Bigshot

Opera is grwat on bluray. Perfect sound, the best seats in the house and first class performers. I love opera. It's the ultimate art form, incorporating elements of all the arts.

That's where the music server comes in! One of the interesting things that digital technology makes simple is accessing music and setting up organized listening. By simply typing "diabelli" into iTunes, I'm presented with a half dozen differentr recordings... Schnabel, Gillels, Brendel... I can easily find out where the spark is and get a clear idea of the difference between styles. In the LP era that was almost impossible, because the routine of cleaning the record and dropping the needle on the right groove was just too laborious. CDs made it a little easier, but neither format compares to digital files in a music server. A 587 CD box doesn't need to be played straight through from beginning to end. It can become a resource in your library that can get called upon in dozens of different ways over the years.

Check out the Meister Konzerte box. It's packed with tons of wonderful historical recordings with perfectly judged restoration. I've heard that the Furtwangler box has great sound too. Membran has some excellent titles, particularly the ones from the past year or so. Master tapes and metal parts aren't always the best source. A transfer off of a good original shellac or vinyl pressing in pristine condition can sound better than one off a deteriorated master tape or worn metal part. It all depends on the condition of the elements and the ear of the transfer engineer. As someone mentioned earlier, the third party releases of some of the EMI catalog sounds better than EMI's own. This isn't uncommon. Brilliant Classics, major label mega box sets, PD labels out of Germany... They all have great recordings for as low as a dollar an hour. Quality of sound and the quality of performances have gone up tremendously in the past two years. What used to be true about classical box sets isn't necessarily true any more. As a format, the CD may be on its way out, replaced by streaming services and direct downloads. If you prefer physical media and want a wide selection to choose fom, now is the time to act. You may not have much to choose from in five or six years.

When you take the amount of truly wonderful music in the world and divide it by the number of years in a lifetime, you'll find that you're WAY behind schedule! Too much is never enough when it comes to music. Digital audio technology has completely changed my relationship with music in a good way. I have a Mac Mini packed with a year and a half's worth of great music. The server plays on shuffle play 24/7 through airports all over my house. I am always surrounded by music. It even plays quietly in my bedroom at night. I wake up with violin concertos running through my head that I must have listened to when I was asleep. This doesn't mean that I don't take just as much time for focused listening as I used to. The opposite is actually true. I have a list of music that came up on random play that I am interested to go back and carefully listen to. Having more music than I can ever absorb fully is a liberating and satisfying experience. I'm learning about music faster than I ever did before, and I'm appreciating it more because my horizons are much wider. It's impossible to get too focused on minutia or obsessed with one composer. It's like swimming in the ocean instead of sitting in a bathtub.

I recently got the Bernstein symphonies box. I had a bunch of these recordings on LP back in the day, but they didn't sound anything like the vibrant, dynamic and present recording quality on the remastered CDs. Likewise with the Rubinstein box. The first couple of dozen CDs in the set covering the 78 era sounds better than it ever has before... much better than the 78s themselves... I have many of them. In the past ten years, digital technology has gone a long way to correcting the noise in old recordings. It still takes a remastering engineer with a good ear and knowledge about how to properly apply the tools, but it can truly work wonders. In general, even the recent public domain box sets (like Furtwangler and Russian Piano legends on Membran) sound excellent. What used to be true isn't as true any more. Really good old recordings, like the Mercury Living Presence, Decca Sound and RCA Living Stereo boxes sound phenominal. Better than many recent recordings. I suspect EMI did a great deal of remastering in the early days of digital restoration and now they're stuck with sub par CD masters. They're the exception, not the rule.

How much money does a long dead artist need? Do they need pocket change for cigarettes in heaven? As for me, I really love historical performances. There's a lot more personality in them. Some might call that over the top, but I like a performer to put his own thoughts into the mix. There isn't enough of that today. Also, the quality of remastering has improved exponentially in the past few years. Schnabel is far from representative.

Rhytmic noise means warp. Dd you leave it on top of a hot amp?

Membran's classical box sets are spectacular bargains. I've found that the trick is to rip the sets to true mono. They appear to be transferred in stereo with different noise on each channel. Once you sum them out to mono all that noise gets cancelled out and they sound great.

Last week Amazon.de had the Stamitz complete set of Dvorak String Quartets for 15 euro. Great deal for a very good set.

