Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality and General Discussion: "Nice 'n' Easy" - 1960*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by MLutthans, Jun 19, 2010.

  1. Pontus Nilsson

    Pontus Nilsson Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Sweden
    Yesterday I bought a copy of "Where Are You" 1984 Dutch DMM that reads stereo on cover and labels but is actually mono. Posted in the "Where Are You" thread: Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality and General Discussion: "Where Are You?" (1957 album)*
     
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  2. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    The oddness around those 1984 Dutch DMM LPs continues to intrigue me! I'd love to know the story there....why mono AND stereo releases, with identical packaging and the same catalog number on each? So odd.
     
  3. Pontus Nilsson

    Pontus Nilsson Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Sweden
    Truly. Do you know if all these DMM mono versions are from their respective original mono source (in a digital remaster), or if some are technical errors that created "false" mono from the stereo tapes?
     
  4. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    I think that I have heard all of them (not including this new discovery), and they are all legitimate mono mixes, not fold-downs.
     
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  5. Roanoke Park Indefinitely

    Roanoke Park Indefinitely Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Was The Nearness of You supposed to open this album and was replaced by the title track? Or was there not enough space for all 13 tracks (as with the One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else on "No One Cares").
    I always think of this album as being the final straw that led Frank to want a label where he had creative freedom, but Reprise was probably already in the works by 1960 when this was released.
     
  6. Beaneydave

    Beaneydave Forum Resident

    Yes “The Nearness of You” was to be the first track and was replaced with “ Nice n Easy”- which doesn’t really fit with the rest of the album. I like to swap those two tracks and it album works better for me.

    peace and love✌Dave
     
  7. Artur Torres

    Artur Torres New Improved Full Dimensional Stereo

    Location:
    Brazil
    Yesterday, I stopped by to listen to "Nice 'n' Easy" in its entirety and, watching closely, I thought: Frank's voice, on some tracks, is rough. I think that the microphone he used had a protective net, this explains the certain "muffled" in his voice, not to mention the probable reverberation and compression that accentuate this characteristic.
     
  8. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    I have blathered repeatedly around here about how much I am bothered by "violins on the right" (or at least "first violins" on the right) in recordings, and part of that is because I have been recording orchestras since 1988 -- and the first violins have been on the left every single dang time, without exception.

    I was hired to record a performance of the complete Bach Brandenburg Concertos in Wainscott, NY, last week, and while the upper strings were all on the left (as nature intended), the violin SOLOIST on one of the concerti (which featured a number of soloists, all standing near each other) stood to the conductors right, and boy did that ever catch my brain off-guard when I heard a violinist (the wonderful Richard Roberts, long-time concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony) "fiddling around" in my right ear! I twitched for hours! (Kidding.)

    TECHNICALLY, it still was not "first violin" within the violin section coming from the right, since it was a soloist situation, but it was still aurally jarring....for me!
     
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  9. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA
    BRAVO! I'll bet that recording turned out beautifully. I used to be into Clasical and have a number of CD's. But it has been a long time since I played one. Maybe it's time.
    P.S. You sure do get around!!!!:agree:
     
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  10. teag

    teag Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    I recently bought the 1991 dry vocal CD from Discogs for a few bucks. Pretty good sound but the drier vocals, which I thought would be great, make this album sound a bit duller to me. And I usually like dry vocals. Strange.
     
  11. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    I think that the original mix is way, way too wet, but I also think that the 1988 remix is arguably too dry.
     
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  12. CBackley

    CBackley Chairman of the Bored


    A much more swingin’ version of Goldilocks is afoot…
     
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  13. teag

    teag Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    Yes, totally agree. Where is that happy medium??

    On another note, its almost time for the Christmas album.....I may not make it to Halloween this year before the first play!
     
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  14. jpreza

    jpreza Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago IL
    Happy Christmas Eve everyone,

    In my new obsession with Frankie, I was going through some of my old vinyl that I've acquired over the past few years.

    I found a 1962 stereo release of Nice 'N' Easy with the 9 o'clock logo. Matrices are as follows:

    SW1-1417-N25 #2
    SW2-1417-A72

    Jacket appears to be VG/VG+ and so is the vinyl. My question is: how good of a vinyl release is it? Does it use the wet or wrong tapes? Or is this one a top choice? I'm currently making my way through my newly acquired Sinatra MFSL vinyl box but haven't listened to Nice 'N' Easy yet.

    Thanks in advance....JP
     
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  15. BeSteVenn

    BeSteVenn FOMO Resident

    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 24, 2023
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  16. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Just curious, how do you know it's 1962?
     
  17. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    So there is a "wrong" version? I should check my copy I guess. Still catching up with the Sinatra stuff.
     
  18. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Look for a D matrix, cut from the original master stereo tape in the '60s on this one. A and N cuts = cut from a dupe in NYC. The numbers in your runout indicate a later pressing than 1962 -- but! .... I wonder if maybe there's something inaccurate in those matrix numbers, because I've never seen an "A" cut on a 9:00 logo pressing.
    Well....the original-release mixes have lots of reverb on them (quite soupy), but there are no wrong tapes or wet tapes in this case. There are, however, remixes in the CD era which are much drier; maybe too dry?
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2023
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  19. jpreza

    jpreza Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago IL
    I am basing it on the matrices and the position of the Capitol logo at 9 o'clock. Also, it is a stereo release, which I believe the original was released only in MONO.
     
  20. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    It was released in 1960 in both stereo and mono. That had become standard a couple of years earlier.
     
  21. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    No; simultaneous mono and stereo release, July 25, 1960 -- the second Sinatra Capitol LP to be released mono and stereo on the same day. (I see @pbuzby beat me to it!)

    @jpreza -- there is something wrong with that side 2 matrix info. Either it was scribed errantly, or the scribe is so sloppy that it isn't being read properly.
     
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2023
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  22. jpreza

    jpreza Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago IL
    I stand corrected on side 2. The matrix is SW2-1417-N17 (both N and the last 7 are very faint). Here's the thing: the label on side 2 reads Karneval in Köln (?!) but it's definitely Frank.

    So is this a D release? Is this a rare record?

    JP
     
  23. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Any N USA cut (such as yours) is cut from a copy tape in NYC. Same-era D cuts are cut from the original master in Los Angeles. In theory, the Ds should sound better, but sometimes the N cuts are surprisingly good. (I think that is more often the case on mono cuts than stereo ones, but it could just be my imagination.)

    I think that the original issue era USA LPS are almost always quite good. I rarely think that they are the absolute best edition that exists. (Some of them are merely mediocre.) NICE 'N' EASY is the one Capitol album where I think that a mint D copy beats all of the other versions that use the original mix. (I wish I were more enamored with the original mix! It is what it is, as the saying goes.)
     
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2023
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  24. East of the Equator

    East of the Equator Well-Known Member

    Location:
    England
    I don't think this particular NICE 'N EASY has been mentioned to date...

    I've got a Russian DOL from circa 2014. I really wasn't expecting much and at first the entire album was accompanied by heavy crackling. However, following persistent cleaning with a carbon fibre brush and liquid cleaning in my (basic) RCM, the crackle was pretty much eliminated. Moreover, the sound quality / tonality is actually very nice indeed! I'm fairly new to this album and don't have another copy for comparison (I'm also aware of the DOL's loophole-level legality) so I'd be intrigued to know what others think of this one...?

    ** Sorry, I'm not able to post sound clips.
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2023
  25. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Almost certainly cut from a CD, but which one?
     
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