Supersense x Universal Music Austria
proudly present:

MASTERCUT EDITIONS

A revolution in record production

In an exclusive collaboration with Universal Music Austria, Supersense is launching a high-end record to put music lovers into the audio engineer's seat: the Mastercut Editions.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN RECORD HISTORY, DIRECTLY CUT LACQUER DISCS ARE AVAILABLE TO MUSIC LOVERS ALL AROUND THE WORLD

In the conventional record production process, the term "Mastercut" refers to a template disc from which the pressing stamper is derived and which is destroyed in that process. But in our editions, each and every record is the original Mastercut, cut directly into a lacquer disc. Making this premium-quality component of record production widely available for the first time!

Please have a look at this short video to dive deeper into the heart and soul of MASTERCUT, meet our Mastercut team and take a short tour through our small MASTERCUT manufactory in Vienna.

Two different series of MASTERCUT EDITIONS are available:
Archival Tape Editions as well as Live Recording Editions

Archival Tape Editions

Unedited original recordings of music history

For this project, Universal Music Group, the world leader in music-based entertainment, provided access to its archives containing the greatest recordings from over a century of music history. Our Mastercut Records are cut directly from completely unedited 1:1 copies of carefully selected original tapes of carefully selected sound recordings.

Supersense founder Florian "Doc" Kaps says:

"The Archival Tape Edition is a deep dive into Universal Music Group's vaults, into some of the most celebrated recordings on this planet. We selected quintessential tapes for super limited, all analog one-to-one copies of the world's most beloved sound recordings, revealing and celebrating their true, unaltered soul for the most authentic listening experience."

#16: SARAH VAUGHAN / SARAH VAUGHAN

Premier Cut: 01-99

A legendary 1955 jazz album featuring singer Sarah Vaughan and trumpeter Clifford Brown, released in MONO on the EmArcy label. The album was Vaughan's own favorite among her works through 1980 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

#15: LOUIS ARMSTRONG MEETS OSCAR PETERSON

Premier Cut: 01-99

Norman Granz signed Armstrong to his Verve roster and placed him with label hero Oscar Peterson's trio, augmented by Bellson, for these 2 relaxed, unhurried sessions recorded on October 14, 1957 first issued on LP in 1959.

#14: Oscar Peterson Trio / Night Train

Premier Cut: 01-99

"Night Train" is an album by the Oscar Peterson Trio, released in 1963 by Verve Records. The album includes jazz, blues and R&B standards, as well as "Hymn to Freedom", one of Peterson's best known original compositions.

#13: Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

Premier Cut: 01-99

M An iconic jazz album by Duke Ellington and John Coltrane released in January 1963, featuring Elvin Jones, Sam Woodyard, Aaron Bell and Jimmy Garrison.

#12: Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas

Premier Cut: 01-99

Maybe one of the most iconic Christmas albums of all times. "Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas" is a 1960 album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, recorded in the summer of 1960, with a studio orchestra arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol.

#11: Marvin Gaye / What's Going On

Premier Cut: 01-99

Marvin Gaye's first album to present him as a producer and to credit Motown's in-house studio band, the iconic session musicians known as the Funk Brothers.

#10: HERBERT VON KARAJAN / BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER

Premier Cut: 01-99

JOHANNES BRAHMS: SYMPHONY NO.3 IN F MAJOR OP. 90, TRAGIC OVERTURE OP. 81

Brahms 3rd Symphony in a wonderful version with "our" Austrian conductor legend Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

#9: Bill Evans Trio / Trio 64

Premier Cut: 01-99

Recorded in December 1963 in New York City.
Joining Bill Evans (piano) on Trio 64 — his initial three-piece recording for Verve — is the compact rhythm section of Gary Peacock (bass) and Paul Motian (drums). The effort spotlights their communal and intuitive musical discourse, hinging on an uncanny ability of the musicians to simultaneously hear and respond.

#8: Oliver Nelson / The Blues And The Abstract Truth

Premier Cut: 01-99

Recorded on February 23rd 1961 at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
The Blues And The Abstract Truth, recorded in February 1961, remains Nelson's most acclaimed album featuring an incredible lineup of legendary musicians: Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Roy Haynes.

#7: Ella & Louis

Premier Cut: 01-99

Recorded on August 16th 1956 at Capital Studios, Hollywood.
As you know, our ARCHIVAL TAPE Editions are meant to give you the chance to listen to some well selected gems of analog sound recording. Without dedicated remastering and retouch. And with Ella & Louis we are proudly introducing our first release in MONO!