BARGAIN ALERT! The whole Rise of the Masters series is on sale for $1.99 a pop. The world's best music with the world's worst covers at the world's best price. Some name performers in there. Definitely worth the risk. Mozart http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005VZR2I2/ Grieg http://www.amazon.com/Grieg-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005VZOZJ6/ Beethoven http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005W26W12/ Chopin http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005W28SQO/ Schubert http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005W23THC/ Bach http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005WW94ZS/ Debussy http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005VZN1HI/ Tchaikovsky http://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005W29340/ Schumann http://www.amazon.com/Schumann-Masters-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces/dp/B006ABZY7C/ Vivaldi http://www.amazon.com/Vivaldi-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005W3GI88/ Handel http://www.amazon.com/Handel-Supreme-Classical-Masterpieces-Masters/dp/B005VZMNYA/ Mendelssohn http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Mendelssohn-Masterpieces-Amazon-Exclusive/dp/B003O3RJ40/

Amazon MP3 Bargains 8 hours of Gustav Leonhardt's Guild Recordings of Bach for $2.79 http://www.amazon.com/Gustav-Leonhardt-Guild-Recordings-1952-1955/dp/B008A4OXKG/ 13 hours of Abravanel's Mahler for 99 cents http://www.amazon.com/Big-Mahler-Box-Bach-Guild/dp/B008J7G5LO/

One other note... You can use your iphone or ipad or ipod touch to control your itunes library from anywhere in the house. You can turn speakers on and off, adjust volume and search up songs without touching your computer.

The spacer is there to hold everything in place during shipping. They leave extra room so you can see the titles as you flip through the covers.

I think the theory is to sell it cheap at first and get good Amazon reviews. Then raise the price.

I just got my Dvorak symphonies box and the Enlightenment box. Lots to listen to!

The Dutoit Ravel box set is one of my desert island disks. Fantastic!

My most expensive CD player ($900) was the worst with skipping, and it sounded exactly the same as a $45 Coby DVD player. I've given up on expensive players. They just aren't worth it. I'm currently using a $130 Sony bluray player for everything with no skips and great sound. If it breaks, I'll throw it out and get a new one.

That enlightenment box is exactly what I've been looking for. Worth shipping to the US for sure. Thanks for the tip!

I've posted a few of my classical 78 restorations here in the past. Today, I uploaded a batch of early dance band records. These are my own transfers and restorations, done from original 78rpm shellac disks. This first batch is all acoustic, meaning that these records were recorded without microphones. The bands performed into a big wooden horn that transmitted the sound vibrations directly into the cutting head of the record cutter. No electricity involved! If you like these, let me know. I'd be happy to post more. Enjoy! Sheiks & Vamps: 1920s Dance Bands Vol. 1 Yes! We Have No Bananas (1923) Billy Jones with Bennie Krueger's Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps01.mp3 Ilo (1921) The Newport Society Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps02.mp3 Tricks (1922) Emil Coleman & His Montmartre Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps03.mp3 Little Boy Blue (1923) Phil Baker's Novelty Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps04.mp3 Stumbling (1922) Yerkes' S.S. Floatilla Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps05.mp3 Foolin' Around (1923) Isham Jones Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps06.mp3 Yoo-Hoo (1921) The Newport Society Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps07.mp3 Come Along (I'm Through With Worryin') (1922) Emil Coleman & His Montmartre Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps08.mp3 Lovable Eyes (1922) Leo F. Reisman Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps09.mp3 Cutie (1922) Yerkes S.S. Floatilla Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps10.mp3 The Sheik Of Arabay (1921) The California Ramblers http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps11.mp3 Nobody's Sweetheart (1924) Isham Jones Orchestra http://vintageip.com/xfers/sheiksandvamps12.mp3

Importcds.com has the best price on the big Rubinstein box and a ten percent off sale that brings 142 CDs, 2DVDs and a hardback book to just over $200.

They must have left off a zero.

I added an interesting novelty to my site today. Here is my transfer and restoration of one of the earliest full frequency range recordings. This is hifi, but it was released on 78rpm shellac a few years before the introduction of the LP. It shows you just how good 78s can sound... Vincent D'Indy: Overture to "Fervaal" Charles Munch / L'Orchestre de la Societe du Conservatoire de Paris (Recorded 1947) http://www.vintageip.com/xfers/dindyfervaal1947.mp3 Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No 5 in D Minor "Reformation" Charles Munch / L'Orchestre de la Societe du Conservatoire de Paris (Recorded 1948) http://www.vintageip.com/xfers/mendelssohnreformation1948.mp3 Enjoy!

I have ten Drobos with 68 TB total storage. I love them. They're a bit slow, but I've had a drive crash and popped a new one in and it rebuilt it perfectly. I just wish I could daisy chain more than four Drobos.

Re: Variation in historical recordings Actually, it was because conductors were primarily known for live performance, not recordings. In a live performance, they could take chances that wouldn't be engraved in record grooves for all time. This encouraged conductors to develop a personal style. Later, these styles made their mark on records, but that wasn't what created them.

Historical recordings definitely have unique and varied conducting styles compared to modern recordings. Today it seems everyone is searching for the one true interpretation and anyone who steps in a different direction is criticized for not conducting a proper performance. It was the opposite in the past.