Hardware:
- Technics 1210mk2
- Jelco SA-750D Tonearm (w/ JAC 501 cable)
- Audio Technica AT33PTG MC
- Pro-Ject Tube Box SE-2
- Yamaha CA-1010
- RME ADI-2 A/D Interface

Software:
- Audition 3.0 used for adjusting DC bias, editing, (incl. manual removal of clicks
and pops), adding gain and making the cue points.
- Click Repair 3.4.1 used with setting Cl: 10, Cr: 0
- CueListTool v1.7 & Mediaval CueSplitter used for generating the .cue's & .m3u's.

Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned

Prof. sez:

Another one in the series "essential in mono but not available on cd".
This transfer -I believe- is the best and certainly the most complete digital version to date of this masterpiece in mono.
I recently bought this record an in breathtaking honest-to-God near mint condition (not in a $1 bin, I'm sorry to say).

For all you doubters, yes this is a dedicated mix, meaning it is not a collapsion of the stereo version.
And yes, it WILL blow you away. The mixing is quite different from the stereo and you may hear things you did
not noticed before.
The true mono mix of this album was only briefly available on US Columbia in 1968/1969. It did get a mono version in the UK,
but that one is actually a reduction of the stereo mix, as the US stereo matrix (starting with KCS) on the label indicates.

The bonustracks are taken from original US 45's in pristine condition. Of course, a number of tracks on the Bookends
album were previously available on 45. I have auditioned those singles to verify and compare its content.
My findings were that the mono album mixes of Tr. 8, 10 & 12 are identical to those on the singles and therefore it
seemed pointless to include transfers of the 45's.

A quick word on the soundquality; I have compared this to the other two well-known rips that are out there.
I find one of them ear-piercingly bright and brittle sounding. The other one sounds fine but uses a less clean vinyl
source than this transfer. It has rumbling in the low-end and Tr. 12 suffers from distortion not heard here.
The only minor critism I have on my own work is the sound of Tr. 13.
It seems impossible to find a copy of this 45 that does not distort at the end of each side. This has to do
with its loud cutting (typical for Columbia pop singles from this era) and the fact that it clearly was not produced with
hi-fi equipment in mind. Still, this is the best I can offer right now. I'll upgrade if I find a better source.

The records were professionally and carefully cleaned in three steps using Audio Intelligent’s
Enzymantic formula, Super Cleaner Formula, and Ultra pure water on a VPI 16.5
(using VPI brushes) and Nitty Gritty mini-pro 2.
I spent a lot of time manually declicking the wave file (after Click Repair had already been
applied with a medium setting) to make sure the cleanest and most natural sounding result
possible was achieved.

Enjoy!

flac tracks -> foobar2000 1.1.13 converter -> image wav & cue
wavpack -hlm
CUEBeautifier -> iso.wv