So your theory is that KG “cleaned up” the AP 45, and the MMJ 33, but not the BNC? Seems much more likely to me that something went wrong with the BNC, either during mastering or plating/pressing.
Early in the discussion Ubiknik said he couldn't hear it. Personally I quickly listened to part of an 80s DMM and a 70s blue label and the CD and I can't believe anyone who says they can't hear distortion on this album. Everything is recorded very hot, with Lou's sax very much at the edge, and Play Ray being the worst. If Kevin on any of his masterings made this sound natural he's performing magic, because that wasn't how this album was envisaged.
I don't think the theory is 'cleaned up', but changing emphasis of the mastering. What Kevin does is bring individual instruments into a place where you can hear them better than on the originals. With all mastering there's a trade-offs to achieve your desired effect, and more so on 65 year old tapes made with almost exactly the opposite aim than a modern day audiophile mastering. Sometimes this will cause issues, especially for people who listen very closely and don't like distortion. But its worth remembering that for the sort of records that Alfred Lion was producing Lou Donaldson records for, excitement was a key aim, and that meant a compressed, hot sound.
I’d be almost certain that back in the day Blues Walk sold twice as much in mono as it did in stereo. I’ve got the MM but it’s still sealed though I’m tempted to unzip it so I can combine the channels and add a soft-knee compression to see if that tames the distortion. For a straight-ahead session like this it’s more than likely RVG had very little interest in the ‘stereo’ mix and probably listened only briefly to the two channel signal before switching back to mono for monitoring purposes. Has the mono mix ever been available since the 60s?
I have Grundman's mono cut on the Classic 200g from...2008? I'm pretty sensitive to any kind of distortion and don't recall there being any.
In which case we’re talking about different things. To my ears both the saxophone and the congas are in the red and distorting. It’s a characteristic of these sessions and what I love about them.
It’s a very ‘present’ recording but I don’t hear distortion just a hot signal. Barretto is putting pressure on the conga skin and pulling it as he slaps with his other hand - it’s almost a tabla sound and notoriously hard to record so all the resonance of the conga (Barretto may be playing a tumba here which is deeper in tone and even harder to record with close micing) is captured to tape. I’m hearing the resonance in the left channel and a synchronised snare rattle from the drum kit in the right. It’s a classic Blue Note sound and I love it too but I’d never call it ‘distorted’. I recall when I first heard the AP of Midnight Blue being very surprised by the taming of the famous transient distortion on Kenny’s guitar a minute into ‘Chitlin Con Carne’. It had been on all three of the copies of the LP I’d had to that point - the French DMM, a 70s Liberty and the McMaster CD - loud and proud. I’d thought it baked into the recording but somehow the AP pressing smoothed it out. I’d love to hear an original mono of Play Ray - I bet RVG cut it to wax tamped down pretty tight with some tube compression.
I get some slight distortion on the congas during the percussion solo on B1. Otherwise the pressing is fine, except for the divot on side 1 that makes 2 very loud pops and the piece of vinyl flashing that caused a big but fortunately non-audible scratch. So yeah, pressing is fine
After reading the posts above, got myself an A verses B comparison listening of my two cards. Lou Donaldson (BNC) First of all no distortion what so ever on both A is an Denon Dlr103r mc. B an Nagaoka MP110 mm. They both have some different sound signatures. The overal level on this album is higher than like Point of view (tp). My two cents: Stunning recording. Grt Peter
I listened to B1 on the BNC and could hear some mild distortion on the congas during the percussion solo. If I weren’t listening for it, I’m not sure it would have jumped out at me. I then listened to B1 on the MMJ SRX. The MMJ is mono, so I’m not sure if this is a complete apples to apples comparison, but the MMJ handles the percussion solo without distortion. The more striking contrast is holding the BNC and MMJ jacket covers side by side. The MMJ is incredibly vivid, whereas the BNC looks washed out by comparison.
Sounds like even those who are hearing the distortion are hearing varying levels of it. For me the distortion is not something you could miss even passively listening. It's a good deal worse than most RVG mic overload that I'm accustomed to. So again, it seems this is somewhat setup dependent even if KG did indeed push things too far or make some questionable decisions that he perhaps didn't make on previous cuts. I don't know. Just interesting to hear everyone's impressions.
Sadly I am also getting significant distortion track B1 on the congas. It's not on the older Blue Note CD from the 80s done by Ron McMaster. That version plays very cleanly. I don't think this is mic distortion, but rather possibly tape damage or a bad cut. I love Kevin Gray's work but he's not infallible, and if the tape was damaged at some point, there isn't much he can do about it.
There’s more to tracking than a cart being a phenomenal tracker. Set-up is critical, as are things like tone-arm match, etc.
Indeed. I use a similar cart with the same stylus. On a test LP it tracks to 90um with no audible distortion. Many of the carts people praise around here struggle to hit 70-80um and will lose groove contact at that points. What I learned from being on this forum for a long time, is that many so called audiophiles do not hear that well. Many have poor relative pitch and don't listen closely, and/or have systems with a high degree of roll-off and coloration. Old man ears are also subject to age-related hearing loss, particularly at certain frequencies, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. When someone says they "can't hear it" I put no stock in it at all.
I know we always want to talk about new pressings ITT, but I want to mention how great Soul Station sounds. I found a 70s pressing (blue/black label) or Soul Station at my local shop in good condition and couldn’t pass it up for $12. The BNC smokes it.
Classic Records reissued it in mono in 2007, and Disk Union again in 2012. Lou Donaldson - Blues Walk Lou Donaldson - Blues Walk The session being recorded at Hackensack, with only 1 speak in the control room, it's unlikely RVG even heard the two track tape until mastering the LP for Stereo It was initially only released in Mono in Jan '59. It's one of those transitional sessions that came out in Stereo about 6 months later, they would stick a gold foil "stereo" sticker on the Mono jacket, only later repressings would have reprinted stereo jackets. They would have sold primarily mono copies until 1960 or so when Stereo became more common.
That's one reason why I haven't sold my MM of Speak No Evil. I checked out Blues Walk at a local shop the other day, just the jacket. It doesn't look very good IMHO.
I’ve come to really love Soul Station. My BNC is lovely (it does have one annoying moment of distortion on the lead track but I can live). I really hope Roll Call gets BNC’d soon.
Roll Call, Workout, and No Room For Squares are the next obvious choices, however I would kill for The Feelin’s Good.
