Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality and General Discussion - Come Dance with Me (released 1959)*

Not that I recall, Martin, but my synapses often don't fire nowadays.

 

From the Come Fly with Me thread:

Holy cow, I think the Come Dance with Me album (included in full in this 2-fer LP package) is even better. I am floored. The Come Dance LP is cut at super-hot levels, and I'm getting a little sibilance in spots, but aside from that, this is absolute perfection. Sorry to wax rhapsodic, but I've never heard this album (Come Dance with Me) sound this good.

 

No and no. Still sounds wonderful, though, despite the lopsided, gi-normous hole in the middle stereo sound and the Gay Talese-worthy vocal tone quirk. (I'd still love to hear this album remixed to mono without all the mono sludge, but I'll take this stereo LP in the meanwhile.)

 

I've posted some brief clips from this German LP. (All clips fall well within the time window of those freely available to sample on iTunes. No music being given away here.) Have a listen: https://app.box.com/s/ngi602t9por62t18ycaw

 

Copy (supposedly) from the estate of Bill Graham, autographed by members of the rat pack. Ebay buy it now price: $1105. Legit?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-FR...640?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a930ec040

 

Same hat:

Anybody have a non-stylized version of that photo?

 

Here's an unusual variant on this album:


A Danish stereo EP set. Cool!

Also: Has anybody ever heard this Dutch pressing? Looks like late 60's vintage, maybe???

 

I picked a super-clean D2/D1 mono cut in a local shop, and am listening to this now, and getting reacquainted with the oddness of the mono mix. Such a weird mix! Too much reverb, and on some tracks, Frank seems to be fighting for center stage, semi-buried. Plenty of limiting going on during the cutting, as well. Maybe this is where the term "mid-fi" came into common parlance????

EDIT: Just compared a track from the D1 side to a segment that @bferr1 sent me from the UK LP (Millennium Edition???) that came out a few years ago, and that later mono LP trounces this original one. (I'm still not gaga about the mix, but the presentation is clearly superior.)

 

I'm just going to throw this out for discussion, at risk of ridicule and embarrassment: Any chance the Millennium mono LP is a fold-down of the stereo mix???

 

Here's an update on an old, old topic:

Way back in the last decade, member GregW submitted a clip from a stereo LP that had an apparently defective, withdrawn stereo mix, in which the vocal reverb appeared in the right channel only, so every time Frank sings, the reverb kind of trails off to one side.

I picked up a D4#2/D7 stereo LP, and both sides contain this defective mix, so it's a safe bet that any cuts with a matrix number lower than those would also have the withdrawn mix.

Does anybody know if this mix ever made it to any stereo releases in foreign markets?

 

Yeah, I went through and A/B'd a few tracks, the Millennium tracks vs. D2 mono. Same mix, definitely (no fold), but the Millennium tracks have much more treble, which really gives a different, more hi-fi feel than other versions I've heard, while also bringing out the vocal and (oddly) seeming to diminish the reverb somewhat. Some would probably argue that it's too goosed on the top end? Regardless, it's definitely different from that not-so-hot D2 sound!

 

Soundwise, where mono mixes are concerned, A Swingin' Affair ----> Come Dance with Me: Same studio, both very brassy, recorded two years apart, but a huge step backwards in terms of sound quality.

 

Yes, as bad or worse. Good point.

It strikes me as odd how A Swingin' Affair is very high quality (mix-wise), then the mono mix of Where Are You is pretty good, CFWM in mono really stinks, and then Sings for Only the Lonely is top-notch again, followed by the awful CDWM mix. Very inconsistent.