I would be curious to hear it in mono. I always enjoyed my stereo vinyl but the tape sq is exceptional.
Timely. I just heard The Nutcracker Suite from this album playing in a store over the weekend. Awesome arrangement. I had to Shazam it to find out who it was. Too bad it's not in print.
I was looking around again last night to see if this album came into print again since I checked a few years ago. Apparently the nutcracker track was issued on one of those Ultra Lounge compilations. Has the whole album ever been on cd? Doesn't matter to me really, as I could not imagine anything beating the tape.
It's really a shame that most of these Z's are incomplete, some great mixes that have never been reissued. In fact, I think I can say that none of the Capitol Z tape stereo mixes have ever been re-issued, anywhere, not on LP, CD or even four-track open reel. As I said earlier, I was very surprised to find the original Z stereo mix master tapes still existing, untouched since the 1950s. Also, the chaos caused by the actual half-inch dry, unmixed three-channel session tapes being cut up and stored on big Z reels (some, not all) caused no end of confusion to me when working on projects (and I suppose to others). Oh, well, first world problem.
I Recently got a hold of a 'VG' condition copy of "Pet Sounds", 7.5 ips, and while it was sold to me cheap, on the basis it had a couple of breaks in the tape, I had at least a top condition box. The breaks I fixed up with splicing tape, and were not bad breaks at all. It looked like it had been played on a player with poor breaking/stopping abilities. anyway, after threading the tape and playing, a few minor dropouts on the start of the reel, but after that, this sounded friggin lovely! best mono sound compared to anything that is currently out there, which I don't have an original to compare. Not sure how far down this was from the master, but I was really impressed, and to think this reel has been around since the 60's and sounds as lovely as ever. No tape residue on the heads either, very clean. Very Impressed.
oops... I went on a tangent. I just wanted to contribute to the greatness of reel to reel tape. my apologies. I really love this thread.
What a shame a Cd of some the of these could not be compiled and remastered by Mr. Hoffman. I have one or two of these and they are fantastic. The Les Baxter ones are the ones to have!
Any chance a "z" mix was used on the cd reissue of Stan Kenton's Back to Balboa ( w/ Rendezvous with Kenton mono mix)? They used a stereo mix and I do not believe Capitol ever issued it in stereo on LP. It was a double cd reissue from some foreign label...
Experts, I was asked by a Capitol archivist if Nat "King" Cole's LOVE IS THE THING album in December of 1956 was the first stereo session ever done at the Capitol Tower. Seems like it was (they didn't record individual songs in their "binaural" process at first, only full albums, and just a select few of those). Does anyone know? I am skipping the stuff done at Goldwyn, etc. Just at the Tower. Any info would be appreciated, thanks!
In terms of "recorded at Capitol by Capitol for Capitol," as far as I've been able to find, it was number two, beaten to the punch by Black Satin by George Shearing.
Why do you suppose they only recorded SOME of the Ella Fitzgerald Rodgers and Hart Songbook tracks in "binaural"? Is it because those were the tracks that Verve was intending to release on consumer open reel? Or did they record them ALL on three-track and Verve lost the songs not used on the open reel tapes?
That has always puzzled me, Steve. No idea. I suspect that they all were recorded in stereo, and I say this because even some of the released stereo tracks were pretty poor, sonically, so it isn't like they were agonizing over where to put the mics, as far as I can tell. Wasn't the 3-track Verve stuff that was recorded at Capitol typically remixed to stereo elsewhere (at Radio Recorders or something)? I seem to recall reading that. And didn't they ditch the 3-track tapes after the stereo mixes were completed? If that was the mindset at play, who knows what the heck might have happened!
Yeah, I think they were mixed at RR, badly. The mono Capitol mixes sound SO much better. Poor Ella. The one Ella consumer reel I heard from that early era had her voice totally out of phase as well. Yikes. Personally, I'm done with early Capitol stereo, unless it is LOVE IS THE THING or an album that has no rhythm section. Not miking the bass/drums/guitar, etc. was just madness. I've gone mono..
Well, depending on the instrumentation, sure, I can see that. The "less is more" approach of 3-mics for stereo in those early days worked great with certain instrumental textures; not so much on others. Even switching to multi-miking for stereo was not necessarily a panacea for the ailments of 3-mic stereo, IMO, as, for instance, I think that NO ONE CARES by Sinatra with Gordon Jenkins was less-well-served in terms of stereo recording via ten (or so) mics than WHERE ARE YOU (same musical forces) recorded in stereo with three mics, a la LOVE IS THE THING. Once they moved to multi-miking, all the strings were hard left, and all the woodwinds and rhythm were hard right. In 3-mic stereo, they were more well blended between the two. I think it all goes on a "case by case" basis as far as which are good and which are not as good. Once 1957 hit and the mono mixes at Capitol turned all soupy on us, all bets are off on the mono side, as well.
Agreed on all counts. You said it better than I. Forgot for a second about what happened to Capitol mono in 1957. "Soupy" is a perfect description. (Think Frank Sinatra "Chicago" and how dreadful that sounds, way too much bathroom). Nat's WELCOME TO THE CLUB really needs the reinforcement of the rhythm dudes but ironically, COME FLY WITH ME, because of the orchestra placement or whatever, actually works pretty well in three-track, especially when "phase-reversed" like Pete Welding did on his (unissued) version. However, the distortion on some tracks is brutal and it proves that they weren't even monitoring while recording. And I do agree, when the mono and stereo rooms were joined or at least had the same number of microphones, the stereo did get very "walled off." That's where the stereo echo came in, to "un-isolate" the sound and make it better. Hearing some of that 1959-64 stuff dry is not pretty.
Just played Sinatra's Where Are You which I have in excellent condition. I recently had my 1/4 track Otari head replaced with a flux magnetics head. This tape played through my tube tape stage was the best I've ever heard Frank sound in my house. I only wish his Nice and Easy album was available in this format. I need to aquire some more titles of this series.
