Sinatra / Capitol 180g LPs: Wee Small Hours, Come Fly with Me, Come Dance with Me*

Thread closed (probably temporary) for potential clean-up.

 

Whew! 120 off-topic posts have been moved to a NEW thread for sound quality discussion of FS's Capitol material OTHER THAN these three titles that have been reissued by Capitol recently. To discuss other titles (which I encourage us all to do), please go to that new thread. To discuss these three specific titles which have been reissued on Capitol 180g, please stay in this thread. Lots to talk about; let's just try to keep it compartmentalized so we can actually find what we are looking for. Thanks!

If you would like to hear ACTUAL SAMPLES from the new Capitol 180g LPs, please go to these pages and comment back here: In the Wee Small Hours; Come Fly with Me; Come Dance with Me!

Thanks,
Matt

PS - is nobody willing to share their thoughts on the blind taste test of COME FLY WITH ME SAMPLES? Nobody's going to flame you (or me, hopefully). In case you missed it back in the mire and mess, my first-listen impression was:

<<OK, I'll be the first to jump into the water. My initial take on all 10 samples:

1. Definitely a unique, wonky stereo mix. Reverb on right channel only.
2. I like it. Some reverb; not too much, IMO.
3. Slightly different, wider mix than #2? Better tone? (Especially in the bass dept. to my ears -- but I like #2, too.)
4. Drier, a little brighter. I like this one, too.
5. Same mix as #3, but tone not as full/warm. Dull to my ears.
6. Sounds like a "wetter" (more reverbed) version of #4. Not bad.
7. May just be the pressing, but it sounds like FS's nose is congested.
8. I like it. Channels are reversed compared to the other stereo mixes.
9. Mix sounds a lot like #2. Not as wide/separated to my ears. Nice tone.
10. Very similar to #7. Not very good to my ears.>>

 

I would love to know: How does that HAPPEN when a disk is being cut? Did they hire the pilots from the American Airlines flight to Minneapolis? The other two titles have "RM" in the deadwax, which MMM and I think must mean "Ron McMaster," and he's done remastering on lots of these 50s titles. This is about the oddest dang thing I've heard of in terms of remastering an LP.

 

Well, the jury's still out on COME DANCE WITH ME. I've got it (the new LP) and have literally only played the first track (to copy it over to the samples page), but my initial reaction is that it's quite nice. (There is a graphics issue with the label itself, but we'll hit that later.)

Matt

 

It's a double shame, because their standards for recording quality during FS's tenure there were truly top drawer.

 

I have split this thread into 4 distinct threads:

1. This one has remained in place for specific discussion of these particular 2009 Capitol pressings of these titles.
2. A thread for discussing the sound quality of various issues/reissues of IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS.
3. A thread for discussing the sound quality of various issues/reissues of COME FLY WITH ME.
4. A thread for discussing the sound quality of various issues/reissues of COME DANCE WITH ME.

In all, 9 pages of posts were moved to the 3 new threads.

Please carry on with this interesting series of discussions....in the appropriate thread, of course!

Matt

 

For what it's worth, I ran the 2009 COME DANCE WITH ME through PhaseScope. A "1" reading means a recording is fully mono. A "0" reading is full stereo. A "-1" reading is fully out of phase. Franks center-panned vocal mic tends to push these recordings (all releases of this and other Capitol stereo recordings of his) up toward the .7 range or higher, but during the non-vocal passages, the 2009 is up around .6 to .9 consistently, while all other releases are down around 0 to 0.4. In other words, the 2009 LP is pretty significantly "folded in." I posted a blurb about this on page two of the COME DANCE WITH ME audio comparisons page.

Matt

 

Regarding COME FLY WITH ME:

In my car, I've been playing a CD I burned of the 180g mono vinyl. As I had mentioned on the comparison page, I thought there was a good recording trying to get out from within a very poorly EQd mastering job. Typically, if I do any roll-your-own EQ, it will be VERY minor, i.e., a dB here, a dB there. (I tend to be a flat kinda guy.) The 180g vinyl, though, seems to have a huge presence peak and almost zero top end. I basically played with the sound until I got something I liked, and because I think it works quite well -- even though it's about 4 or 5 times more extreme than any "burned in" EQ I've done before -- I thought I'd present my settings so you can try experimenting along the same lines. Again, this isn't typically my style, but it seems to work quite well with this particular disk, and goes a long ways (IMO) to bringing out that classic "Capitol sound" that seems to be missing in this particular pressing.

Matt

PS - I've played this CD at least 5 times in my car over the last week, and it is quite enjoyable.