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)*
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.
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?
I think that I have heard all of them (not including this new discovery), and they are all legitimate mono mixes, not fold-downs.
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.
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
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.
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!
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!!!!
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.
I think that the original mix is way, way too wet, but I also think that the 1988 remix is arguably too dry.
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!
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
Everything you could possibly want to know is here: Nice ‘n’ Easy - 1960 Great site by one of the SHMF gorts, @MLutthans
So there is a "wrong" version? I should check my copy I guess. Still catching up with the Sinatra stuff.
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?
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.
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.
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
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.)
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.