#6: Nina Simone / I Put A Spell On You

Premier Cut: 01-99

Recorded between 1964 and 1965 at New York City Studio.
This incredible edition will directly zoom you into the true soul of our big MASTERCUT dream of producing the world's most authentic records. Even though the original tapes from these legendary sessions between 1964 and 1965 have candidly aged and matured with quite a few distinctly hearable "characteristics" like ticks, pops, and crackles, the listening experience is nevertheless mind-blowing.

#5: William Steinberg / BSO
Also Sprach Zarathustra

Premier Cut: 01-99

Recorded in March 1971 at Symphony Hall, Boston USA.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Joseph Silverstein, conducted by William Steinberg. Maybe some of the most famous and most powerful minutes in classical music history.

#4: Getz / Gilberto

Premier Cut: 01-99
USA Edition: 001 - 500

Recorded in March 1963 at A&R Studios, New York, NY, USA.
The multi-Grammy winning album "Getz/Gilberto" by Stan Getz, João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto was one of the best-selling albums of all time and marked a peak of the bossa nova wave.

As of today, July 1st 2022 we are proud and honored to announce the global availability of our sold out GETZ/GILBERTO album as USA Edition. This edition has again been developed in close cooperation with Impulse and differs from the Premiere Cut in several design elements like a blue tones screen print on the inner sleeve as well as a blue toned Getz/Gilberto cyanotype.

#3: John Coltrane / A Love Supreme

Premier Cut: 01-99
USA Edition: 001 - 500

Recorded in December 1964 at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA.
The most famous and successful studio album of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane is still considered his masterpiece.

After our Premier Cut production sold out in just minutes, we are proud to introduce the global availability of the USA Edition. This edition has been developed in close cooperation with Impulse and differs from the Premiere Cut in several design elements like a blue tones screen print on the inner sleeve.

#2: Carlos Kleiber / Wiener Philharmoniker

Premier Cut: 01-99

Recorded in the spring of 1975 at the Musikvereinssaal, Vienna, Austria.
One of the most important conductors of the 20th century performs Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor with the Vienna Philharmonic.

#1: Martha Argerich / Piano

Premier Cut: 01-99

Recorded in July 1960 at Beethovensaal in Hannover, Germany.
Known for her spirited playing, the pianist impressed at the tender age of seven, when she debuted with Beethoven, and continues to be a busy protagonist of the piano world. Pieces by Chopin, Brahms, Prokofiev, Ravel and Liszt.

Live Recording Editions

ALL ANALOG DIRECT TO TAPE SESSIONS WITH CAREFULLY SELECTED ARTISTS

Again in close colobaration with Universal Music Group, we started to invite an increasing selection of the world's most influencial and brave artsists for intimate all analog Live Recording sessions to unique locations.

Their performance is mastered and mixed on the fly and directly recorded to analog tape. From this one-of-a-kind mastertape we thereafter cut our Editions in real time.

We always love to compare this process with catching a butterfly without causing damage to their super fragile wings. In our case, the butterfly is a magic sound wave carefully preserved in authentic grooves with the best analog equipment we can imagine, including the legendary DECCA WSW Console and of course our unique cluster of next generation cutting lathes.

On Tuesday, May 31st 2022, we proudly announced the long-awaited second LIVE RECORDING EDITION of our MASTERCUT series. Please welcome one of the UK's most successful living songwriters and musicians: Mr. Guy Chambers!

#2: GUY CHAMBERS

Premier Cut: 01-99

RECORDED LIVE AT SUPERSENSE / VIENNA
JUNE 12th, 2022

Having worked with outstanding artists all over the world, including Tina Turner, Kylie Minogue, Will Young, Scissor Sisters, Busted, Melanie C, Diana Ross, Tom Jones, James Blunt, Rufus Wainwright, Mark Ronson and many more, Guy is best known for his collaborations with Robbie Williams, co-writing some of Williams' most iconic hits including "Angels", "Millennium", "Feel", "Let Me Entertain You" and "Rock DJ".

In 2019 Guy released his debut solo piano album, "Go Gentle Into the Light" - a collection of some of the best-loved songs by him and Robbie Williams reimagined for solo piano, with the single "The Road To Mandalay" reaching over 6 million streams. Always seeking new creative endeavors, and on Sunday, June 12th, 2022, Guy took on the challenge to perform a selection from this album live on the living room stage at the SUPERSENSE palace in front of a small group of friends and fans with nothing but a Bösendorfer 230VC and some carefully selected and positioned microphones, recording straight to disc and tape with all analog studio equipment - as pure, fragile and authentic as never heard or experienced before! For all of you who could not be part of that evening, our friend Jens Meurer created a warm all analog minimovie, shot on 16mm.

