Where to find vinyl from original master tapes


I need to replace some LP's and just get some I don't currently have.
I have been searching & see that there are many different sources to buy from. When I see "German Pressing" or "Japan Pressing" I wonder where do they get their source music from? I find it hard to believe that Capital, Epic, etc. records would send their original masters around the planet for folks to use.
Leads up tp my main question; Any way to tell if an LP has been mastered from the original tape? Buying from a third generation master seems semi pointless.
Thanks, John
jsd52756

Showing 1 response by albertporter

Depends on style of music too. Often a group that's popular in the USA is actually a British (or other country) based group. At that point, that countries pressing is the home version and the USA pressing is the out of country version.

Radiohead comes to mind. I bought the USA version from a web site here in the USA and it sucks. Went to the official Radiohead website (in the UK) and bought the same LP as a double 45 RPM version and it's sounds like a different group it's so much better.

You might even get title specific and post here at Audiogon. In spite of the fact most of us are gear heads, a lot of us are software junkies too.

Another option is Steve Hoffman forums:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/

I've seen discussions on LP's that cover EVERY possible version worldwide and even covering which pressings most faithfully reproduced the original tape.

A good example is the Beatles. The USA versions were so manipulated that the German and British copies sound like master tape playing compared to what we got here originally.