Ryoji Ikeda – Ryoji Ikeda EP

"The B-side track Space has a repeating 14kHz sinewave and some low bass throughout the piece.
Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering said that 14kHz may cause cutting problems, but I wanted to give a try. 14kHz should be possible to be cut on vinyl.
The first cut was made at TES in June 2020 and the test pressings arrived to Turku in mid July. The tests were first reviewd with my own Technics SL1200 MK2 and Grado DJ200 cartridge. You could not hear the high 14kHz signal at all. Nothing, only the bass and some cracklings when sinetone was suppposed be at. Then my frind triend the test with his broadcast ThorensTD524 and Hana SL cartridge. The result was better. You could hear very weak 14kHz, but just about 5% of the original master volume (the bass was very similar to the master). Next we went to a local HIFI shop hifimesta.fi and we tried in their listening room with Linn Sondek LP12 and highend Linn mc cartridge. Again the result was slightly better. We could hear maybe 10% of the master volume and the crackling sounds were considerably less. However the result was not acceptable at all.
I told Ryoji about the situation and he said that he can make a new mix of the track with considerably lower sine signal. Few days later I received a new master with 9kHz sine repetition. Beau did a new cut and I received the new tests in October and the sound was very good.
Tommi G "