I have read opinions on the board of both the Evan's XRCDs and the OJC cds quality in general, but remain unsure. Are the Evan's XRCD releases worth the extra cash, or should I just go with the Evan's OJC cds? Thanks.
Waltz for Debby Portrait in Jazz Interplay Moonbeams Explorations How My Heart Sings As selected from your list of OJC recommended titles, which by the way has yielded much profit for my listening on titles such as "New Blue Horns" and More Swinging Sounds. (Great sound, great music, and I likely would have never given a listen but for your list, thanks.)
Moonbeams Explorations How My Heart Sings Live At Village Vanguard wonderful on XRCD.. The others get the OJC.
The American issue of The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 (3 CDs) sounds great to my ears, better than the OJCs and XRCDs of Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard - those albums are included in their entirety and I've compared most of the tracks that they have in common. Amazon
I got mine a few months back from Amazon.com for $18! Wonderful set. I can't imagine it sounding better. At least not on my system.
I like my Japan for Japan Portrait In Jazz ('85 Gastwirt) slightly better than my OJC CD. But they both have that annoying high-frequency ringing from god-knows-where.
Steve was referring to the first XRCD issue with the sturdy cardboard gatefold cover, JVC VICJ-60214, which was mastered by Alan Yoshida at A&M Mastering Studios, Hollywood, CA. It's long OOP.
True and this has to do with the fact that with XRCD, you have to know the ones mastered here in Hollywood by Alan Yoshida. He was head and shoulders better than the mastering engineers from Japan that worked on XRCD. The Yoshida mastered XRCDs are excellent. (IMO of course.) cheers, Joe
Hello! I have the XRCD of At Shelley's Manne-Hole and really dig the sound on it. The playing is some of my favorite Bill Evans. The liner notes say it was mastered by Alan Yoshida in Hollywood. Peace. Robert
Yup, agreed.. Bill Evans At Shelley's Manne-Hole is a great live album.. Even though some thoughtless engineer turned the album title into "Bill Evans At Shelly's A** Hole" on the tape box..
Thanks for the pic Steve. I remember you telling us about how someone had "altered" the title of the album. I'm not sure if you posted the pic before, but that's so funny...
Wouldn't changing it to Bill Evans In Shelley's Manne-Hole have been easier? What kind of club name was that anyway? I mean come on, Shelly was asking for trouble naming it that.
Full of distortion and piano overload on original tape so I'm confused what you mean by "good". Do you mean a good, honest transfer of a troubled tape? If so, yes.
What is it about pianos from this era? Even Rudy couldn't record them well. They're often times distorted and usually have a weird, midrange heavy sound to them.
The piano is always the hardest instrument to record. Back in the day, it always showed the flaws in any recording system. Usually you had a Neumann mic hooked into a mic pre console that wasn't compatible with it. You got overload (listen to BILL EVANS title mentioned above). When everything matched correctly there was no overload distortion but then engineers like Van Gelder or Ray Fowler, Jack Higgins, etc. wanted the piano to sound "better" or louder or more able to cut through. So they started EQ'ing the keyboards and running it through a separate compressor, putting the mic right inside the piano, etc., still with overload or the sound of cardboard. Never worked for these guys because they didn't understand that in order for a German mic to "do piano", ya needed SPACE between the mic and the instrument. These small studios didn't want leakage, etc. so they couldn't or wouldn't do it. Columbia or RCA in their big ol' rooms in the late 1950's didn't have this problem and they recorded the piano just like they did in the 1920's, from a short distance (sometimes taking the lid of the piano.) Listen to a Duke Ellington VICTOR from 1932. Nice, natural piano sound, no distortion, no overload.
To avoid any misunderstandings: Everybody Digs Bill Evans was recorded for Riverside by Jack Higgins at the Reeves Sound Studios, NYC. Apparently he also used the technique Steve is talking about.