Bill Evans - You Must Believe In Spring - Craft 45 rpm LP, and SoTA digital

I found this a more noisy than most RTI pressings I've purchased recently (e.g. Tone Poets).

Side C was the worst for me with noise popping up more than I'd like and being a distraction. On the fence about doing a return.

 

I picked up the 2x 45 rpm set from a local retailer. It sounds great!

 

How does the vinyl compare to an original? I like this album a lot and have a mint original so I would be curious if anybody compared it. Frankly, I’m still a bit surprised that Craft remastered it because my original sounds really good.

 

$$$$$$$$$

 

There are only 2 OG copies on Discogs in the US, one is $50 (NM/VG+) and the other is $65 and only a VG+. So, for me, the new reissue is the way to go.

 

Well, the reasons to do an album at 45 is not merely because an original sounds crappy. It can be to allow it to sound better. I have two NM OGs of this, a promo and a regular copy. And each were cut differently, with differently-sized dead wax areas.

Y'know, an original mono RCA Victor of Surrealist Pillow sounds very good (the stereo, no). It does.

The MoFi 45rpm is, at times, amazing, absolutely gorgeous. It's not a bombastic record that hits you over the head with its fidelity, but if you sit down in front of the speakers, the improvement with some of the cuts is stunning.

And most folks here, from a purely sonic perspective, think the Music Matters 45s an improvement than the already good 33s, with better flow and spaciousness.

So You Must Believe In Spring is not going to be an epic blockbuster of a sonic album in its 45rpm form, I'm guessing, It ain't a fiery album. But it could offer great subtle pleasures in its improvements.

 

THE 192/24 HD FILES:

foobar2000 1.6.1 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2022-06-05 09:52:33

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Bill Evans / You Must Believe In Spring (Remastered 2022)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR14 -2.55 dB -24.33 dB 3:18 01-B Minor Waltz
DR14 -0.30 dB -20.05 dB 5:45 02-You Must Believe In Spring
DR16 -1.73 dB -23.72 dB 4:21 03-Gary's Theme
DR15 -1.77 dB -21.66 dB 4:05 04-We Will Meet Again
DR15 -2.93 dB -21.51 dB 6:02 05-The Peacocks
DR14 -3.13 dB -21.24 dB 4:38 06-Sometime Ago
DR14 -0.30 dB -18.22 dB 5:59 07-Theme From M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)
DR16 -0.50 dB -19.16 dB 8:10 08-Without A Song
DR16 -0.50 dB -18.84 dB 7:40 09-Freddie Freeloader
DR15 -0.84 dB -18.27 dB 8:12 10-All Of You
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR15

Samplerate: 192000 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 4372 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

 

The parts on my copy that were quiet sound fantastic. I have a replacement coming today but this will be luck of the draw. Not sure what records you would call epic blockbusters. But it seems that those that got a good copy are very pleased with the sound.

What I am beginning to question though is stuff like non One Step Super Vinyl. At $37 the two new Tone Poets that just came out this past Friday are up there with any I have heard. Both titles are getting very good shout out's on the respective thread.

In regards to standard MoFi 45's I am quite happy with the ones I have and they do offer a good deal of improvement. I did listen to two sides of the mono Groovin' 45 I got. One side on each record is very warped, so I have to get both replaced. But it is one of the most uneven sounding titles I have heard like this. I do want to go back and re-evaluate it when I get my replacement.

 

By 'epic blockbuster' sounding records, I mean ones such as Dark Side Of The Moon, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Ah Um, stuff like that. You Must Believe In Spring is a quieter record, so it's not going to demand the most of the capabilities of what a 45rpm has to offer, or at least it's not going to likely wow anyone at first listen.

And remember, this was a response to @jlykos who wondered how much better this new one could be since the original sounds good already.

 

Heh? I was wowed by the mastering. You’re right it’s not a DSOTM etc but I think AAA cut to 45 benefits any well recorded album regardless of the instrumentation/production

 

Listened last night. Superb sound!

 

Hey, I have one in house. But have you got an original with which to compare? It was already a pretty well recorded album. I'm not suggesting it's a slouch in that department. But compare this to an album like Ah Um, with its complex orchestrations and great dynamic range. The OneStep totally unleashes the potential of the record in a huge way. The Evans, in contrast, is subtler.

 

DR numbers look similar with the older CD.
Album details - Dynamic Range DB

 

Mine was a little noisy, but seemed like it just needed a wash. Not pressing errors… just dusty.

overall it was a great listen, especially for the price!

 

What really wowed me about this recording was the BASS!

the most realistic reproduction of a bass I’ve heard. Upfront and “woody” sounding.

