A Bob Norberg Gem/Frank Sinatra

Maybe some of you have visited the Sinatra Family Forum and noticed a thread I started titled 'Capitol Mono Widening'. Bob Norberg, it turns out, is the main culprit. I thank Martin Melucci for his input to all sound related threads as I would probably still be in the dark (silence?) without it. Anyway, I must mention a track remastered by Bob Norberg that is so good sounding that it's stupifying, given his track record. It's so fine that I would venture to put it alongside a Steve Hoffman job. I hope I'm not going to embarrass myself, but I'll go so far as to say it's the way I'd like to hear all Frank Sinatra Capitol redone. The track is River, Stay Away From My (the) Door from the Concepts 2000 box set. The odd thing is the rest of the Come Swing With Me that this bonus track is included on does not sound as good as the 1991 Larry Walsh remaster. Just this one track. No echo, reverb, lots of air, no exxagerated vocal and what appears to be sourced from a brand new full track session tape. Real out of place.

 

Maybe the track got in the set by mistake ...

 

I don't understand how Bob still has a job.

I remember reading an interview with him. He said he sometimes runs the songs through de-noisers three times to clean them up. No wonder his stuff sounds like camel flop. And I didn't even mention his odd EQ choices.

I have a James Bond Themes CD he mastered. Harsh, Harsh, Harsh!!!! There's so much added midrange EQ it actually hurts to listen to it at anything but a casual listening level and some of the low end is just way too out of control. No system can handle that woofy, flabby low end.

Like I said before, how does Bob Norberg still have a job? You got me!

 

I'd love to hear the track that Sean cites because the re-mastering of the Capitol Sinatra catalog by Mr. Norberg makes me wanna cry.

JD

 

Oh man, do people have different opinions on sound!

I have four titles from Capitol's "Ultralounge" series, all mastered by Bob Norberg. To me, they sound great: clear & non-grainy high end, full/clear mids and a solid/tight bottom end. The overall sound is airy with stable and focused stereo imaging. And yes, there is very little hiss (a positive feature for me ). But the highs remain sparkly--as good as any modern (good) recording I own. I have used the "Tiki Sampler" disc for speaker demo use several times. Though not all tracks on all four discs sound this good--about 25% still sound like old recordings so I guess there is only so much one can do with badly recorded master tapes.

Am I now considered "evil" because of this preference?

So if these albums being discussed sound anything like the Ultralounge discs, I would reccommend them (on sound quality anyway).

Now I'm starting to see why some people like one sound format & others like a different one.

[T]

 

In general, I can't stand his work. This is such an exception that it cries out. I don't get it, either. Maybe he went to take a leak and forgot to push all the de-life buttons as this one was being mastered.

 

Back to Sean's Sinatra thread,

check out track 19 the song "Come Dance With Me" remastered on the compilation CD Classic Sinatra.

I have the Larry Walsh and the EMI Britsh Box Set version of this song.

The Norberg's mastering blows every other version out of the water.

The rest of the Classic Sinatra CD mastered by Bob isn't worth listening to.

 

Interesting that those CD's were released in 1996.

Bob supposedly did a good job with the Complete Capitol Sinatra Box set
that year although I haven't heard it.

 

1996? No complete Capitol set that year - the complete Singles box was released then though.

Maybe you're thinking of Bob's version of Concepts Gary? You've heard at least part of that. To the best of my knowledge, the 2002 24-Bit EOTC CD's are drawn from the Norberg mastered version of Concepts.

 

Hi Martin,

Not the EOTC I meant the 1996 Complete Singles Box. Haven't heard that one either. At least I got the year right. It was Bob Norberg also and some say the sound was pretty good?

 

I've got 8 or 10 of those Ultralounge thingies, and I have to agree that most tracks sound pretty good. Not quite in the same league with Steve's DCC Bachelor's Den Series, but better than I expected.

 

Yes in some parts of the world.

I can see your point. I have five from the series and they are clear. All the frequencies are there too.

The sound is, to my ears, brittle. If you break a pane of glass, it's clear, somewhat dynamic but hard. That's the best way I can describe it. The Ultralounge series is interesting to listen to but not enjoyable especially at a medium volume (or louder).

The best suggestion I have is to listen to Steve-mastered Lounge music (Bachelor's Den). Steve's discs can be enjoyed and listened to over and over, where the other series is suitable for demo purposes or occasional listening only.

You may not agree with me and that's fine too.

 

I must agree with Taurus and Casino on the Ultra Lounge CD's. I listened to the sampler (the one with the fuzzy leopard skin cover) just last night for the first time and was really impressed.

Have some of Steve's Bachelor den's on order, can't wait to hear 'em.

What else has Norberg worked on other than the UL's and Sinatra ?

 

Here's a listing of all the Norberg remasters currently in print around 70 releases in all.. Mostly Capitol stuff

http://music.towerrecords.com/tower...=1&att=All_Music+bob+norberg +&cs=bob+norberg

I don't think that it is fair to say that everything Norberg has done is bad unless you've heard everything. Although most of us try to stay away from his work I think there are a few diamonds in the rough that can be found that sound excellent. Be really careful and do the research before buying.

 

Thanks Gary....valuable information and advice.

Didn't realize you could search Tower by mastering engineer. Handy.

Blair

 

I asked this on another thread, but it's probably more appropriate here...

Is Norberg's mastering of the Concepts box any different from the individual Sinatra CDs? I ask because I don't think the Concepts box sounds bad at all. But then I don't have much to compare it to.

 

Is this the same Bob Norberg that co-wrote "The Surfer Moon" and "Back Home" with Brian Wilson?

 

This topic has already been covered in a thread, ws it "Sinatra 24 bit EOTC CDs" or something? I don't remember exactly where it was, but I know we did talk about it.

Arne

 

RDK

Ray, the Concepts 2000 release was a whole new remastering job, as far as I know.

 

I'm going to pick up the Larry Walsh version of Come Fly W/ Me and A/B it with my Concepts version tonight or tomorrow.

 

I have six of the Norberg EOTC disks and the singles box. I don't like them much, but some are better than others. The only really impossible one in the bunch for me is "Songs for Swinging Lovers." But "Swinging Session," "Only the Lonely," and "The Wee Small Hours" are better. Still, I started looking for the Walsh versions of all of these separate disks once I compared my "Wee Small" to a library copy of the 1987 version.

The singles box *is* better than all of them, although it still has that modernized sound and is hard on the ears after a while.

L

 

While we're talking about the Norbergs, what do people generally feel about the Reprise titles in the EOTC series. I have a bunch of those, too, and to my ears they sound much better than the Capitols. They were, if I'm remembering correctly, done by Lee Hirschberg. "Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim" sounded particularly good to me last time I listened.

L.

 

And?

 

They are lovely, indeed. The Ellington and Basie albums are really amazing. Sure wish they'd get around to WATERTOWN, MOONLIGHT SINATRA and SHE SHOT ME DOWN, although I'm not holding my breath...

 

Gary Freed, I haven't done a comparison yet, but would you say Norberg's Come Dance With Me is even better than the one on The Capitol Years 3 CD set?