Beck’s $110 Ride Lonesome One-Step Is Cut From 24/96 Files and Audiophiles Will Have Feelings

Audiophiles have spent decades finding creative new ways to argue about digital files hiding inside vinyl production chains, so Capitol Records has kindly provided fresh material.

Beck’s new Ride Lonesome arrived September 18 as his first album of entirely new material since 2019’s Hyperspace. Produced by Beck and mixed by Nigel Godrich, the 12-track album returns to the more introspective territory associated with Sea Change and Morning Phase, while reuniting him with musicians connected to those earlier records.

Capitol is also offering a $110 Definitive Sound Series One-Step edition, limited to 3,000 numbered copies.

And no, it is not AAA.

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So What Is the Source?

Capitol states that the One-Step edition was mastered from 24-bit/96kHz high-resolution files. Acoustic Sounds provides an additional piece of the chain, describing those files as transfers from analog flat masters. In other words, the source originated on analog tape, but the vinyl mastering process uses a 24/96 digital stage.

That distinction will undoubtedly ruin somebody’s weekend.

What matters more is that Capitol is disclosing it. We recently covered Mobile Fidelity’s $125 One-Step edition of Michael Jackson’s BAD, which uses the album’s original 16-bit/48kHz Mitsubishi X-80 digital master. High-priced vinyl sourced from digital is hardly unprecedented, and digital does not automatically mean inferior sound. It does mean buyers paying three figures deserve to know exactly what they are buying.

Ride Lonesome One-Step Details

• Album: Beck — Ride Lonesome
• Price: $110
• Format: 180-gram One-Step vinyl
• Source: 24-bit/96kHz high-resolution files
• Original source: Analog flat masters, according to Acoustic Sounds
• Vinyl mastering: Levi Seitz at Black Belt Mastering
• One-Step processing: Dorin Sauerbier
• Pressing plant: Record Technology Inc
• Vinyl compound: Neotech VR900-D2
• Production: 3,000 numbered copies
• Packaging: Heavyweight tip-on gatefold jacket and DSS slipcase
• Tracks: 12

The standard black vinyl edition costs $32.99, which creates the obvious question: is the One-Step process worth another $77 for an album already sourced from high-resolution digital files?

We cannot answer that without comparing the pressings.

What we can say is that Capitol has chosen sensible partners. Levi Seitz has established audiophile mastering credentials, RTI remains one of the better-known U.S. pressing plants, and the One-Step process eliminates intermediate plating stages that can introduce additional generational loss.

Whether any of that produces a night-and-day improvement over the $33 edition is another matter entirely.

For collectors who love Sea Change and Morning Phase, the album itself may make this difficult to resist. For listeners who believe $110 vinyl should arrive directly from analog tape without a digital stop along the way, Capitol has at least saved them the trouble of discovering it on an internet forum six months later.

Progress.

Where to buy: $110 at Capitol Music

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