J.A.W.

My condolences.

Wait and see is putting it mildly. The statement you posted contadicts all the audiophile hype. I've been in more than enough fights about "audiophile hype" here and didn't want to get involved in another one, that's why I was putting it mildly So do I.

Well, I'm not a fan of noise reduction or limiting as it's often done these days, with strongly reduced dynamics and sometimes even hardly any dynamics left on many remasters, so for me it's a case of wait-and-see - or rather, wait-and-hear.

@ 2) According to the press release they used limiting and noise reduction: "Re-mastering the Beatles catalogue The re-mastering process commenced with an extensive period conducting tests before finally copying the analogue master tapes into the digital medium. When this was completed, the transfer was achieved using a Pro Tools workstation operating at 24 bit 192 kHz resolution via a Prism A-D converter. Transferring was a lengthy procedure done a track at a time. Although EMI tape does not suffer the oxide loss associated with some later analogue tapes, there was nevertheless a slight build up of dust, which was removed from the tape machine heads between each title. From the onset, considerable thought was given to what audio restorative processes were going to be allowed. It was agreed that electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops, excessive sibilance and bad edits should be improved where possible, so long as it didn’t impact on the original integrity of the songs. In addition, de-noising technology, which is often associated with re-mastering, was to be used, but subtly and sparingly. Eventually, less than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to this process. Finally, as is common with today’s music, overall limiting - to increase the volume level of the CD - has been used, but on the stereo versions only. However, it was unanimously agreed that because of the importance of The Beatles’ music, limiting would be used moderately, so as to retain the original dynamics of the recordings. When all of the albums had been transferred, each song was then listened to several times to locate any of the agreed imperfections. These were then addressed by Guy Massey, working with Audio Restoration engineer Simon Gibson. Mastering could now take place, once the earliest vinyl pressings, along with the existing CDs, were loaded into Pro Tools, thus allowing comparisons to be made with the original master tapes during the equalization process. When an album had been completed, it was auditioned the next day in studio three – a room familiar to the engineers, as all of the recent Beatles mixing projects had taken place in there – and any further alteration of EQ could be addressed back in the mastering room. Following the initial satisfaction of Guy and Steve, Allan Rouse and Mike Heatley then checked each new re-master in yet another location and offered any further suggestions. This continued until all 13 albums were completed to the team’s satisfaction."

Sorry to hear this. His two Vanguard albums (and the Bill English Vanguard, for that matter) should be reissued on CD, but in the current climate...

You can change the thread title yourself by using the edit button of the first post.

Amazon.com just cancelled my order for Ashley Kahn's Blue Note book, which was due out about now. The reason they gave me is that "it is not available from any of their sources at this time." It still seems to be available for pre-order at Amazon U.K.

My guess is that it will be a split decision (especially on the SH board!) on whether they actually sound better, but they will sound different than what we have now. If your frame of reference is the CDs (as it is for me), I really don't think there is any benefit to getting the remasters. It will just mess with your head. The only Beatles I've heard on LP was Sgt. Pepper's. I'm happy with the sound on the CDs and that's what I listened to all through college, etc. Not saying that this project is an abomination or anything, I just don't see any value for me. I do seriously wonder if Apple is misjudging things though -- I think the target audience here is in their late 50s to 60s, and this group is really starting to wind down its CD buying. No not us on the board or SH Board but we are such outliers it is a little scary. And truly the next generation or two below me (Z?) isn't going to buy anything at all. It will be all torrents all the time. We'll see how well that works out. I guess the major question would be: Will they sound better than the Ebbetts? Though I think even these are overrated... I take it you're aware that the Ebbetts are bootlegs? Just curious

The Hoffman forum has gone crazy, 1,000+ posts on this in less than 8 hours... (sigh)

We Swedish-Americans even speak English funny, so I am sure you're correct, Hans!