In good old MASTERCUT tradition we of course also created a very special edition booklet full of exclusive handmade content and memorabilia, all produced in our SUPERSENSE manufactories. Highlights include the limited edition screenprint of a hand drawing by Guy's wife Emma during one of the rehearsal sessions, a handmade Cyanotype of Guy, as well as an original piece of wax which played a very peculiar role that night.

Last but not least this edition for the first time also includes a QR code secret link to a hidden webpage where we cordially invite you to listen to Guy telling us some private stories about the songs performed at this larger-than-life evening in Vienna.

The LIVE RECORDING Edition launched in February 2022 with one of our very favorite artists.

#1: Gregoy Porter

Premier Cut: 01-99

RECORDED LIVE AT SUPERSENSE / VIENNA
OCTOBER 18th, 2016

It was a rainy day, that October 18th 2016, when Grammy winner Gregory Porter visited SUPERSENSE to record a few songs. After a short tour and a coffee he and his musicians entered our living room stage and suddenly not only the rain stopped but it seemed like time stood still and nothing but magic filled the air and the heart and soul of all people who had the chance to be there.

"We are doing a live recording straight to disc and tape - there is no editing, no fixing, no auto tune, it's just me, the needle and the music. It's exciting, and the reason I prefer this is the humanity to it - there are cracks and wrinkles, which makes it valuable, daring and vulnerable. And all of that comes across in the recording."

Now you have the chance to also listen to these magic sound waves carefully cut into our first LIVE RECORDING EDITION. Please close your eyes as soon as the needle touches the groove and you will be zoomed back in time and stand right there in front of the stage with Gregory performing just a few meters in front of you.

Moreover, we included a lot of very special memorabila of that very special day in our MASTERCUT Booklet.
After the Premiere Cut Edition of this legendary live recording session of Gregory at our SUPERSENSE palace sold out in weeks, we decided to celebrate this unique and very intimate recording with a new edition.

#1: Gregoy Porter - Palace Edition

Premier Cut: 01-99

Cover designed and created by Anna, our creative director, and her husband Ema who are running the MASTERCUT print department, inspired by historic style elements from the interior of the Supersense palace.

Picture Disc Edition

THE BEAUTY OF PICTURE DISCS FINALLY COMBINED WITH HIGH END AUDIOPHILE LISTENING EXPERIENCE

As beautiful as they are, classic picture discs do have a very bad reputation regarding their sonic qualities. Based on our philosophy to never stop re-inventing and re-thinking music records, we developed a new approach on producing the highest quality art record of all time!

The 2 sides of MASTERCUT PICTURE DISCS are very different from each other. On the one side we carefully enrich the shimmering surface of the Japanese lacquer disc with an especially developed screenprint technology at our MASTERCUT print studio.

On the other side we just cut ONE song (with 45 rpm), using only the outer portion of the disk's surface. This provides better audio quality because the outer portions move past the cutting stylus faster than the inner portions for any given revolving speed. This in turn creates a longer groove length per second and enhances the cut's precision.

As a result our first PICTURE DISC EDITION is the best looking but also the best sounding MASTERCUT record ever produced!!

Be among the first collectors to spoil your senses with the crisp sound, the stunning looks and the elegant handling of this truly tri-sensual piece of art and craftsmanship.

#1: NINA SIMONE

PICTURE DISC EDITION: 01-99

I PUT A SPELL ON YOU 45 RPM

Our very first MASTERCUT PICTURE Edition is dedicated to one of our very favourite artists of all time, celebrating her 90th birthday: MRS. NINA SIMONE.

This edition is super strictly limited to only 99 pieces and comes in a handmade, all analog printed Slim Case, especially developed for our picture disc editions.

