Danish mastering and manufacturing plant active from 1981 until February 2006 when it was merged into Dicentia, a company formed in 2005 after the fusion of SDC (3) and DCM Sweden.
History:
The Tocano plant grew out of the recording studio Tocano Studiet, Hørve founded by Alex Frederiksen in 1971. The Hørve location was vacated 1983 and cassette manufacturing was moved to Himmelev near Roskilde, from 1988 also offering sound mastering for CD manufacturing. A new plant was established 1993 in Smørum, still producing and replicating cassette tapes in large scale, but later also CD and DVD production. The Smørum plant was expanded several times through the years, also with additional mastering studios, and continued operations all the way to the merge with Dicentia in 2006. Another mastering studio was inaugurated in Copenhagen under the name Tocano Mastering, Nyhavn in 1999 and for a short period around 1997, Tocano even had a daughter plant in Cork, Ireland.
Tocano can be identified by either:
• Made in Denmark by Tocano on cassette shells.
• Stylized 'coil tape' or 'cassette tape' logos on cassette shells.
• Mastered at Tocano as booklet or cover credit. Long time mastering engineer was Jan Eliasson.
• TOC branded in glass master layer of CDs accompanied by a sequential five-digit number.
• TOCANO branded in glass master layer of CDs, accompanied by a sequential five-digit number. The branded text may have various extensions (even in combinations) ie.:
- TOCANO AS
- TOCANO DK
- TOCANO 2001
- TOCANO n014, the 'n' being a number from 0 to 6 (ie. 0014 to 6014)
For mastering credits, please also consider:
- Tocano Music when found as standarized text on the CD (see profile image), or as plain text in booklet
- Tocano Mastering, Nyhavn with name variations Tocano Mastering, Copenhagen and Tocano, Copenhagen
Mastering SID Codes:
• From 1995 to 1997 a variety of mastering codes can be found in conjunction with the Tocano brand, most commonly L851, L852, L051, L052, L081 and L082. Those codes belong to sub contractors producing the glass masters for Tocano.
• From 1997 to 2001 Tocano branded releases have no mastering codes, but they do have mould codes. Codes n014 also appears frequently in this period; though not an official mastering code, it signifies the glass master was produced by Tocano.
• From 2001 and on only mastering code IFPI LP51 appear (with a few exceptions IFPI LP54 primarily on DVDs); however far from all releases have a mastering code.
Mould SID Codes:
• Generally follow patterns 2Znn and 6Enn
Submission guidelines for CDs with TOCANO or TOC branded in matrix:
1) With Mastering SID Code IFPI LP51 or IFPI LP54 use LCCN role 'Glass Mastered At'.
2) With any Tocano identifier n014 use LCCN role 'Glass Mastered At'.
3) With the "TOCANO" text in matrix string use LCCN role 'Pressed By'.
The sequential 5-digit number can be added as catalog number to the first occurrence of the physical LCCN roles. Please observe:
• Sequential numbers are inherited to represses and reissues.
• The sequencing isn't strictly consistent. It seems that numbers were assigned in batches, but making it to production line with various delays. Please allow more than one year in deviation before deleting release year based alone on the sequential number.
Any booklet credits for Tocano, ie. 'Mastered At', must be placed after the physical LCCN role(s), to allow for sequential sorting on the release page.
