Stompin at the Savoy

All the audio on cd's started out as, well, audio files. They did not come from another cd. They either came from converting analog tape or disk to digital or were recorded directly to digital files. The resulting raw files are mastered and then a cd master is created. There is nothing special about cds. They are a storage medium for digital files. The bytes of data stored on them are not different from bytes of data stored on a hard drive, memory stick, etc. Many of us oldsters are used to files stored on cd and have better equipment to handle cds than files on other media but there is no inherent advantage to cds besides the existing stock of equipment to play them. In fact, hi-res downloads are actually superior (more detailed) to what can be contained on a cd, which is limited to 16 bits. (Whether these old ears can actually detect the difference is another question). To get back to the original topic, I don't have much of a problem with CD-R. They are cds with a slightly different creation process. To me they are just another container for digital data. There are reports that the quality is inferior to a regular cd or that they won't last as long as a cd. Since I usually only play cds once while I copy the files somewhere else, this is not a big concern as long as the cd is not defective and plays ok. When you copy a digital file from one place to another, including onto a cd, there is a lot of verification and checksum procedure to determine that each group of bytes that was just transferred matches the source. So if the copy gets a good return code it is pretty much guaranteed to be accurate. You can lose data after that if the cd is physically damaged, scratched etc. Should Amazon notify customers when they are going to get a CD-R instead of a CD? Yes.

What Lon says makes perfect sense to me. I believe he has a high quality cd player with top quality digital to audio conversion. Couple that with excellent tube amp, good speakers, etc and the files on the cd sound good. Next to that, even using his good amp and speakers, the sound card on his pc is probably inferior. Of course you can also obtain very high quality digital to audio conversion equipment and use it on files stored in media other than cd and it would probably sound similar but since he has invested a lot in his current cd setup and is committed to the physical formats it makes sense to not be interested in using the files outside of their cd format. If it works for you, it's good.

The source file is the same. The differences occur 1) because your cd player has its own digital to audio conversion which you are not using if you play some other way; 2) the signal chain after the signal leaves your cd player is probably different from when you play a file on your pc. As I said, and I am moderately well informed in these matters, the source file is identical if you ripped it to a lossless format. You can reconvert the digital file to a cd and the files on that cd will be completely identical to files on the original cd. I don't doubt that your cd setup sounds better than playing files on a computer but the reason is not because the files are different on a cd than on a hard drive, memory stick, etc.

When you rip a cd to disk, the files on your hard drive are identical to the files on the cd. If you feed the output from cd and output from the files through the same converter, pre-amp and amp setup, the result will be identical. A file is a file regardless of where it resides. To your amplifier there is no difference. It will sound different if you send the signal through a different amplifier/speaker setup. As for the cd booklets - I just photograph them, so I can probably play the recording and pull up the notes on my screen while most of you are still trying to find the cd, take it out of the case, put it in a player... As for showing my collection to a friend - letting them look at my collection on screen in player software like iTunes is actually quite a bit easier than trying to view all my thousands of cds: they can search for an artist, title, player etc, browse by artist, title, player, etc. There is no wrong way to handle your music files. You like cd's or vinyl - go for it. There are other ways to look at and organize music files, that is all I am trying to say.

I am in the minority on this but to me the cd is packaging or delivery system. I no longer think of recordings as cd's. What really matters to me are the files on the cd. The first thing I do when I get a cd is to rip the files to my hard drive and copy to backups. The cd itself is just another form of backup for me. Having been read once, the cd goes in pristine shape to a storage unit.

Jim Hall? Joe Pass? Tal Farlow? Kenny Burrell? Howard Roberts? Barney Kessel and Johnny Smith could be considered bop but had long careers post-bop.

Really? That doesn't seem right to me.

They did issue Up at Minton's, which has some nice jazz playing by Green.

I think it's putting it a bit strong to say Blue Note "tainted" jazz history. They put Grant Green on a lot of records. This was a record label. They made all sorts of decisions based on presumed profitability, personal esthetics, budgetary considerations, etc etc. We cannot hold them criminally responsible for this or that decision about what and whom to release. They gave musicians opportunities. In some cases, yes, they failed to extend opportunities that in retrospect seem regrettable.

Presto has the set in four pieces, each of which corresponds exactly to two disks from the original set. $26 each for cd quality and I think $20 for mp3. (Always better to get the cd quality imo). Depending on which cds you already have you might be able to get the rest of the set by buying three downloads. The discography is here: http://web.archive.org/web/20120303081131/http://www.mosaicrecords.com/discography.asp?number=251-MD-CD&price=$136.00&copies=8 CDs

Our access to music 50 or 60 years ago was limited. It was not really possible to have as many records then as today. For one thing it depended on what your local record store had in stock. No internet stores and no streaming. If you wanted to listen to new music without buying it you had to listen to whatever your favorite radio stations happened to be playing. There was no way to listen on demand except perhaps at some record stores. Naturally as a kid I listened to the few records I had over and over.

I reluctantly settled for cd quality downloads of the Coleman Hawkins set from Presto. I checked it out a bit on spotify and got tired of those ads. Enjoying the set. It covers so much time and development in the music.

With arrangements and several compositions by Bill Holman.

Just realized I don't have that and downloaded the flac files from Presto. $7. Excellent! Cover art: https://musicbrainz.org/release/74215367-4638-4c0d-8e84-5a2323c7cd18/cover-art

This is pretty great stuff. Many of the same arrangements were also done with Terry Gibbs, also very good stuff.

I never went but friends have told me that Dead concerts had a festival-like quality and there was a whole hippy trip and marketplace going on around the concerts. I've never been able to understand the attraction of the music. Much of a muchness.

I think I have most or all of this on single cds but I ordered it, as I did the Henderson, Clarke etc. I like getting it all with the Mosaic treatment.

Oh goody, I like this series very much! Sound is good, consistent approach. We were just getting to a lot of the best stuff in the mid and late 30's and then the monthly releases stopped.

Dalgliesh. This is one of the best British detective series in a long time.

I buy a lot of books, new and used. If I can find something as an ebook I will get the ebook because my eyesight is poor and I like reading text blown up large on a good sized screen. No ebook - buy new or used. For me buying books is like buying music cd's and downloads: I do it habitually and shop quite a bit. Other people put money into cars, motorcycles, boats, houses, etc. I buy books and records. Of course it's too much to keep it all in my house so I have a storage unit. Am I crazy? Probably.

Back around 1995 I was just getting into Mosaic sets. I had bought the big Andrew Hill set and one or two others. I called up Mosaic to order the Serge Chaloff cd set but was told it was sold out. So I ordered the Lee Morgan 50's set instead. The other day I came across the Serge Chaloff set for about what it would have cost new and purchased it. It arrived today and I am on the second disk. Really enjoying it!

Very sad to hear this and grateful to Michael Cuscuna.