Fantasy K2s deleted?

[Mitchell Duval]

So, I was going to place an order today at the Concord site for a bunch of the Prestige etc. K2s--you know, taking advantage of the sale price before the end of the year--but I can't find them listed on the site anywhere, even though they're in the winter sale catalog. And the Concord customer service line still has a canned message that the office will be closed until Dec. 27. Does anyone know what gives? Have the K2s been deleted in favor of the new RVG series?

[montg]

I found some on the site, but you have to type in the individual album names you're looking for (e.g., 'everyone digs Bill Evans). It's a horrible web site--not user-friendly at all.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Pardon my iggerance, but what's a K2?

MG

[jazzbo]

K2 and digitalK2 are JVC mastering/remastering processes involving proprietary converters, etc. . . . JVC in Japan started licensing and releasing cds with K2 remastering and Fantasy began to issue some of these titles themselves in the US.

K2 remastering sounds very good to my ears. . . . Often (though not always in my opinion!) better than the regular releases in the OJC catalog.

[J.A.W.]

K2 and digitalK2 are JVC mastering/remastering processes involving proprietary converters, etc. . . . JVC in Japan started licensing and releasing cds with K2 remastering and Fantasy began to issue some of these titles themselves in the US.

K2 remastering sounds very good to my ears. . . . Often (though not always in my opinion!) better than the regular releases in the OJC catalog.

Some K2s sound bright and forward/loud, due to bumped up higher frequencies and some compression/maximization. It's all in the mastering, not so much the format.

[Ron S]

To my ears, some of the late-'80's/early-90's OJC/Contemporary CD's have some of the best sound I've ever heard, e.g., the Shelly Manne Black Hawk discs. And apparently the folks at Fantasy would agree, since many of these have never received the K2 treatment (at least for US distribution).

[montg]

I haven't always been real fond of the K2 releases.. on my system a lot of them sound a little boomy, or undefined, in the bass. A little too loud.

I agree that some of the early 90s releases sound excellent..Lockjaw Cookbook, Burrell jam session (All Day Long), and Gene Ammmons (Funky) are three that come to mind.

[jazzbo]

Kirk Felton has done great work for Fantasy the last decade or so in my opinion.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

K2 and digitalK2 are JVC mastering/remastering processes involving proprietary converters, etc. . . . JVC in Japan started licensing and releasing cds with K2 remastering and Fantasy began to issue some of these titles themselves in the US.

K2 remastering sounds very good to my ears. . . . Often (though not always in my opinion!) better than the regular releases in the OJC catalog.

Thanks very much, Jazzbo

MG

[Ron S]

Kirk Felton has done great work for Fantasy the last decade or so in my opinion.

As have Joe Tarantino and Phil De Lancie (and perhaps others I'm forgetting).

By the way, Joe Tarantino is credited with the remastering, albeit 20-bit K2, on the new Bill Evans Complete Village Vanguard box. I'm listening to it right now and, although I haven't done an A-B comparison to the earlier 20-bit K2's of "Sunday" and "Waltz" by the JVC folks, the new box set sounds better to me than how I remember the earlier 20-bit K2's sounding the last time I listened to them--more presence and detail, and less tape hiss. I read somewhere that this set--and presumably its earlier Japanese and European releases--was mastered from the original session tapes, and that the previous K2s were mastered from the master tapes prepared for the original albums. I've spoken to Tarantino a few times in the past, and I think I'll try to find out from him what the real story is here.