Music Matters Definitive Blue Note 45 RPM and 33 & 1/3 RPM vinyl series (pt7)

I've got Maiden Voyage on order. I'll have it next Friday. I'm going to ask the distributor to open and have a look before he sends it out I think.

 

They only way to know is to play it. You cannot tell by looking. I have played records that looked fine but had non-fill, crackling etc, and played records that looked awfull but played fine... Its one of the traps novice record collectors fall into when buying second hand, particularly online. Show someone a pretty picture of a shiny vinyl LP and they think they are buying a mint copy. Only when you get to play the record do you get hear what condition it is actually in.

 

If I were you I would calm down and approach the matter calmly and politely with Music Matters. I am sure they will fix your issues. I doubt you will find better service anywhere else.

 

http://www.speakerscornerrecords.com/news/details/15/truly-analogue

Just thought I'd post this here in case you missed it.

 

I sympathize with you.
No one is questioning your account of of the events
From what I can gather reading your posts sounds to me like this is all a terrible misunderstanding that has lead to frustration on your end and MM's end.

Since you say you've been blocked by MM, maybe myself or someone else on this thread could play diplomat here and serve as an intermediary between you and MM.

Would you be willing to entertain this idea?

Of course, I don't carry any official weight with regards to MM but were I in your shoes I'd hope one of the members here would do the same for me

 

Agreed!
Calm heads might still prevail here if things are approached more reasonably as you suggest

 

You make good point but I still don't know why all these points would lead to the conclusion that the series is coming to a conclusion soon

What is soon and how soon is soon?
A year from now? Two?

 

+1

 

Yeah, uniformly gut. Umm, good. funny you linked the german page
That said, the sound ranges depending on the sources. I've found the Verve titles mastered by Kevin Gray to be better than the locally mastered titles - Marten de Boer - I think. At Berliner ?? Maybe the KG@ATM titles were done using the master tapes? The local stuff is at best a 2nd generation copy, maybe lower. That said, still good.
Where you see (hear) really how good the local mastering can be though is the Speakers Corner reissue of "Ascent to the Scaffold", that soundtrack with Miles Davis. Done without the reverb added on the original. That one is fabulously good.

 

And I have a lot of Speakers Corner titles, really a lot. They are virtually all good. To really good.
Barely a dud.
The only dud I can think of offhand is "Elvis in Memphis", which sounds totally flat and lifeless.
Outstanding are most of the Verve reissues. The Ben Webster stuff in particular is great.

It's funny comparing the sound of the Music Matters Blue Note reissues to the sound on the Speakers Corner Verve reissues. Since they were all recorded around the same time.
To me, the Blue Notes are clearer, more bell like in tone. The Verves are softer, warmer, fuller and more inviting.

 

I get what you're saying about the economics of the reissue biz, which MM has concluded requires them to reissue mostly tried-and-true hard bop material. But the BN catalog is almost inexhaustibly rich in wonderful music (and, no doubt, in master tapes in excellent condition).

Blue Note was never a "free jazz" or vocals-friendly label at any point in its history. Contrary to popular belief (and yours, apparently), Blue Note did not nosedive artistically after Alfred Lion sold the business, and there are plenty of, for lack of a better term, 'mainstream' albums of great merit dating from the late sixties/early seventies, by the likes of Horace Silver, Elvin Jones, and Bobby Hutcherson.

I mean, this may be from mid-seventies BN, but it's not too bad, no?

 

That was said far more eloquently than I could have. And you are spot on, this is the only MM reissue I do not like the sound quality on. My initial guess of owning 70-80 titles was way off. I currently have 109 unique album reissues (not counting duplicates between 33 and 45 rpm).

I compared the DSD from the AP disc to the MM vinyl. It is as you describe, just wonderful sounding. The mastering is a bit low in volume, but nothing turning up the volume can't fix. I think I will get the 45 rpm again now that Acoustic Sounds advertise it as being pressed at QRP which I have had nothing but true digital quiet flawless pressings from for the recent couple of dozen albums.

 

I haven't played my MM copy and I don't know where you posted a sample (though I'd listen) but two comments:
a) You're not talking about the brushwork, are you? The swish-swish sound? Also in some cases in this recording you can hear spit through the horns that sounds something like distortion.
b) It's hilarious people use "digital" to mean anything bright or distorted. Digital doesn't "break up." That's a purely analog form of distortion.

 

Thanks for the reply. My best guess is that @hvbias' use of 'bright' wasn't in denial of the fact that the sonic signature of horns generally have a fair amount of treble, I think he meant 'bright in comparison to more balanced-sounding masterings'--again, to his ears. The way I see it is just because a recording has horns (or cymbals for that matter) doesn't mean it's automatically invalid to say the recording and/or mastering isc '(too) bright' or 'dark', for example. I think the point is 'bright' was used in relation to other masterings of the same album.

 

If you think the customer service has been sub-par, why not contact the management?

 

I'm trying to follow...so do you have a copy of Somethin' Else you're happy with? Are you falling victim to the curse of always looking for a better version?

 

This is based on what?

 

There was something nasty going on in the sample @dianos PM'd me, which was taken from an iPhone recording his speaker so who knows what it could have been. But whatever it was I don't hear it on other versions of the album.

 

It sounds identical listening by ear.

 

Granting that we all hear things differently and are using the same equipments

Have just re listened to MM Somethin' Else with ears on alert for brightness and once again can't say that I heard brightness. Miles' trumpet is very high pitched but that is to be expected when compress the air rushing out from a trumpet further with a mute like he does on this album

No brightness here just brilliance

I refuse to compare the AP and MM versions of this album because the engineers made different choices on both of them. Both are good versions of the album and I sold my AP 45 to a friend cause I don't like flipping 45s like I used to, fewer trips to the record player is overriding concern these days

 

Once again I agree with your explanation

Unlike Megan Trainor I ain't all about the bass, I dig a little treble now and then

 

I remember now. He also messed with the EQ or something to amplify the distortion.

 

You're right-- two contemporaneous vinyl versions of the same album can in no way be compared!!!

Besides, the APO version was, like, so 2013.

 

Seems like the best reason to compare.

 

Yes, to an extent, I'm not fanatical about it. I have tons of original pressings I will never bother to look for another version of, no point in having a tweaked version when the original sounds so natural. I would even include Blue Note in that category, but a big reason I buy the Music Matters reissues is for the jackets/photos. The most recent purchase I have been over the moon about is an RVG stereo first pressing of Don Cherry's Complete Communion, it sounds amazing, really natural and the music transfixes me. Plus pressed on vinyl quieter than a bunch of the junk these days. The only reason I'd "upgrade" it if Music Matters put it out, again primarily for the jacket/photos. I have the DSD rip of Somethin' Else because I was helping test a native DSD DAC, I pretty much only play vinyl at home for non background listening. Eventually I will have to return this incredible sounding DAC. I don't see it as any different from say having a crackly sounding pressing of an album and wanting to upgrade to a quieter copy, lots of collectors do that.

If what JHC3 says is true, that is a shame. I would prefer to hear the news from Lori, Joe Harley or Ron Rambach. But there is an enormous world of jazz outside of Blue Note.