shawn·m

I simply can’t resist a good tangent. Most of the clips I’ve seen probably came from Ken Burns’ Jazz and that Hodges’ thing caught my attention, too. Johnny seems to have an almost palpable let’s-get-this-BS-over-with attitude. Was Johnny always so… peevish? It’s interesting to see him step up to the mic, turn in a perfectly acceptable solo and one that doesn’t appear to reflect his current state of mind, then fume his way back to his seat.

I only have three Quintessential Holidays, but boy are they telling me to go for the big set in a big way. Time to start squirreling that cash away. Hope I live long enough to see, and purchase, Columbia’s complete Basie, too.

That’s funny! This may be my first exposure to his work. Even so, I can’t help but love the man’s effort to preserve and restore dynamic range (by reputation, anyway).

Hmm… I may have to pick this one up. It sounds like you’re describing some healthy dynamic range, and I do like me that range!

Mark me down for Zoot Sims. And come September 30th, Basie’s April In Paris, too.

What? aric, tell me you haven’t forsaken Hank! There’s a whole new Mobley thread just begging for your imprint. To be honest, The only Warne I have is on Tristano’s Intuition and Konitz’ Live at the Half Note so I haven’t formed much of an opinion yet.

I’m surprised nobody’s yet mentioned the hornless, dehorned or horn-impoverished version on the new Miles Blackhawk set. It’s such a jaunty rendition.

Vibes, have you heard Lester on Basie’s “Oh, Lady Be Good”? It’s really been burrowing its way under my skin lately. Not quite halfway through his solo, there’s this little phrase ending with a bent-note figure that stays with you for days… Might change your mind. Maybe.

You’ve got it, J Larsen; the horizontal length represents time progressing from left to right. Volume at any given moment is represented by vertical lines. Baseline “0” represents no signal and “1” represents maximum volume output. Actually, Magic Alex posted a much better graphic comparison over on the Hoffman site. Hoffman thread again It’s an oversimplification, but solid bands that don’t break up much tend to indicate a good deal of compression and lack of dynamic range.

Not difficult at all. I have no quarrel with a simple boost in volume across the frequency spectrum. That is not what I hear, nor what the graphics indicate. Incidentally, my particular opinion was formed before the jpg postings. As I said earlier, the depth and body of Trane’s tenor, for example, is superior on the SACD when compared to that of the CD I have. So why did I throw SACD Blue Train away? Even Maura Tierney, with all her natural beauty revealed in high definition, would not captivate if she were to lumber and lurch, Night Of the Living Dead-like, through her performances. CD should not be superior to SACD in ANY way. More should be expected from SACD re-masters than what Van Gelder has delivered with Blue Train.

If we are to pull quotes from other sources, then I’ll go with Steve Hoffman’s remark concerning SACD Blue Train: “I think I'll play my MoFi and be grateful for dynamic range.” In my opinion, there’s something terribly wrong when an SACD’s mastering cannot even match the dynamic range of a previous CD release.

Even though this malcontent could not disagree more with Greg regarding treble and compression issues on SACD Blue Train, it’s nice to see somebody, anybody trying to defend the thing.

Orthopedic re-masters; it was a good theory while it lasted.

Jeez, that Amazon BS leaves me speachless.

This stuff is great! Time to start archiving threads again.

I suppose your right, Claude. I don’t have an opinion on 24/96 verses DSD, and I imagine any difference would be inaudible on my system anyway. I could be entirely wrong; perhaps RVG followed Doug Sax’s lead and individually re-mastered each hybrid layer from the analog master. Judging by the results, the idea of Van Gelder specifically re-mastering Blue Train in DSD is somehow more troubling than if he’d generated both PCM and SACD layers by converting an intermediate re-master. Either way, Van Gelder’s rumored hearing loss could explain a lot. I’ve started on the downhill side of my time on this planet, so perhaps there will be a time when I appreciate RVG’s orthopedic re-masters?

I gave the PCM layer a near complete listen at one point. IMO, DSD criticisms hold for the PCM layer as well. I wonder if both CD and SACD masters were derived from the same re-master source? A PCM master?

Think I'll re-buy the original Blue Train CD. My SACD version now resides in a landfill somewhere.

Turns out Blue Train is getting a pretty good trashing on Steve Hoffman’s site, too. Looks like Greg tried an uncommon defense, and Steve had a couple interesting things to say. Hoffman thread

I emailed Mosaic a few months ago asking if they were looking into producing future releases in SACD. The reply stated they had no plans at that time, but Cuscuna was impressed by the format. Contracts can be re-negotiated. Never say never.

Think I’ll see if I can get someone to spill a little of their IQ in a cup and submit that.

Fair question. If Blue Note is producing hybrids in an effort to please as many people as possible, and if Rudy’s re-masters are held in high regard by the majority… then Blue Note may continue producing over-compressed SACD crap.

Oh, nearly forgot… I don’t have many SACDs, maybe 20. Blue Train is the first to disappoint. I also have Van Gelder’s Love Supreme SACD, and although I’m sure he used some degree of compression, I don’t hear any overt pumping. It certainly never caused me to bolt off the sofa and re-wire my system to see what the hell was going on.

I know that there are plenty of folks that genuinely love Van Gelder’s re-masters, so I’ll definitely take a wait-and-see Blue Note SACD stance in the future. I just don’t get it, I just don’t. I think I’ve said just about everything I can without repeating myself. It’s probably best to move on. And please, is there and SACD Greg doesn’t love?

Point taken. Hey everybody, sorry for venting, but sometimes… sometimes…