I just bought the All Miles box last week. Here are a few pictures of it and the DR readings for all the CDs. To my understanding they are the old OJC masterings. Dig And Horns Collector's Items Blue Haze Walkin' Bags' Groove Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants The Musings of Miles Miles Davis and Milt Jackson Quintet/Sextet Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Hi Rockman, your collection of these albums/sessions is impressive! Cool. Which of these sound the best? Currently I have the good sounding Walkin' XRCD. But it's only one. And I'm looking for expansion in either separate albums, or, preferably (because one box), The Complete Miles Davis Quintet Legendary Prestige Sessions 4CD-box. But how good is 'pretty darn good'? What would you (or other Miles-experts reading this) advise getting?
I have those but was able to get the set on JVC XRCD which are an amazing improvement. My "go to" though are the AP vinyl issues.
I have to admit to not playing them much I have to admit to not playing them much at all in the house as I prefer vinyl but they sound good in the car.
Joe Taratino is a good mastering engineer, but I do not think that he access to the first generation tape for that little box set. It sounds as good as it could considering the source tape. I am loving the new high resolution downloads of these albums from Acoustic Sounds. They sound very, very good. They are affordable as well and I highly recommend this route for any missing titles.
My system has nothing at all to do with it, this judgement is system independent. It only has to do with the disc itself.
That's hardly an ideal environment to judge the sound quality of a disc, but, as I said, to each their own.
Okay. I just played an RVG CD (Song For My Father)on my system and it is rather bright. Makes sense when you think of all the sound attenuation in a car that a bright CD would sound okay there. However, I thought RVG did Blue Note and Miles never recorded for Blue Note so you won't get a RVG Miles anyway. Edit. Wrong again. They are on Amazon. Don't know how that worked though
In my opinion, Rudy was a fantastic recording engineer but as a mastering engineer for digital releases he was over his head. I believe that by the 1990s Rudy had lost too much of his hearing to make "sound" judgements when it came to digital remastering. That is simply my opinion.
Well, I have these releases but they're on the Chronicle box set, which I believe was remastered by George Horn (correct me if I'm wrong here, but this is what's listed online at Discogs for the Vinyl set. I have the CD box, which I'm assuming to be the same but I may be incorrect. Can't get the box out right now to check). Anyone know how Horn's work stands up to what's being recommended in this thread?
The Chronicle CD-set was mastered by Kirk Felton. Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings (1951-1956) - Miles Davis | Credits | AllMusic ยป
No idea, I don't read threads and posts on mastering engineers here anymore, they too often turn into personal attacks and insults.
Are you forgetting about the Miles Davis Vol.1 and 2 on Blue Note? Also Rudy was very much involved with Miles' Prestige recordings but Rudy did more than Prestige and Blue Note. I discovered a Verve album with Van Gelder in the deadwax though I can't recall the title. He also recorded for smaller labels from time to time as well so he wasn't locked in to those two labels he is most famously connected either personally or contracturally.
It is not always dependent upon a mastering engineer's skills, often it depends upon access to the original first generation master tape. Felton is a competent engineer but I do not believe that he had access to the first generation tape. Somebody else will chime in if I am mistaken, but that is what I remember reading in these threads here at the Steve Hoffman Forum.
You inspired me to do a search on the forum and from what I gathered, these are essentially the same mastering as the original OJC CDs. Thanks!
I know the OP is only interested in cds, but I have an OJC vinyl copy of Workin' and it sounds fabulous. I'm tempted to get the rest mentioned here but the colored vinyl versions through Newbury Comics. Does anyone have any of these?
I just bought this box set, in it's latest reissue (a compact cube, but I believe they are all the same mastering), it was on sale, nice to have all of this in one place. So at least now I have something to compare to the non-descript masterings on the European ZYX dikipacks I mentioned above.
Congrats on the buy. I like it a lot, so many different musicians with Miles. On the forum search I did, the ZYX digipacks were described as "dubious" fwiw. I have no experience with them so can't say for sure either way.
I got it for a great price. I'm not a huge fan of all of the earlier sessions, but great to have it all. I am out on the road right now, the Chronicle box set is sitting at home waiting for me, I will compare when I get home. Where did you read about the ZYX', here on the forum?
