Some discs also have a logo of a D in a box around the spindle hole, sometimes with one star on each side. This appears to be only on earlier discs (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Hormoaning). |
|
||||
|
Thanks to TribStar. | |||||
| Main Pressing plants Pennyroyal Tea Test pressings Collection |
