Did Joe or Ron ever post a pic of the master tape for their MMJ of this? I only realised after reading this thread that their pressing was mono (I’ve got a copy but haven’t opened it yet!) That would mean Kevin simply combined channels and probably added a dab of compression. It’s possible this decision was driven by the rawness of the two-channel tape and the ability to mask volume spikes and transients more effectively in a mono mix?
Go to around 4:30 in the track and listen through the end. I heard it clearly over my phone just as others did.
Steve has worked with suboptimal tapes before - I believe he used to have a work around…possibly tube EQ (many years ago I saw the question about tape distortion posed to him on a thread, from memory he mentioned a proprietary EQ method to negate it).
I played the BNC Blueswalk B1 with a professionally set up and doublechecked month old Hana SL Shibata and the distortion was very obvious. I can play so called hot recordings - the Miles One Step from Craft has no issues. I don't think this one is cut hot. Sounds different than that. I'd guess a pressing issue or tape issue.
No, just that Kevin and Steve’s MMJ work sounds different to Joe, Ron and Kevin’s MMJ work. The early 45 rpm MMJs have a different sound signature to these BNCs and TPs and that’s a conscious decision. Probably the same with the APs. I think there’s only one tape - this transition phase for RVG meant the two channels were combined for mono.
Also keep in mind that KPG upgraded his mastering system with bespoke AudioQuest cabling between the 45 RPM series and 33 RPM releases from MMJ. This was evidently an attributable factor in some of the differences in sonic quality between these releases.
No, but the new cables give that distortion more air and a better sense of space, rhythm, and timing!
So many conversations lead back to KG’s recabling. It does get a bit tiring. I think the difference in sonics had much more to do with the mastering decisions made by him or the MMJ team than the cabling.
I hear distortion all over this track with the BNC needledrop - including with the piano during that solo. wince. the BNC recording is definitely louder than the AP though, so maybe the BNC is cut too hot. How could they not have noticed this? I do think the conga is relatively hot on the AP too however. AP seems left-channel dominant too.
I've been through the BNC of Blues Walk a few times and the that piano makes me cringe before the congas do on Play Ray each time. The rest of the album sounds solid to me. I like how the piano is in the middle of the soundstage on the rest of the tracks as compared to Play Ray where it's hard left along with the sax and conga.
I have a NM Blues Walk with the RVG STEREO stamp with the '69/70 West Coast blue/black label which is likely the same stampers as an original. I ordered the BNC but haven't gotten it yet. Listening to my Liberty now, no conga distortion that I can tell of. Also, I'd say this is one of RVG's better earlier stereo efforts, not much hard panning, good soundstage. Might just cancel my BNC order...
You are correct, the conga is over-recorded (and oddly balanced) in this recording. It seems obvious to me that Ray has been pushed up in the recording because he is the featured artist on this track. This sort of hot recording is how Blue Note defined itself at the time, especially when it came to soul jazz recording. Bob Weinstock preferred Prestige to feel smoother on similar material - check some Gene Ammons recordings from around this time for comparison. Of course they noticed it when mastering, and will have noticed how hot the original master is. The choice will then have been made as to whether to give it less air, or go on as usual. To most people that buy this record what they chose to do isn't an issue. There is not an unusually high amount of distortion on the record, and only on a board where people can be taken out of their listening pleasure by a squeaky drum pedal, would it even be noticed. I'm not sure how cutting it hot would make these particular problems but leave the rest of the album unbothered, unless those bits were recorded especially hot in the first place (and just those bits). I'm not saying it couldn't be done, just that you would have to make a specific decision to do it, and then try really hard to make it happen.
You are saying things that make it seem as if you don't understand what's happened here. The distortion is NOT on the master tape. No other version ever made, analog or digital, is showing it. It is clearly from Kevin Gray cutting the lacquer with the signal too high. He is creating grooves with too much vibration for most lightly-tracking cartridges to handle. You also need to stop implying that Kevin is cutting it for "audiophiles", implying very directly that those of us who get this distortion are not audiophiles. I think it's safe to say that a large majority of us here on these forums are in fact, audiophiles.
Just a few points here (and I won't try and insult you by claiming that you don't understand what's going on.) 1/ There is clearly distortion on the original tape. The whole album is recorded in the red, and this track in particular, clearly has issues on the way the conga is recorded. Its obvious on every version of the album, but previous masterings have tried to smooth it out. g. Here it is emphasised. 2/ But let's say for a minute 'I don't understand what is going on', perhaps you can explain how Kevin mastered only these specific parts too hot and not the whole track, or whole side. He could do it, by riding the faders, but that would be a pretty unusual thing to do. 3/ And you have misunderstood me. It's precisely because the people on this board are audiophiles that they hear this sort of stuff. BNC and to a certain extent Tone Poet while being mastered in a way aimed at audiophiles are not marketed specifically to audiophiles.
It sounds like the whole album may be cut too hot IMO. Listening to the clips from @p.analogowy, the BNC is significantly louder than the 45. Per our host, who mastered the 45, he will usually give the 45s a gain boost, as they are able to handle this. Cutting a 33 significantly louder than the 45 seems like an issue, no?
