There was an old thread on this dating back to 2020 with no conclusion. It seems the majority of the releases of The Astrud Gilberto album on CD are subject to distortion, in numerous places - the two most guilty tracks being Agua Der Beber and Meditation. The previous thread suggested this was an issue on a number of versions of this album (its closed but dates back to 2009) The Astrud Gilberto Album - Help So the query is - has anyone found a version where this has been sorted?. Since the original post both a Verve Originals version and also the 5 Classic Albums set has come out - anyone had any joy?
lol - originally thought it was just my copy until I read the other thread - sounds like the engineer needed to turn it down a smidge.
I don't know about any Astrud digitally but I do like her quite a bit (and will follow the thread). You could ask a gort to open the old thread if needed.
The Silver Collection came out in 1991. The first 22 tracks are the complete contents of Gilberto's first two albums: The Astrud Gilberto Album and The Shadow Of Your Smile, both from 1965. The disc concludes with three stray tracks: "So Nice (Summer Samba)" from the 1966 album she did with Walter Wanderley; "Let Go" from September 17, 1969; and "Berimbou" from Look To The Rainbow (1966). To my ears, the final three tracks sound much cleaner than the rest of the disc. I assume the problem is that the master copies of the first two albums they used for Silver Collection were damaged. It also might be worth considering that this was just the way things were back then. Some recordings in the '60s had distortion. The most obvious comparison is the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" (since it's a ballad sung by a woman with a foreign accent), but I also remember some Lovin' Spoonful stuff having issues. Does anyone have Astrud's first two LPs on vinyl? Hearing them might answer these questions. As it stands, I can live with distortion. It gives the music a retro character. What annoys me are the slight fade-ins on some of the tracks, which sound to me like poor CD mastering.
I had the SILVER COLLECTION first and noticed the distortion, Thinking there must be something better out there, I ordered a Japanese SHM-CD of just the ATRUD GILBERTO ALBUM. It has the same distortion as the SILVER COLLECTION - and on the two tracks mentioned, particularly, "Agua de Beber" and "Meditation". The distortion is most noticeable with headphones and sounds like it was recorded too loudly.
A Japan SHM SACD was release some years ago unfortunately single layer no no CD layer to it just SACD.. The review on SACD net said this: ------- The recording from 1965 is a very good one. This SHm Sacd is a wonderful listen and it captures the wonder Brazilian rhythms and percussion perfectly. It has has great string arrangements by Marty Paich who was a terrific band leader. The sound stage, bass, percussion. her distinct vocals and instrumentation are all top notch ..as is the usual norm for the very best Shm Sacds. And this is one of them. The tape source was in very good condition with nary a worn spot to be heard. The lush, dense quality of the session is rendered as good as could be hoped for. There is a nice saturated feel of the sound quality here. Rich and full is the overall quality of these types of recordings. ------- So there seems to be a tape source in Japan that is clean. Apparently this edition is also available as a 24 bit download. There were 3 Japan CD issues after the 2011 SACD which may possibly come from the same source as they have simliar prefixes: UCCV-9457 / UCCU-90038 / UCCU-99151
I have the original Astrud Gilberto Album / Verve LP, in mono. It does sound overmodulated in places; her voice goes fuzzy a bit in Agua de Beber. Didn't listen to the whole record but I seem to recall it as having engineering problems.
I think you're on to something here. I have the Netherlands LP reissue and although it is very quiet, Agua De Berber and Meditation in particular have some places where her voice sounds overmodulated with a hint of distortion. I've listened to these songs on YouTube as well and you can hear it on those posts as well. I have to assume the original recording is the problem. This is by far my favorite Astrud Gilberto album and her voice is otherwise in great form with some very good backing arrangements. I try not to dwell on those tracks too much, since there really won't be anyway of erasing the history of bad engineering at the get go.
Having read that there were Japanese versions of this release that possibly didn't suffer from the distortion issue, I decided to order one, an SHM-CD from 2016 (part of an "All of Jazz" series). It sounds identical to the other version I have, which is from the 5 Original Albums budget box (also 2016), with the same distortion issues. So if there is a better Japanese tape source, it wasn't utilized for this release.