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Bigshot

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Posts posted by Bigshot

  1. listening to my own needle drops, digitally

    in Audio Talk

    Posted

    High bitrates are wasted on LP transfers unless you plan to do a lot of manipulation of the sound in post. The main advantage of high bitrates is increased resolution in very low volume levels. This is useful if you are mixing and need to radically boost the volume of something, but with a straight transfer off a record, the only thing that will benefit from the added resolution is inaudible surface noise.

    Most LPs have dynamic ranges well within the capability of standard 16/44.1 CD quality. Recording higher is a waste of hard drive space.

  3. phono cartridge for mono and stereo

    in Audio Talk

    Posted · Edited by Bigshot

    The closer to the stylus you strap to mono, the more out of phase noise will be reduced. A mono cartridge is best, but jumpers on the back of a stereo cart would be just as good.

    There are also coarse groove records from the earliest year of LPs on Columbia. Those require a slightly larger tip.

  7. RCA Living Stereo series

    in Classical Discussion

    Posted

    Fiedler is totally underrated. Gaite Parisienne is one of the best in the box. I've been going through the set myself, and I'm struck by the consistency of quality. There are an awful lot of excellent performances in here. I've got the Brilliant Classics Russian live box and the Hyperion complete Liszt on deck, so my evenings are booked for a long time!

  9. With the thousands of recordings in your collection, is there one you

    in Miscellaneous Music

    Posted

    There is one recording that will always hold a special place for me. Cab Calloway's Some of These Days. I was in college and had gotten into "art rock" (which turned out to be neither). A radio station played Cab and my brain exploded. I wrote down the name of the track and ran straight to the record store. The song had everything- energy, skill, surprises, contrasts. I played it over and over and it eventually led to the entire world of music opening up to me. To he'll with prog rock when you can listen to jazz!

  10. The Raymond Scott Dimension

    in Artists

    Posted

    I wish someone would do a proper release and sound restoration on the Quintet sides. I have a few of the original 78s on the Master label and they sound great- explosive percussion, nice bass, a real sense of depth- then I put on the CD and it's all flattened out and opaque sounding.

    It would be great if there was a box set of all the Scott followers- Joe Daniels and his Hotshots in Drumnastics, John Kirby and Ambrose and his Orchestra.

  18. Are there any box bargains currently available?

    in Mosaic and other box sets...

    Posted

    The mastering is not always the same on SACDs. I did an extensive A/B test of SACDs a year or two ago. It's very difficult to do because you need two disks and two decks. It isn't possible to switch between layers on a single machine without a large delay, making direct comparison impossible. A friend and I compared numerous SACDs on two line level matched decks and at first noticed differences in some, but it turned out that the differences were slight differences in mix. It appeared that the redbook layer had been deliberately hobbled on a couple of them. Finally, we used a hybrid SACD made from a high bitrate DSD master (Pentatone). The sound was phenomenal, and it was identical on both layers.

    The quality of the recording, mixing and mastering is what counts, not the bitrate. The sonic differences between SACD and CD are beyond the range of the audible in normal listening to music, both in dynamicsand frequency response.

  21. Ellington 1930s big-band Mosaic

    in Mosaic and other box sets...

    Posted

    As a 78 collector, I have noticed that although there are always exceptions, the sound quality of records changed every few years. Early electricals often have a kind of wooden boxy sound. In the beginning of the depression, sound quality dipped a bit and became a bit rougher on the lower priced records, probably because of declining sales and competition with radio. By 1933-34, sound was remarkably good. Around 1940, RCA Victor seems to have started polishing the metal parts, creating a smooth but upholstered sound. The early Ellington sides on the Mosaic box are perfectly in line with what records from the beginning of the depression sound like.

  22. Are there any box bargains currently available?

    in Mosaic and other box sets...

    Posted · Edited by Bigshot

    Most people who posted there, say that this is indeed a new remastering, and betters the 1994 cds.

    It's new mastering, but it's the same remixing. The problem is the remixing. The mix on the original LPs was much punchier and dynamic. The new mixes sound distant and weak. I think it's the use of digital reverbs as opposed to wire or acoustic reverbs and tape slaps. The new box will certainly sound cleaner, but noise wasn't the problem. The original mixes aren't available on cd so unless you go with vinyl, you don't have any choice.

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