Tech Specs

A. TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • RPM: 33 1/3
  • Classic 12” format
  • Cut in real-time on a lacquer disc with metal core produced my MDC, JAPAN
  • Packaging dimensions LxWxH: 34cm x 36cm x 7cm
  • Packaging content:
    Gloves, Handprinted Cover and Sleeve,
    Lacquer disc secured by special Mastercut screw,
    MASTERCUT Edition hand-sewn Edition Booklet filled with all analog Memorabilia
  • Total weight: 1,2kg

B. CIRCULATION

The total circulation of this Mastercut release is strictly limited to a maximum total of 999 records.
The following different editions are currently available:

ARCHIVAL TAPE EDITIONS

  • #16 Sarah Vaughan / Sarah Vaughan
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #15 Louis Armstrong meets Oscar Peterson
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #14 Oscar Peterson Trio / Night Train
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #13 Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #12 Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #11 Marvin Gaye / What's Going On
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #10 Herbert von Karajan / Berliner Philharmoniker
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #9 Bill Evans Trio / Trio 64
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #8 Oliver Nelson / The Blues And The Abstract Truth
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #7 Ella & Louis
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #6 Nina Simone / I Put A Spell On You
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #5 William Steinberg / BSO
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
  • #4 Getz / Gilberto
    Premier Cut: 01-99
    USA Edition: 076 - 500
  • #3 John Coltrane / A Love Supreme
    Premier Cut: 01 - 99
    USA Edition: 010 - 500
  • #2 Carlos Kleiber / Wiener Philharmoniker
    Premier Cut: 01-99
  • #1 Martha Argerich
    Premier Cut: 01-99

LIVE RECORDING EDITIONS

  • Gregory Porter
    Premier Cut: 01-99 Palace Edition: 01-99
  • Guy Chambers
    Premier Cut: 01-99

C. PRODUCTION

Every single edition is handcrafted in the Viennese Supersense manufactory by a small team of experts in the fields of record cutting, traditional printing methods and packaging design. Only using high quality natural paper from selected European paper mills.

The cover is very reduced in design, printed with traditional letterpress and hot foil techniques at our all analog printshop in the heart of Vienna by our creative director Anna Tatu and her husband Ema.



For all our Archival Tape Editions, the inner sleeve celebrates a photograph of the original tape, reproduced in our print shop with screen printing techniques.

For all our Live Recording Editions, the inner sleeve features our favorite photograph of the live recording session.

A special, high density screen is used by our screen print master Giulio Paolini for highest, all-analog printing quality.



Opening the inner sleeve reveals the edition details.

Printed with lines we produce with our classic linotype machines.



Opening the "info flip", we finally see the shining Mastercut.

Carefully secured and protected by the Mastercut Screw.

Developed and exclusively produced for this edition together with Wolfgang Weber in his unique metal workshop.

In addition to the high-quality sound carrier, each edition contains valuable, partly historical accompanying documents (such as the original recording protocol of Deutsche Grammophon or historical photographs,...) - also reproduced using purely analog technologies.

All documents are carefully inserted into the special MASTERCUT booklet you will find underneath the MASTERCUT. Each end every booklet is hand produced from archival pergamin envelopes and filled with a variety of analog treasures by hand.





Including original instant photographs exposed onto our hand-made One Instant Type 100 film...

...and analog photocopies made with our all analog vintage photocopy machine.

The last round of finishing touches includes the labelling, the hand-numbering of the editions as well as the stamping of the booklet banderole.





Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about our MASTERCUTS. Please help us to update and expand this informative section by sending any questions or thoughts to mastercut@supersense.com.

  • How durable is my MASTERCUT?

    Since the worldwide release of our editions this question has become one of the "hottest" topics in the music industry.

    When we launched our MASTERCUT adventure we carefully stated the following lines:

    "Please be prepared that due to the super soft and fragile surface of your Mastercut which is responsible for its unique rich and warm sound, the noise level will slowly but steadily increase over time with every magic listening session you perform (even if you are super careful with your new favorite record). We like to compare this to the wonderful wrinkles around your eyes getting more characteristic each and every time you laugh."

    But how slow is slowly and what happens to a MASTERCUT in 10 years from now??

    Please allow us to connect you with 2 gentlemen who are much greater experts than we are and who have been kind enough to investigate these important questions in impressive detail. Please meet Michael Fremer from the Analaog Planet who perfectly summarizes all aspects of this topic in his latest blog as well as our friend Alexey from KORF AUDIO who took the time to playback his MASTERCUT over 100 times and carefully monitored what happened to the sound.

    In order to dive into the true magic of your MASTERCUT over and over again, please read all the FAQ sections regarding handling, cleaning and storage very carefully.

  • We start with this important question as some of your editions may include printed manuals with some inappropriate information regarding this topic (under point 4). THIS IS IMPORTANT: Please NEVER LET ANY LIQUIDS TOUCH YOUR MASTERCUT and please only USE A CARBON FIBRE RECORD CLEANING BRUSH!

    Resist the temptation to wipe your Mastercut with your shirt or dry cloth no matter how soft it may feel. This will scratch and scuff the record and only move the dirt around. For dry cleaning or a light touch up, use a carbon fibre record cleaning brush as it actually discharges static and lifts dirt without damaging the record.

