Dave Denyer: The Reel-to-Reel Rambler

An awesome announcement

In January this year, Analogue Productions’ Chad Kasseem made a very exciting announcement: that the classic, Grammy Award-winning, Ry Cooder-conceived and produced Buena Vista Social Club was getting the full audiophile Analogue Productions treatment! The original 1997 release was on CD, double LP & cassette, and was followed four years later with a very limited (and quite frankly bonkers) 8-single-sided LP set from the Classic Records label. Classic Records was subsequently purchased by Analogue Productions and so, in 2025, that same Classic Records metalwork has been re-employed to produce a much more sensible 4xLP 45rpm edition, with this release being pressed at QRP, Analogue Productions’ superb record pressing plant.

Buena Vista Social Club was indeed – and remains to this day – a true classic, which for decades has been an absolute favourite of audiophiles and music lovers around the world. It has a purity and honesty that, for my money, is rarely found in recorded music. A collection of supremely talented Cuban artists, some of whom were in their nineties, were assembled by Cooder for this almost archaeological testimony to Cuban music. If there’s one thing that has always stood out in this sumptuous recording, it’s the incredibly pure, natural feel of the ensemble and the space within which they are performing. This has got to be one of the most real-sounding recordings ever made, not in some super-clean, ultra-detailed kind of ‘audiophile’ manner, but in terms of natural, organic, purity; you feel the soul of the music, the soul of the performers and the soul of the very space itself.

To capture all of that requires a phenomenally sensitive recording, for which kudos is due, in spades, to recording and mixing engineer Jerry Boys, whose intention was to portray the very essence of this musical happening. Did he achieve his goal? Did he ever! More on which later…

But hang on, I’m getting side-tracked, because there was more – a lot more – to Chad Kasseem’s New Year announcement. Not only was Buena Vista Social Club being released as a 4xLP vinyl release, but (cue drum roll) the album was also being made available as a 15ips copy of the original master tape as part of the Analogue Productions Ultra Tape series. In contrast to the 4xLP (8 sides) of the new AP 4xLP set, and the 4 sides of the original double album, this UltraTape fits snuggly onto just two reels of Recording the Masters SM900 ‘Studio Master’ tape. Having spent years listening to various releases of this seminal work in search of the ultimate version, a combination of excitement, curiosity and intrigue led to me place orders for both the 4-LP and tape versions within minutes of the announcement!

The package arrives

Fast forward a few weeks and a large package arrives from Acoustic Sounds. I have to say that both the 4-LP set and the tape packaging are sublime. A beautiful 12-page booklet containing the full lyrics, alongside some wonderful photographs, accompanies both versions, with the LP version especially well packaged in a 4-leaf book style sleeve. (Sorry, the blurry marks on the photos below are my camera, not the items, which are mint!).

The sound quality is, of course, simply incredible, but before I deep-dive into the respective sonic attributes of the Analogue Productions UltraTape and of the 4x 45rpm LP set, I want to describe – for any of you who may be unfamiliar with it – just how special this recording is.

Buena Vista behind the scenes – with very special interview

The name came from a Havana members’ club that closed in the 1940s and the project began in 1996 as a collaboration between American guitarist Ry Cooder, Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos González and Nick Gold, head of London-based record label World Circuit. The story goes that the three were in Havana to work on another project but, when that fell through, they decided instead to capture some of the ‘golden age’ of Cuban son music from the 1940s and 50s. Somehow, they managed to bring together a bunch of around 16 feted Cuban musicians to record an album in just six days. The rest, as they say, is history, as the album became a huge international success and spawned sellout world tours, global solo careers and an Oscar-nominated documentary directed by Wim Wenders. Even now, while several members of the original line-up have sadly passed away, a group (with a more fluid line-up) is still performing and touring.

That original recording was made entirely in the analogue domain by the British Grammy Award-winning engineer Jerry Boys and, for my money, this was and is key to its phenomenal success. Boys was keen to capture the feeling of the musicians in the space (EGREM Studios in Havana, Cuba). If there’s one characteristic of this recording that makes it a gem in terms of sound quality, it is surely Boys’ capturing of the space, the event, the happening, the heart and soul of it. Rather than using the more usual mixing techniques of the time, Boys started with the ambiance and gradually added the individual spot mics into the mix. The result is both spectacular and spellbinding. Now, if you’re interested in hearing the story of this recording ‘from the horses’ mouth’, I was absolutely thrilled to be granted a video interview with Jerry Boys himself. What a privilege! To me, the man is an absolute legend. He’s also a very nice guy – warm and open and an absolute delight to chat with. Here’s our conversation:

Let’s get listening to the new releases…

I should mention here that my prior references are both the original CD release as well as a superb Bernie Grundman 2LP issue. As a matter of interest, I also refer to the sound quality of the superb aforementioned 1999 documentary by Wim Wenders. If you haven’t watched this yet, you simply MUST!

So let’s kick off with the documentary. But remember folks, this isn’t a direct comparison because the LP is NOT a soundtrack to the movie – but you WILL be entranced by the movie so it seems a good baseline from which to begin. The CD comes next. Of course it’s not entirely the same content, but the sound quality is simply leagues ahead of that of the film (which to my mind is a perfect excuse to have both the CD and the DVD / BluRay!).

