I've bought several of Jasmine cds and found the quality to be poor. Would like to know about the quality of Acrobat. I am particularly interest in their Flamingos cd
Acrobat releases are very poor I'm afraid to say. I must say I'm surprised by your comments about Jasmine CDs as I have many and they sound very good to me. You must remember that the music is old and will never sound as fresh as a new recording. In Jasmine's case I'm told the source is taken from original 45s and LPs and then remastered to help clean up the pops and crackles etc. and I must say I think they do a great job. Companies like Jasmine are operating in the PD (public domain) market in the UK and they have a long history of putting out good music that the major labels just simply aren't interested in issuing anymore. Without these kinds of companies you wouldn't have any of this great old music so I applaud them.
I'm listening to Acrobat's Howling Wolf, The Complete RPM & Chess Singles 1951-1962 a 3-CD set. I'm near the end of disc 1 and the sound is alright. Okay. Pretty good, actually. It's time I found out what the best sound quality recordings are for Howlin' Wolf. I have some CD's like The Original Folk Blues and the rocking chair album. I'm mainly interested in his 1950s and early 1960s period.
I have the Acrobat label Peggy Lee Benny Goodman era recordings CD. It sounds great, but it will just be a straight copy of the earlier Columbia release, which I couldn't find at the time I bought it and is out of print.
I'm just listening to an Acrobat compilation called The Hit Songs of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (2 cds), and although the usual suspects are present there are many unknown gems. Well worth it to me.
Sadly, I haven't seen a non-CD-R Acrobat title in probably 12 years. Unless it's a new old stock title, then you should be fine. The overall quality and source material of their releases varies greatly and yet they've had many new releases after switching to the dreadful CD-R format. As for Jasmine, they made the transition to CD-R more recently.
Can you please enlighten me: As I recall from other threads, CD-Rs are prone to "rotting" (eventually). Has this been the case in terms of the CD-Rs you've obtained? I've considered purchasing this 2019 Acrobat release: Buck Owens.
I might be lucky, but my oldest CD-Rs from the early 2000s still play fine. I've played a couple through recently.
Thanks! I'll take a chance on the Buck Owens compilation in question! I'm 51, so it may very well outlast me!
I'm sure there will be bad ones, like with anything. It's not ideal, but these are cheap for the music. I'll probably end up getting the Howlin' Wolf one and it'll be a CD-R.
Apart from the deceiving bait and switch practice some labels are using to sell titles by marking them as CD and then shipping a CD-R, the biggest problem I've had with CD-Rs discs has been the unpredictable shelf life of certain titles. CD-Rs gradually became more widespread during the early and mid 2000s, and I have some titles from that period which became unreadable on any device after just a few years and other titles which still play perfectly. As for Acrobat specifically, I haven't encountered any non-CD-R titles in the past 10 years or so. I read somewhere online that Acrobat are known for doing CD-Rs, which reminds me of other similar labels such as B.A.C.M. I didn't even bother with the Buck Owens comp you're considering, but if you do make the purchase, definitely let us know whether it's a CD-R or not.
Acrobat Music > Albums A-Z I noticed they are releasing a 52 track, 2 cd set on Carl Belew on June 4. With nothing else available, I'm going to give it a shot. My expectations are low, so hopefully they surprise me.
I had posted similar thoughts in another thread recently. I seem to have ordered a dozen or so Jasmine cds in the past few years because they are the only ones in print for certain performers. I do wonder if they would be able to pay and acquire a few 1963 song titles to spice up the collections that so often end abruptly with 1962 titles.
How neat! We were just discussing Carl Belew a few weeks ago in another thread. Please let us know how this title sounds and if this 2-disc release is CD-R or real silver pressed discs.
Well it came today. It has a very nice book with all the recording dates, no sessionogrphy. And Nero Disc Speed shows that both discs are CDr's It sounds pretty good so far. I'm sure these did not come from the original sources though, they sound more like needle drops that have had a lot of noise reductions. However, this is still the only Carl Belew collection available.
Ok, I've discovered more. So far most of Disc 1 uses the exact same content from a blogger on a website called "Visit Me in Music City" or something like that, used. I can't remember at the moment, but it was a blog with many obscure collections that were assembled by the blogger. He shut down his blog when that Kippeo guy kept copying his stuff and putting it for sale on Amazon. Anyway, so far, the songs that the blogger had posted, are the same ones on this disc, some of them with a little noise reduction applied. Cheap.
Now that's a name I recognize from a couple of Ellington-related CDs I've bought in the past several years, as well as a couple of others, though I'd have to do some research to remind myself which specific titles. Had never heard of it before then. Searches on the name at Amazon and Discogs show no results...
Never had any issues with the Jasmine discs I've got, they sound a bit dull at times (like they've rolled off the high end) but mostly pretty good:
With Accrobat, avoid their 78 era stuff (pre 1955ish) and you should be alright. I'm listening to this fascinating release at the moment So Much, So Quickly: British Modern Jazz Pianists 1948-62 (2018, CD) and the first track on the first cd (a 1948 Esquire label 78) sounds beyond awful, while the rest seems to be alright. If it's been issued on cds before you should be OK, but whoever is remastering from 78s for them could do a bit more homework!
I first bought some Jasmine titles in the 1980s, after finding some old Impulse! titles that Jasmine had re-issued in the remainders. Not great sound, but generally better than Acrobat I'd say.
I've bought probably a dozen or so THIS year: Bob Kornegay, Goree Carter, Red Prysock and Billy Wright among others.
There's a fair amount of '50s-'60s Brit jazz (and other things) coming out on this label, and generally, I'd say that the sound is better than Acrobat's: Jazz CDs – Rhythm & Blues Records
