J.A.W.

In my opinion political (and religious) avatars shouldn't be allowed at all, because they cannot be restricted to the political forum; they're visible everywhere. I know avatars can be blocked, but that's an "all-or-nothing" option, not a solution in individual cases.

I see your point, but would like to add I've really enjoyed the Jimmy Witherspoon and have listened to it repeatedly. Me too! That's a great album and kudos to Mosaic for reissuing it. I can't comment on the Wein album as I don't own that one. I think JAW's point was not that these aren't good albums--they are--but that they're odd choices, and I have to concur on that point. There are some odd choices among those singles even by the "more established" artists. I was surprised by the J. J. Johnson choice, for example, because there was some really good jazz stuff he recorded in his other RCA albums (especially "The Total J. J. Johnson") that had to be left out. Likewise, while "Woody's Winners" is a great album, Woody's Columbia material would have made a fine select. greg mo I don't remember posting anything here about those albums

Well, I think Bing Crosby is still a big name and it'll no doubt sell pretty nicely - at least I hope so.

Not exactly my cup of tea, but there's some encouraging news in your Nights Lights post. Thanks for posting!

One of them was the John Patton Select.

Hiroshi's updated CD stocklist

Should be quite the stampede when the Mobley finally hits 'last chance'. You would think that by this time, everybody who wants has it. Wasn't it made almost 10 years ago? The Mobley set was released in 1998.

Sorry. I still don't fully understand. Are the new stereo discs simply the old mixes (let's disregard Help and Rubber Soul for the moment) somehow cleaned up and sonically improved - greater sonic range, less hiss, somehow clearer and sharper to the ear - somewhat analogous to polishing a piece of silver? Or are they somehow remixed? I don't see how a mono master can be remixed. So I guess George Martin created new stereo mixes for Help and Rubber Soul in 1986 that made these songs sound different than prior? And people are clamoring for the old sound, so those were included on the mono discs? But then why weren't they just included on the stereo discs? That seems a more natural place for them. Presumably, if you like mono enough to buy the mono box, you wouldn't much care about the stereo mix, especially one considered substandard. I obviously wouldn't last 10 minutes on the Steve Hoffman forums! I don't know what exactly you mean by "sonic range" and I haven't heard the stereo remasters, but from what I've read on the Hoffman forum I understand that on the stereo box (not on the mono set) peak limiting and some additional compression were applied compared to the old albums, resulting in less dynamic range - not that there was much dynamic range on the old albums anyway As for the hiss, they applied only a few minutes of noise reduction on the stereo box (again, not on the mono set), so I'm guessing the hiss should be audible. They wanted to avoid any damage to the music that is often an effect of too much noise reduction. I'll leave it to others to answer your other questions, but I'm guessing that they did not remix anything.

As was posted earlier in this thread, the Stereo box has the 1986 mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul that were used on the 1987 CDs. I don't know the answer to your other questions.

Thanks Hans!! I'll have to place an order- latert though- no time now. You're welcome. I hope it'll still be there by that time

CD Pacific has low stock of the Mono box; price: $216.61.

I guess most folks already have the 2008 Euro-Sony Original Masters Ellington 1932-1939? Those are 'gray-market' in the USA for exactly the same copyright/royalty issues as affects 'Andorran' imports or 'Euro-Mosaics', so some may have scruples. If you can find one though they are dirt-cheap and well worth a few $$$ investment as a bulwark against the non-emergence of the proposed Mosaic 10CD epic. Why would Euro-Sony releases be grey-market in the United States? They (Sony) own the rights, so they can do with the material as they see fit, both in Europe and anywhere else. Or am I missing something?

And that's why they're not offering any.

Correct. I get the impression that posters here forget that. Not so much forgot as never knew/realized. In any event, you guys are right as evidenced by the e-mail I got from Mosaic: "Thank you for your thoughts but we are unable to obtain download rights from the licensors for the music." So much for downloads. What I meant earlier is that people don't seem to realize that Mosaic doesn't own the rights of anything they release (with the exception of the Charlie Parker set), they're just licensees.

I guess you're right. There was another lady, I think it was back in the 1990s, who left to start a family. I don't remember her name, but I do remember sending her a card at the time to congratulate her and thank her for her excellent service.

Well, it seems that except for the Pearson, it took only a few minutes for all of these to sell out... there's no reason to hold this against Mosaic! I sent them a mail within a few minutes as well, I got a kind reply (as always) but I guess they were flooded with orders and mails and they being such a small company - two or three people? or just Cindy being at the office regularly? It's always she who answers my mail concerning orders, and she's always been perfectly polite and on several occasions extremely kind to me. You're right, Mosaic's not to blame and Cindy is doing a really great job. So did Anne Osso. Whatever happened to her? No idea. She did Cindy's job in the 90s (and maybe the early 00s). I know, but I think she left in the 1990s. Cindy's been doing the job since then - if I remember correctly.

Well, it seems that except for the Pearson, it took only a few minutes for all of these to sell out... there's no reason to hold this against Mosaic! I sent them a mail within a few minutes as well, I got a kind reply (as always) but I guess they were flooded with orders and mails and they being such a small company - two or three people? or just Cindy being at the office regularly? It's always she who answers my mail concerning orders, and she's always been perfectly polite and on several occasions extremely kind to me. You're right, Mosaic's not to blame and Cindy is doing a really great job. So did Anne Osso. Whatever happened to her? No idea.

Errr... She might be reading this

Well, it seems that except for the Pearson, it took only a few minutes for all of these to sell out... there's no reason to hold this against Mosaic! I sent them a mail within a few minutes as well, I got a kind reply (as always) but I guess they were flooded with orders and mails and they being such a small company - two or three people? or just Cindy being at the office regularly? It's always she who answers my mail concerning orders, and she's always been perfectly polite and on several occasions extremely kind to me. You're right, Mosaic's not to blame and Cindy is doing a really great job.

The stereo versions of both Help! and Rubber Soul in the Mono box (which are added to the mono CDs) have the original 1965 mixes, while the individual remasters and the ones in the Stereo box have the 1986 mixes that were used on the 1987 CDs. Long story... There are hundreds of threads (well, at least it looks that way ) about everything concerning these Beatles remasters on the Steve Hoffman forum.

Correct. I get the impression that posters here forget that.

Provided their licensors will allow them to do so.

If you want to see what's currently possible along these lines, go to Pristine Classical. They offer lossless FLAC downloads in either 16 bit (CD quality), 16 bit ambient stereo or 24 bit (studio quality) formats along with dowloadable artwork, track listings and commentaries. I've purchased a half a dozen of their recordings in 16 bit FLAC and they are very nice. Up over and out. That's Andrew Rose's website, the guy whose pre-war blues remasters, sourced from MP3, are controversial, to say the least. Last year his work was discussed on Blindman's Blues Forum. I listened to several of his blues samples and hated the sound. Give me Yazoo and John Tefteller's Blues Images CDs anytime!

Don't forget hysteria

Why not ask Mosaic why they aren't going that route? Criticizing them here is easy, but there may be reasons why they don't offer lossless downloads etc. - or CD-Rs, for that matter.