Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality and General Discussion: "Where Are You?" (1957 album)*

I second that motion!

 

From another Sinatra thread:

I will have to dig out the reel, but in the meanwhile:

iTunes has a 90-second freely-available clip of "I'm a Fool to Want You" posted. Wanting to stay within the confines of that free clip, here is a clip that starts with about 30 seconds from the MFSL stereo LP (using the 1959, commonly-available stereo mix), transitioning into the August, 1958 stereo LP, "Stars in Stereo." It's clearly a unique mix (in LP terms), and if not the same mix as the 1958 "Stars in Stereo" reel, it certainly approximates its style. Have a listen: https://app.box.com/s/6t635cab5ezwu63w5zt8

I've made many comments intimating that I'm no fan of the 1959 stereo mix of WHERE ARE YOU, which is very soupy and "hard" sounding to me, and those qualities do not serve the music well at all, IMHO. The "reel mix" is much more sympathetic to the music's style, I think.

Interesting side note: This very early Capitol LP has only this in the side one deadwax: "SW-1-1062" -- no D or N or all that stuff we know and love. Similar situation on side two.

 

No other marks of any kind, but I did just notice that on side one the "S" is backwards. Odd.

 

Here you go: STARS IN STEREO reel first, STARS IN STEREO stereo LP second. I think they are different mixes, but with similar reverb levels on the vocal.

https://app.box.com/s/l94hh7875wm2vexdwvih

OK, the reel defect is this: The first several seconds have right channel info only (voice and orchestra), with the left channel totally blank. The left channel then fades up quickly (a definite fade, not a cut), then there are several seconds of "ticks" that sound similar to static on an LP. The left orchestra track is totally out of phase, and there's some level tinkering going on for a few seconds. Finally, over 3 minutes in, there's a POP and the track is improved from there on out. Here's the transition from "bad" to "good:"

https://app.box.com/s/lcjxam1jg5dqpfi7qj6a

 

No, the LP track is fine. (Clips are in the posts prior to this one, and are representative of the entire track.)

 

FWIW, the waveforms look wildly different.

 

On the question of whether the ZD-17 Where Are You reel was released in late 1957 or early 1958, I still don't have an answer, but I did find it listed in "new releases" in Billboard on January 6, 1958:

....and an ad in the same issue:

 

Continuing with that Stars in Stereo LP:

My guess is that it was in Capitol's very first batch of Capitol stereo LP releases, and that it hit shelves in August of 1958. From Billboard:

 

You lucky dog!

Well, since I've discovered that another excellent pre-1959 stereo mix is on the The Stars in Stereo LP, I'm not as crushed as I would have been a couple of weeks ago, but I'm still disappointed that each of my three copies has the same problem. Par for the course, I guess!

 

Regarding that bolded bit at the end: I noticed tonight that there IS additional writing inscribed in the deadwax area, but it's actually beneath the label, and just the very bottom of the letters/numbers stick out beyond the label. I can make out that both sides of my Stars in Stereo LP are D1 cuts.

On a related side note: I picked up a UK pressing of this, and it's made, surprisingly, from USA metal parts, D5 on both sides.

 

Next-day bump for this oddity (above). Anybody else have any Capitol LPs with matrix stuff etched into the label (not deadwax, per se) area? I had never seen this before.

 

Bump for this marvelous album. Listening to the MoFi mono SACD again tonight. The stuff dreams are made of.

 

One more pic from these sessions?

Same writing on the mic body; same cufflinks. (Sadly for Paulmock, no photo of a coffee cup.)