Analog Spark Broadway Show Vinyl Reissues

Hi, all, I believe this might be my first time posting. At any rate, I have purchased a number of Analog Spark LP reissues over the past few years, specifically:

Sound of Music (both the Bow Tie single disk Original Soundtrack release and the Expanded 2 disk release)
Fiddler on the Roof Original RCA cast album
Hair Original Cast 2 disk release
Hello Dolly - Original Cast RCA album
My Fair Lady - Columbia original mono cast album
A Chorus Line - Columbia Original cast album
South Pacific - Original Columbia Cast recording

Does anyone else have any of these reissues and, if so, what do you think of them? They all are supposed to be derived from original analog tapes.

One thing I noticed - some of these releases (i.e. Hair, Hello Dolly) are Barnes and Noble exclusives and these reissues include the wrong generation RCA labels. They utilize the older late 1950s-early 1960s larger RCA Victor label rather than the smaller version with new 'font' used in the late 1960s. This surprised me. Also, of course, the original LP of "Hair" was, of course, a single disk release. That being said, I have extremely impressed with the audio quality of *all* of these releases. I have found them to be superior to the original pressings, overall.

My question - "Hair", :Hello Dolly" and "Fiddler on the Roof" were all originally DYNAGROOVE releases. None of these albums mention this process on their reproduction covers. Would this process have been applied *sfter* the original tapes had been recorded OR before? In other words, would these new pressings derived from the original tapes HAVE to be DYNAGROOVE because it was applied during the original recording process to the tapes? I hope this makes sense.

On the whole, I believe Analog Spark to be an excellent label for vinyl reissues. Any thoughts on all of this? THanks, Mark

 

A guy with two posts over 3+ years deserves a reply, @LuvDual.

I have the Hair Analog Spark/B&N reissue and it totally blows away my early RCA pressing. @snorker agrees. You can hear real people singing and playing on it. Those folks are canned on the RCA version.

Your question about Dynagroove is a good one. I can't answer it. I found this article and it sounds like Dynagroove was a systematic procedure, not just changing a step or two in the record making process. God knows how well the new steps were implemented but it seems like those on the recording side would all be improvements. A flat master tape could well exist, using those improvements but before the Dynamic Spectrum Equalizer and other dubious changes were added. From at least what I hear on Hair, it has to, the new pressing sounds so good.

Another possibility is that the recording was done remotely and maybe not even by RCA. That would almost certainly result in a Dynagroove-free master tape.

In any case, I'm glad we have the Analog Spark reissue.

 

...I've got a 2nd US, 1st Canadian and even the Quad, let alone my share of CD releases, and three songs in and Analog Spark kills all previous versions of HAIR.

Label design quibbles aside this is definitive. A shame I had to go to U.S. to pick it up at a B&N.

Now, if only Analog Spark could somehow get a similarly revalatory version of Jesus Christ Superstar - the recent CD remaster of brown album is exceptional, but the vinyl isn't dire. What is in desperate need is a full, proper remix of the JCS movie soundtrack that the better my system gets the worse it sounds.

But I digress...

 

I'm currently listening to the South Pacific reissue and I'm in love! Very dynamic and natural sound. Loving it. I can't wait to have my grandparents listen to this. My grandmother has a distinct memory of HER parents seeing this very cast on Broadway and listening to the album as a child.

 

I am trying to purchase all of these, however the Analog Spark site and Discogs do not list all the releases. Can anyone identify any Analog Spark musicals missing from this list.

General Release
Sound of Music (Film Soundtrack) 1LP (also reissued on pink vinyl)
Sound of Music (Film Soundtrack) 2LP (50th Anniversary)
West Side Story
South Pacific
My Fair Lady
Fiddler on the Roof
A Chorus Line
Company
Gypsy

Barnes and Noble Exclusive
Hello Dolly
Hair
Cabaret
Into The Woods (the only one I can’t get hold of)
Sound of Music (Original Broadway Cast) (later reissued on general release by Craft Recordings, I believe)