    Again - please say NO to cleaning liquids on your Supersense Acetate Record. Do not use lubricants or solvents such as baby oil, lighter fluid... no matter what anyone may tell you. These fluids can cause a devastating chemical reaction that can permanently damage your MASTERCUT.

  • We are cutting, analysing and listening to these records since 2014 and based on our extensive testing we are happy to report that we never experienced anything like shelf-aging or radical loss of listening magic. The rumour that acetate lacquer discs are crumbling to dust like mummies as soon as they come in direct contact with light or fresh air can be clearly be considered a rumour.

  • MASTERCUT records are carefully cut in REAL TIME. This means the cutting process takes as long as the total playing time of the record.

  • YES, this is true. The tool used to cut the grooves is a precision ground and polished sapphire which is electrically heated during the cutting process.

  • We only use acetate lacquer of finest quality, manufactured by MDC in Japan. Each MASTERCUT has a metal core covered by a thin layer of beautifully smelling, shining, black lacquer.

  • Your MASTERCUT is cut in Stereo.

  • No - each MASTERCUT is cut from the original analog source, that is a Reel to Reel tape. The transfer from tape to disk is 100% analog without any digitization happening!

  • In the common record production process, the "Mastercut" disc serves solely as a template from which the pressing stamper is derived and which is destroyed in that process. But in this edition, each and every record is the original Mastercut, hand-cut directly into a lacquer disc.

  • No, a mastercut is basically always the first step in every record production - but this EDITION is the first time that the MASTERCUT does not end up in the electroplating process but has the pleasure to live on forever on your turntable!!!

  • From the record to the packaging and all supplements, every single component is hand-crafted and produced by sophisticated, all-analog techniques. Made at the Supersense manufactory in the heart of Vienna, by a small team of experts in the fields of record cutting, traditional printing methods and packaging design.

  • Always store your mastercut upright! Never stack records on top of each other whether in their jackets or not. This is one sure-fire way to cause warping, possible cracking of the Supersense Acetate Record because of the weight and will inevitably produce scuff marks and ring wear on the record's album cover marring the artwork. Records must always be stored upright like books on a shelf.

  • Hold your MASTERCUT by its outer edges only! Never touch the record's playing surface with your bare hands or fingers as your body oil will transfer onto the surface, attracting even more dust and affecting the sound quality.

  • Use the cueing lever on your turntable to raise and lower the needle. Your hands are never truly steady and it's easy to slip up and gouge the grooves of a record or even break the needle on your cartridge. Never drop or abruptly pick up the needle on a Supersense Acetate Record especially as it is fading out. Over time you'll start to hear ticks and pops as the Supersense Acetat Record is gradually getting gouged in those areas. Use the cueing lever and aim to cue up a song just before the music starts so that the needle SLOWLY drops in the silent area of the grooves and not in the areas with music. Also, wait for the music to fade out completely or stop before picking up the needle. It's even better to play an entire album side straight through.

  • Basically no, but please take care that the tonearm is well adjusted and the azimut setting is perfectly adjusted. WE WOULD NOT RECOMMEND TO PLAY A MASTERCUT WITH TURNTABLES WHICH COST LESS THAN OUR BELOVED RECORD!!!

  • In order to protect the super fragile original tapes, we cut our records from a high end, completely unedited 1:1 copy of the original tapes.

  • The differences between these two editions are a series of small design elements and some of the booklet content. Regarding the MASTERCUT record itself, they are the same and both are produced in Vienna.

  • Due to the fact that our MASTERCUTS are no stock items but cut piece by piece in real time by a small team here in Vienna, we kindly ask for your understanding that based on the overwhelming global demand for our editions production, assembly and delivery of your very personal MASTERCUT treasures can currently take up to 4 weeks. All orders will be processed in the order received, without any exceptions. Thank you so much for your patience.

  • We love our product and do our very best to ensure every single Mastercut is immaculate. The lacquer discs get checked several times visually before, during and after cutting by our experts. But as we ship "virgin" cuts, you, the customer, are the first person to play them. Please make sure your equipment is set up perfectly and you have made yourself familiar with the instructions that can be found in the Mastercut booklet.

    In the highly unlikely event of any flaws please contact us and we will do our best to solve the issue ASAP: mastercut@supersense.com

MASTERCUT EDITIONS

Produced with all our pride and passion
(and a whole lot of fun)

Dedicated to the mysterious magic of analog.

Invented to make you smile. Designed for all your senses.