However, when we then compare the CD to the Bernie Grundman-mastered vinyl release, the vinyl wins by nature of its warm, melodic, extremely groovy and smooth flowing presentation. With the vinyl you feel as if you could get a suntan if you stepped outside into the Cuban sunshine! The music itself is so beautiful, so pure and honest, so free from hype and artifice, and here it sounds way, way better than in any digital version (be that the film or the original CD). There’s more space (and we’ll talk more about this later) and light in the atmosphere, which really captures the event and the large antique EGREM studio in Havana. The bass is deep, full and resinous, and the dynamism of the assorted percussion almost hypnotises the listener. The trumpet is oh so clear and sweet, as are the guitars. And the natural vocals are so pure and so honest that they (quite literally) bring tears to the eyes.

So, how do things improve when we put on Analogue Productions’ new 45rpm vinyl version?

Perhaps unbelievably so! Now there’s even more space – bearing in mind that space is one of the most captivating things about this recording. Space and also time, by which I mean not only the historical significance of Cuban son, but also the range of the artists themselves, the eldest of whom, Compay Segundo, was born in 1907 and was actually performing a hundred years ago, back in the 1920s!

As well as giving more insight into the space, the new 45rpm version adds more clarity and separation to these stellar, soulful, voices, and the bass and drums have more weight and body. Ry Cooder’s guitar becomes more separate and more clear and that oh-so-hypnotic percussion leaps holographically out of a warm, golden Cuban air.

So, would I recommend the 45rpm set to a vinyl listener? Yes, absolutely! The only caveat I personally have is that, like the fabled 2001 8-LP set, it is still on 8 LP sides, even though in this instance it’s now on a much more sensible 4 LPs. So it still requires changing sides after every one or two tracks, which makes for an awful lot of jumping up to flip the disc. Of course, the sound quality is truly exceptional, so for anyone who doesn’t have the kit to play 2-track 15ips CCIR tape, it’s a sonic delight. I mean, it sounds so good that it’s as if you’re actually present at the recording session – and so if you’re bothered by all that getting up and down, think of it as intermissions between the recording of each track, which would be normal and expected if you were there!

The ultimate: The UltraTape

Finally we get to the main event: the UltraTape. So, just how good is it?

Quite frankly it’s in another league! Take everything that the stunning 45rpm 4-LP set achieves and then simply forget it!! Literally every single aspect of this already phenomenal recording is better than you’ve ever heard it before. Whereas all of the other versions portray the wonderful space, the air, the venue, the acoustic, the tape really takes you there. Man, you can pretty much smell the dust, the sweet cigar smoke. You can feel the early morning sun baking the dry earth, burning away the dew. Track after track, you’re transported across the ocean and back through the decades, not only back to 1996 when this recording was made, but decades earlier, through the deep past of these wonderful musicians of, quite literally, another age.

Even the 45rpm 4-LP set sounds somewhat forced and manufactured to me after hearing the tape. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is as perfect a record as I can imagine a recording can be. But what we have with the Ultratape is a direct 15ips copy of Jerry Boys’ original master tape. This is precious. It feels like owning the Elgin Marbles or the Dead Sea Scrolls!

A few friends have come over to visit me since I got this tape and have requested a listen. Every time, we’ve just put on reel 1 and then we’ve sat, spellbound in wonder until the end of reel 2. One of them,  a fellow tape devotee with an enviable collection of wares from Analogue Productions, Tape Project, Horch House / Revox and Hemiolia, reckons that this is now his favourite: the most real, captivating and enthralling tape he owns.

I can’t say I disagree. Listening to this tape is an event. The cost becomes immaterial. The only thing better would be to travel back in time to the actual recording, but then at that point in time it hadn’t been mixed, it wasn’t finished. It feels like a privilege to listen to this tape. I don’t know how else to describe it.

Being of the CD era, the whole album lasts a tad over an hour, which perfect for a CD but also explains why it needed to be spread across 4 LP sides at 33rpm (and 8 at 45rpm). Yet with a capacity of 33 minutes at 15ips per 10 ½” reel, it fits perfectly onto 2 x 10.5” reels of tape. So, not only does the tape give you an absolutely unequalled sonic experience, it also does so with minimal interruption.

What’s more, at the time of writing the tape is available for just $450! Consider the raw materials of this: the two reels of tape alone represent nearly half that amount. This is a master, copied from the original in real time by mastering engineer Matthew Luthens at Blue Heaven Studios. $450 might sound like a lot for a recording but this is an insanely good deal.

If you’re in the market, here’s where to source your copies:

4 x LP: https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/186676/Ry_Cooder-Buena_Vista_Social_Club-180_Gram_Vinyl_Record

UltraTape: https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/186677/Ry_Cooder-Buena_Vista_Social_Club-14_Inch_-_15_IPS_Tape

If you’ve an appetite for a bit more rambling on this one – including some more detail on my impressions of the sound quality of the 4-LP and the UltraTape, check out my other video on this stunning album: