tatifan

I know what you're talking about, and since I've taken a leap at that last pressing I guess I'll eventually be able to compare the actual finished product to the sample. I describe that manner of distortion as a kind of "venetian blind" effect in brass or other material with a lot of sibilance. Being a bit of a weekend warrior dabbling in some transfer work, what I find is that the software that only does de-clicking avoids this, but that de-crackling can easily lead to such artifacts. Personally, I prefer to not use de-crackling processing and am happy enough without it. Overuse of de-clicking is certainly a problem as well, but usually signs of that are more of a "rubbery" feeling to attacks and lack of clear transients. Certainly the software is improving, but the ears of the engineer are the most important factor! Which particular track(s) seem afflicted in the samples? Do you agree that the Teddy Wilson set IS well done? Of course, vastly different source material was available for that.

I wish Mosaic would put sample files up in better quality than those low bitrate ones via Soundcloud. It’s nearly impossible to judge from them. For instance, I waffled on the recent Teddy Wilson set based on those poor sounding samples. After finally taking a chance I was glad I did....the CDs sound much better, indeed they are superb transfers. I can’t say that the Savoy material is better or worse than previous versions, since I don’t have the Mosaic (yet), but I don’t think it’s possible to evaluate from those samples (or perhaps you have a different source, Allen?). I’ve always liked the transfers of the Savoy material on the Japanese Denon CDs I have (despite their short running time), so perhaps I will continue to prefer them, despite the lack of “modern” debris and click removal on those older transfers.

Recently I purchased the lp of Horace Parlan's Up & Down (http://www.elemental-music.com/erlp1036-horace-parlan-up-down-indd/), and discovered a mastering error. The opening track on Side 2 (The Other Part of Town) is missing the very start of the track (one pickup note, but still important!). This is NOT missing on several versions of the record (part of the Mosaic records Horace Parlan collection, and the Japanese TOCJ cd series). The same error DOES seem to be on the RVG cd from 2009 (at least on Tidal streaming). Has anyone got the original pressing of this? I'm curious whether the error crept in later. Any opinions on this Elemental series of Blue Note LP reissues? My local Half Price Books has a number of them. They sound pretty good, if not to "Music Matters" quality, certainly. However, this error makes me wonder what their sources might be (digital files??), since it's the same problem as on the RVG.

At the quality the samples are offered at I find they range from barely adequate to downright awful! They sound like rips from the worst possible cd transfers....IF they paid someone to do this work, they were ripped off. I'd much rather have something on the non-interventionist side of noise reduction (or at least NR competently applied and not slathered on like a syrup). At those prices I'm not going to pay to find out what a WAV sounds like. Find some way to buy downloads of some J.R.T. Davies transfers and you'll get 20-25 tracks for about 1/3 to a 1/4 of what these are going for and something that is a pleasure to listen to.

I went through my Mosaic checklist and have attempted to put links to those titles available for streaming. I have no idea if all of these are also available to purchase as Flac downloads, but it's certainly worth a look. In any case, there are many sets here I never grabbed, so with the aid of a discography or two, there's been some serious listening done! The Complete Blue Note Hank Mobley Fifties Sessions (#181) TIDAL #192 The Complete Capitol Recordings of Gene Krupa & Harry James (7 CDs) TIDAL #193 Duke Ellington: The Reprise Studio Recordings (5 CDs) TIDAL #195 The Complete Blue Note Elvin Jones Sessions (8 CDs) TIDAL #197 The Complete Blue Note Horace Parlan Session (5 CDs or 8 Q-LPs) TIDAL #200 The Complete Verve Johnny Hodges Small Group Sessions 1956-61 (6 CDs) TIDAL #201 The Complete Mercury Max Roach Plus Four Sessions (7 CDs) TIDAL #210 The Complete Capitol Bobby Hackett Solo Sessions (5 CDs) TIDAL #215 The Complete Blue Note Lou Donaldson Sessions 1957-1960 (6 CDs) TIDAL #221 The Complete Verve Gerry Mulligan Concert Band Sessions (4 CDs) TIDAL #224 The Complete Verve Tal Farlow Sessions (7 CDs) TIDAL #225 The Complete Argo/Mercury Art Farmer/Benny Golson/Jazztet Sessions (7 CDs) TIDAL #229 The Complete Clef/Verve Count Basie Fifties Studio Recordings (8 CDs) TIDAL #232 The Classic Argo, Emarcy & Verve Small Group Buddy Rich Session (7 CDs) TIDAL The Oliver Nelson Verve/Impulse Big Band Sessions (#233) TIDAL #234 The Verve/Philips Dizzy Gillespie Small Group Sessions (7 CDs) TIDAL #237 The Quincy Jones ABC/Mercury Big BAnd Jazz Sessions (5 CDs) TIDAL The Complete Clef/Mercury Rec. Of Oscar Peterson Trio (#241) TIDAL The Complete Ahmad Jamal Trio Argo Sessions (#246) TIDAL MS-002 Mosaic Select: Carmell Jones TIDAL MS-003 Mosaic Select: Bennie Green TIDAL MS-005 Mosaic Select: Paul Chambers TIDAL MS-006 Mosaic Select: John Patton TIDAL MS-009 Mosaic Select: Bob Brookmeyer TIDAL MS-010 Mosaic Select: Bud Shank/Bob Cooper TIDAL MS-011 Mosaic Select: Dizzy Reece TIDAL MS-013 Mosaic Select: Don Pullen TIDAL MS-014 Mosaic Select: Dexter Gordon TIDAL MS-015 Mosaic Select: Art Pepper TIDAL MS-016 Mosaic Select: Andrew Hill TIDAL MS-026 Mosaic Select: Bobby Hutcherson TIDAL MS-028 Mosaic Select: Johnny Mercer TIDAL

Tidal's new store does have 10 of these in Flac. Some of the prices are fine, and a couple are strangely high. Go to http://tidal.com/us/store/ and search "Capitol Vaults". One can also subscribe to the streaming service, which seems to have all 17 of them, and one may opt for the Flac quality tier.

Whether RCA used No-Noise or Cedar is in itself not the determining factor on NR, it's the degree to which it is utilized. Back in the day when these things were trumpeted on cd packaging I think many made up their mind what "cedarized" transfers sounded like. The fact is that 99% of transfer engineers today use Cedar or a relative of it, but the better PR is to leave off mentioning this, because of the bad rap early over-use of the program caused. I've worked a bit with Cedar de-clicking (relatively hard to screw up) and de-noise (gotta be careful with this....sort of like trying to remove cream from coffee!), and if you stay clear of the threshold were artifacts are audible, then the tools have been useful and not harmful. Problem is putting this equipment in the hands of engineers that don't know what music and/or recordings should sound like. IMHO, the French B/W series, at the time, sounded pretty good on the lp issues, not so hot on the cd versions, which seemed to have an additional layer of poor eq added to what were already somewhat filtered sounding transfers. Overly squashing the high end was the way many engineers of that era (before decent computer-based de-clicking and de=noising) covered up the noise underneath. Sorry about the tech rant....yes it's about the music, but may as well get the sound right while we're at it, right?

I haven't heard anything from this Django set but, in my experience, EMI hardly ever has better sound on anything. Correct. They tend to apply noise reduction very generously to older stuff; the EMI Artur Schnabel box is a prime example. Yep, that Schnabel Beethoven is a prime example of what can go wrong in the transfer biz....in the early lp era EMI made transfers to tape for their first lp issue on the COLH series, then DESTROYED the masters (as they were now preserved with a never to be outmoded format, eh?), so that all that is left to work from are those old tapes (which is why the EMI set sounds awful), and why say, the Naxos transfers are more full bodied, but noisier (taken from commercial pressings), and ultimately better to live with, IMHO. There ARE some good EMI 78 transfers, but I must say, precious few are from the French branch, and overall they DO tend to recycle transfers. I really DO need to try the Fremeaux sets, because, to my ears, since this lp era Djangology set, NONE of the EMI Django transfers sound like they have gone back to the masters. I even have my doubts about the Mosaic....I think they did the best they could, but I really think that EMI supplied TAPES to Mosaic, not metal parts/masters, etc. They have that same tendency to spike unpleasantly on bright sounds in the recordings, and have no real bass, problems that a good source, even commercial pressings, properly transferred, should not display. I LOVE the sound on the Decca recordings in the first JSP set, but I don't hear much difference between even that set and the Mosaic in the Hot Club EMI material...of course, JSP has been known to "borrow" transfers....I think the other JSP sets are worth getting, and sound fine, but those with the Mosaic definitely do not need Vol. 2 of the JSP series. It's not like all of this ruins listening to Django on whatever the source is, but I've always wondered if these records could sound better. I had hoped the Djangotennary would bring out the best effort from EMI, but it seems not!