This one I’m marking as a demo reference cut for showing off bass.
(Along with AhUm for brass, and the recent Moon Rappin for cymbals)

 

I'm really sorry for thread crapping. If you love the great sound of bass (and drums), you would not be disappointed with this vinyl. As the host of the clip says, the vinyl he introduced is one of the great sounding records that human beings ever had. The playback starts at 12m 40s.

 

Anyone else delayed in getting this? I preordered from my local and it didn’t show up. Same with Two Headed Freap, kinda weird since they seem to be readily available elsewhere.

 

I just opened and cleaned my copy. Side One opens with B Minor Waltz. Not the most silent vinyl, there is some crackling in the background here and there.

But I can tell that this sounds bigger than my originals. The soundstage is larger and is it's more spacious, more expansiveness, with greater ease. There's more confidence. Subtle, but there. During one Evans piano run up the keyboard on The Peacocks, the spatial volume expands outward, as would happen in real life. These are the kinds of things I expect from a 45. Is it night and day from the originals? Not that extreme, but it's certainly noticeable to my ears. But that spaciousness helps the music breathe better. There's a certain presence that this has the original does not have. At $40, this is well worth it if you're buying the record for the first time, Evans' last record, that was released posthumously.

Again, though, not the quietest pressing. And even in the '70s, this shows that it was still a challenge to get a piano right in the recording. It doesn't quite have the presence of the drums or bass, and the piano has a very tiny bit of distortion at times.

Side Two starts with Gary's Theme, and it's quieter than the first side. This pressing reveals some subtle brush and drum work not as apparent as on the original. That's due to that inner detail and spaciousness that you get a with a good 45. It's easier to hear around the instruments, and the instruments assume their own space more distinctly.

Side 3 has a bit of occasional crackling. And this is after cleaning with a Keith Monks Prodigy machine. None of the noise is overly intrusive, but I notice when it's there due the relative sparseness of the music. Evans and his co-horts have never been dense players, always giving space to the music and to others. We'll see how the it sounds playing a second time.

Side 4 is taken up with the group's take on Suicide Is Painless, the theme to M.A.S.H. All 5 minutes of it. And Kevin Gray used the entire side to cut it. There's what seems like a tiny pinch warp, a slight rippling of the piano at the opening of the cut. I'll take a look later if I can see it in the vinyl itself.

There's somewhat more expansiveness here in this cut than on the original, as it should, as this tune takes place at the end of Side 2 at 33 on the original, rather than being given the entire Side 4. Why KG chose to use the entire side to cut this, I have no idea.

A wonderful album, a classic, and a wise way of spending your money.

 

Played mine last night. I was glad to get this, because all of my other Evans albums are pre-1970, and this is the trio that I saw on June 25, 1976 at Carnegie Hall, appearing with Tony Bennett. (Wow, 46 years ago?)

My disks are clean and not noisy, slightly warped but not bad. The inner sleeves feel a lot like those old pink RTI sleeves, so I replaced them with MFSL.

Evans was playing differently by this point, more lyrical that a lot of the earlier recordings. The downside to that is there isn't much variety in the tempos. And, more than once, I was reminded of certain New Age music of the period.

As far as the sound goes, over headphones it's a near-mono mix. Only the drums are not dead-center, and even that varies by track. And there are a couple of tracks with the worst bass sound of any of the half-dozen Evans-Gomez albums that I have.

Well performed, but I won't be playing it as often as other Evans albums from the Sixties.

 

You're missing the spatial info by listening on headphones. There's a lot of depth and layering here. This is not a left/right channel recording like you would with a Van Gelder recording, but there's plenty of stereo information.

The Peacocks by Jimmy Rowles is one of my favorite compositions, and it's gorgeously rendered here.

As far as the sleeves are concerned, the whitish ones don't leave a residue the way the pink ones did. I keep them. I don't think there's anything wrong with them.

Anyway, listen to the record through your speakers. I find the Senn 6xx headphones to be overly relaxed anyway. They are certainly not going to wake up a recording like this. There's some fire that turns up on some of these cuts. The Senns may not be the best to render it. In my experience, they're not rhythm kings. They're best at the larger picture rather than intimacy, better at rendering the hall of a symphony orchestra than the immediacy and rhythm of a jazz group. YMMV.

 

My copy is all good other than a very slight dish warp on disc one.

The mastering on this is excellent for sure, the sound is up there with the best.
All around an awesome release.

 

I went to look for this on Qobuz and as soon as I opened the app there was a giant banner at the top for the album, so I know what I’ll be listening to today!

 

Does the new CD also contain the Kevin Gray remaster? Or is it silent on the insert?

 

Had this on pre order but cancelled it due to the negative reports & realising that I really don’t want to get up every 7-9 mins to turn it over!

 

Aww...poor baby. Wouldn't want to put too much stress on your leg muscles.