Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality, etc.: Close to You (released 1957)*

Thanks, Bob. I didn't think there was a USA LP that was abridged, but wanted to confirm. What piqued my curiosity was a comparison of several Close to You LP sides, looking at side one specifically. I noticed that on side one, my original D3 pressing and my 1983 MFSL pressing have a curious dissimilarity on track 5, "It's Easy to Remember." On that track -- and just that track -- the polarity is reversed on the MFSL vis a vis the original cut.

"In theory," the D cut is made from the original master, as is the MFSL LP. (Some LPs in that 1983 Sinatra box were cut from dubbed/tweaked tapes, but this title uses the "correct" tapes.)

Any thoughts as to how that would happen?

 

I've got that one. The sound is even worse than the cover!

 

In anticipation of and preparation for the upcoming comparison stuff, I've transferred several LPs to 24/96 digital, and stumbled across something very odd.

In 1984, Alan Dell oversaw (or at least wrote liner notes for -- I think his actual role is a little murky) the well-known series of digitally-mastered Capitol/Sinatra LPs in the UK, released by EMI. This same series was released concurrently in The Netherlands, but in DMM pressings. Here's the odd part: I found at least one instance of the Dutch and UK LPs -- both digitally mastered as part of the "same" series -- having different analog dropouts, indicating that they were either sourced from different tapes, or were sourced from the same tape, but a different transfer of said tape.

This greatly surprised me! Thoughts?

 

According to the rear cover artwork, yes. Here's the UK edition on top, Dutch edition on bottom:

Interesting to note that although they have different mastering, different typesetting and different catalogue numbers, the UPC is the same on both. (The front covers and labels are also slightly different. See: http://www.11fifty.com/Site_108/1956_-_Close_to_You3.html.)

 

Here's an audio clip demonstrating what appear to be different flaking characteristics on the source tape. The clip starts with the UK 1984 LP, then goes to the Dutch DMM 1984 LP, and alternates back and forth, 6 play-throughs total:

https://app.box.com/s/hq9vsnk8dj7uhqgg2n0x

On both versions, I hear damage at two spots:
1.) On the very first note that the celeste and bells play. (That's the second beat of the arrangement. The first is played by strings and harp.)
2. The second spot that seems to have some flaking is just after the harp plays for a second time (roughly midway through the clip).

It's spot #1 that seems much "flakier" on the DMM cut. It's just barely there on the UK cut.

 

Starting to re-compile various clips for the new round of comparisons on this LP, and some things come to mind:

I'm enjoying it much more, too. Maybe it's the August air? I dunno. It's seems better than I remembered from the last comparison.

If you are able to provide clips, please let me know. (Same for anybody else who may have a pressing they would like to transfer to digital and submit for comparison.)

Thanks!

PS - Did somebody send a D4 promo LP clip? If so, can you drop me a line, so I can properly credit you? I've lost track of who that was!

 

After a multi-year absence, the Close to You pages live again.

I've got several vinyl clips posted here: http://www.11fifty.com/Site_108/1956_-_Close_to_You.html

More to follow.

 

There was a somewhat similar D vs. N situation with "In the Wee Small Hours," too:

 

It is very good, yes, and one thing that I always kind of hate about these comparisons is that it can seem sometimes like I/we are knocking one version by looking for the absolute top version. To my ears, there are many excellent versions of this album, and just about any of those versions is great on it's own, yet there are definitely differences when they get lined up and thoroughly A/B'd. I like some of those gray label copies a lot, but I think the even-better copies are among the 1980s pressings, but that doesn't mean the grays are bad at all.

Now, the Duophonic stuff that I'll post eventually? Those are B-A-D bad!

Martin commented on the EP sounding better than expected, and I concur with that. Many of the EPs we've checked out (on other albums) are subpar, but this one seems pretty nice. I wonder if that's because of the sparse instrumentation and lack of "punch" vis-a-vis, say, brassier albums like Swing Easy?????

 

http://www.11fifty.com/Site_108/1956_-_Close_to_You.html

Now added to that link, samples from:
•1963 UK LP release
•1980s Japanese LP release
•1987 German LP release
•1987 US CD
•1998 US CD
•1998 UK CD

 

@PBo, my pressing has the exact same deadwax info, just the purple label.

FWIW, I bought several Capitol recordings reissued on Pathe-Marconi in the 1985-1988 time frame, and I think they all had that rainbow label, so my guess (nothing more) is that the purple label was first, but I'll bow to the knowledge of label experts.

 

I brought this up via PM, but thought I'd expand it a bit and bring it up for comments in the forum, even thought it's possible that only two people in the world will find this interesting.

Here are the waveforms for all of side one, taken from an original 1957 D3 pressing, cut from the master reel in HOllywood:

It's easy to make out where the 6 songs start/end, as there are 6 clearly defined "clumps" of soundwaves.

Here are the waveforms for the 1983 French pressing:

It's cut at a lower level compared to the D3, but again, the six tracks are easy to make out, and it's obvious that at some point in the transfer/dubbing/cutting process, polarity got flipped, as all six tracks have an opposite up/down orientation when compared to the D3. When the D3 zigs, the French pressing zags, but does so consistently, so it's nothing noteworthy.

Here's the famous digitally-remastered "Alan Dell" series LP from 1984, in a DMM Dutch cut:

Polarity is identical to the French LP, so again, nothing noteworthy.

Below is the 1983 MFSL pressing:

and the D3 again:

Only tracks 2, 3, 5, and 6 have opposite polarity from the D3 original. Assuming an analog cut from a continuously-running tape reel, what might make this happen? My thought would be that there's a "master reel" for side one of Close to You. If that reel or a dub of that reel is used, the polarity relationships should be consistent across all 6 songs, which they are on the 1957, 1983 French, and 1984 Dutch (and UK, not shown) cuts, yet on the 1983 MFSL LP, those song-to-song relationships are lost.

Just one of those odd little things.....

 

This recording is so subtle and soft that it's really a candidate for more than a clip or two when it comes to picking a top version. To that end, I've posted some clips from side two, comparing some of the (to my ears) top-sounding versions that I had handy:

•D3 original LP -- and I'd be happy to swap out for the nice sounding N10 original, if @stevelucille can send me those clips to post.
•1983 French LP
•1983 MFSL LP
•1984 UK LP
•1984 Dutch LP
•1998 UK CD -- really the only officially-released CD that is anything close to "right" for this title.

The songs are "I've Had My Moments" and "Blame It On My Youth," posted here: http://www.11fifty.com/Site_108/1956_-_Close_to_You.html (Scan down the page until you spot Sly Stallone.)