Except that they pronounce "v" as "f". Everyone has a right to their own accent, don't they I'm sure the Swedes also have their peculiarities when speaking foreign languages

Didn't he post Temeuzen? Correct Where is that? North, South? I lived in Den Haag, on the North Sea twice, but never really got around except for Amsterdam, especially the last go round. Most musicians live in the 3 cities off the sea: Den Haag, Amsterdam, Rotterdam. Not all, though. Some guys I know teach in Groenegen and I was invited to a concert but it's 2 hours away and I didn't have a car. It's a pretty small country, around the land mass of NJ (which makes me wonder why it would take 2 hours anyway...). Just curious. Click on the "correct" link above and you will see that it's in the Southwest. And it's "Groningen", by the way, the city where I live. Sorry to ruin the spelling. Do you know a bass player named......ahh, s&*t I can't remember his name now. Little guy, and his brother is supposed to play guitar well. Good player, though, and he has a good band. Forget it, and sorry I misspelled your hometown's name. No need to apologize, it's an impossible name for people who don't speak Dutch. Groningen has a population of 185,000, so I don't think there's much chance I know the bass player

Didn't he post Temeuzen? Correct Where is that? North, South? I lived in Den Haag, on the North Sea twice, but never really got around except for Amsterdam, especially the last go round. Most musicians live in the 3 cities off the sea: Den Haag, Amsterdam, Rotterdam. Not all, though. Some guys I know teach in Groenegen and I was invited to a concert but it's 2 hours away and I didn't have a car. It's a pretty small country, around the land mass of NJ (which makes me wonder why it would take 2 hours anyway...). Just curious. Click on the "correct" link above and you will see that it's in the Southwest. And it's "Groningen", by the way, a city in the Northeast, about 130 miles from Amsterdam and 170 miles from The Hague; it's where I live.

I don't think that's allowed here, it's copyrighted material

Didn't he post Temeuzen? Correct

Short BBC description of the Getz/Burton date: "This concert featuring the Stan Getz Quartet was recorded at the London School of Economics and includes A Singing Song, The Sunset Dell, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, O Morro, Jive Hoot, When the World Was Young, Scrapple from the Apple and Desafinado."

Nope.

I have to agree with that. I suspect Alan Yetnob is on something of a "KOB/Chet Baker/Brubeck' kick at the moment and the documentary was pitched with that 'style' aspect in mind. Most of us have grown out of it by now ! It wasn't quite clear to me what Yentob was trying to say. Presenting Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson and Kind of Blue as exponents of 1950s "Cool Jazz" is rather far-fetched, to put it mildly. On the other hand, maybe he was trying to make the point that they represented what was "cool" (i.e. ) in jazz at the time; that would have been a more credible statement. Anyway, the documentary was a mess, but, as was said above, it had some great footage.

The footage on the Cool documentary was great, the documentary wasn't in my view. I'm also hoping the BBC will broadcast the Getz and Art Farmer/Jim Hall sessions in full.

If you mean bluesman Jimmy Rogers, he's already had similar treatment years ago: Complete Chess Recordings

Great post, Swede! The best I've seen all day

Agreed on all counts.

For someone who wasn't a blues singer (for a while he was part of the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene), he did a nice job in my view

The songs on the essential Elektra album Bleecker & MacDougal are: Bleecker & MacDougal Blues on the Ceiling Sweet Mama Little Bit of Rain Country Boy Other Side to This Life Mississippi Train Travelin' Shoes The Water Is Wide Yonder Comes the Blues Candy Man Handful of Gimme Gone Again

One of the great singer/songwriters of the 1960s. I second the recommendation of the Collectors' Music set The Many Sides of Fred Neil, which contains his Capitol albums Fred Neil, Sessions and The Other Side of This Life, a single and unreleased stuff, but above all I'd recommend his Elektra album Bleecker and MacDougal, which has his best songs in my opinion. Fred Neil was born in 1931 and died in 2001. AMG bio