It seems this Djangology 20 cd set from EMI primarily duplicates the contents of the OLD 20 lp Djangology Collection (sort of chopped in terms of years covered but augmented at the same time with extra tracks in the 10 cd version from the 90s). There's even a 1970 copyright stamped on the individual cds. I suppose if the price is right it's ok, but 14 or so tracks a cd with many running to just 40 minutes or so?? It's not like the lp reissues are the originals in any sense, so I don't understand this misplaced fidelity to an earlier compilation. The samples I've heard of the sound seems very much like my old lp set as well in terms of eq, noise reduction, which to me sound like the old techniques of covering up clicks and pops by muffling the eq...so, based on my samples, they do not seem to have gone back and updated the transfers, which sorely needs to be done, but this is a very preliminary reaction not based on comparisons yet! In terms of completeness, this set is not anything like what it should be, and NOT what looking at a 20cd count would lead one to believe!! I'm not so familiar with the sonic quality on the Fremeaux sets, but they're certainly pricey but FAR more complete that this EMI offering. I would say JSP is a reasonable choice...I'll try and do some comparisons...

I wouldn't take a chance on ordering from deepdiscount something that's listed on backorder because you'd be wasting a coupon that way.....I ordered 2 items on back-order that were in print and waited 31 days and still didn't get anything so don't waste your coupons or time on back-ordered items. Everything I ordered was in stock, and has shipped, including the J.J. Johnson single that is on back order from Mosaic currently, and 5 or 6 other singles. Perhaps I've been lucky, but I've never had a back ordered item from DDD that didn't ship within a month. The current sale isn't quite as good as past ones as far as DVD prices go, but it's nice that cds are finally included.

Many of the Mosaic Singles are available as well...get a couple and the coupon works. I haven't checked after ordering, but the Woody Herman Select set was in stock and shipped just the other day.

This is from the Warner Archives series, which means it's an authorized studio release, but is on DVDRs. Looks like much of the material from the "Swing, Swing, Swing" Laserdisc set, plus some more. Here's the sketchy info available so far: http://www.wbshop.com/WB-Big-Band-Jazz-+-S...t,pd.html?cgid= Join many of entertainment history’s all-time greatest performers and ensembles, gathered in this jaw-dropping assemblage from the Warner Bros.’ vault. This one-of-a-kind 11+-Hour, 6-Disc Collection of 63 Theatrical Shorts is your ticket to a golden age of melody and musicianship. Here's an eBay page on that LD set, which gives a list of what was included in that release: http://cgi.ebay.com/Swing-Swing-Swing-Mega...=item53dd6c6fe9

I've got a chance to grab the Jimmy Giuffre Mosaic set for $125 (not on Ebay, actually)....is that pretty much at the lowest end of what it will go for these days? I don't generally scour Ebay for this one, but Amazon sellers have it from $225 all the way up to $400. I guess it's a rhetorical question, since I will most likely grab it, and I love these recordings, even if, in this case, I REALLY wish Mosaic had gone with original album track orders. Update: I DID end up grabbing this...it was at a local Half Price Books, selling for $249 (somebody's been following eBay prices?), but it was still around for the day my 50% off coupon!! Still, my other Mosaic purchase at this location was a better deal.....the Nat King Cole set for $80

A flaw in the mastering or just a random pressing flaw? Finally caught up with Vol. 1. VERY good transfer work from what are, I'm sure, very rare discs!

I've used the SR 80s for years, but they were a bit unwieldy for transport during travel. I had been trying to find something for that purpose (I can't deal with the ear bud, in-ear design) so I bit on the iGrado, which claims to use the same driver as the SR 60, and sells for $50. http://www.amazon.com/Grado-i-Headphones-i...rd_i=B000K6BTT0 I'd be curious to hear if any SR 60 users have tried these and could compare. Compared to the SR 80 there's a tad less clarity at the top end of the scale, and a bit more heft on the lower end. It's a pleasingly rich, full range sound to me, and strangely, I find the SR 80s a bit thin sounding now, even though direct comparison shows the slight lack of full treble extension on the iGrados. You can't fold these up, the design IS a bit strange (but grows on you), but the profile is good for travel (a shorter cord, mini-jack does help), and I find I'm listening to my portable devices much more on trips now.