That Where Are You mix is my favourite version of the album, even if there are tracks missing. Nice 'N' Easy does exist in reel to reel, albeit not in that series, and does sound really sweet as well. Another one to track down is Come Dance With Me.
And the Nice 'N' Easy and Come Dance With Me are 4 track tapes and therefore not in this discussion while excellent in early duplications. Where Are You is the only Frank Sinatra 2 track Stereo tape ever offered.
The Capitol "Grand Canyon" Effect was the most wonderful thing for Me,but the CD versions of some of those Flatlines that Magnificent Sound terribly!
I know it's not relevant to this particular thread but I'd love info on this tape. I've never seen a 7 1/2 ips mono pet sounds More on topic: I actually stumbled upon a small cache of Capitol Z-reels while on vacation in the Caribbean, of all places... $5 a pop but they didn't look pretty. I passed. That said, if they had "Where Are You" in the collection…
The texture of the strings on "Autumn Leaves" is stunning, breathtaking. I've rarely heard nuances that moving in recorded music of any age or condition. I'm left to wonder if it's the "open" mike configuration or the half-track transfer, or a combination of the two. Really powerful moment for Where Are You?
So here is a list I made combining what was on this forum with my own collection. Some I own and some I do not. If anyone can fill in the missing numbers with titles and/or more info, I would greatly appreciate it! Capitol Z tape series 1957-1958 ZA-1: Intro To Stereo ZH-2: A Study In Stereo (has a few tracks missing from other tapes) ZF-3: L’Italia Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra – Carmen Dragon ZF-4: Bolero & Capriccio Espagnol Hollywood Bowl Symphony – Felix Slatkin ZF-5: Symphonic Dances Hollywood Bowl Symphony – Felix Slatkin ZF-6: Gypsy Hollywood Bowl Symphony – Carmen Dragon ZF-7: Toch: Third Symphony Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra – William Steinberg ZH-8: The Orchestra Stokowski (made up of New York symphonic musicians) ZF-9: House of the Lord: Roger Wagner Chorale ZD-10: Kenton in Hi-Fi ZD-11: Love is the Thing – Nat King Cole ZD-12: Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians in Hi-Fi ZC-13: Black Satin – George Shearing Quintet ZF-14: The Music of Christmas The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, Carmen Dragon ZF-15: Joy to the World, Roger Wagner Chorale ZC-16: Wide Range, Johnny Richards ZD-17: Where Are You?, Frank Sinatra ZC-18: Stolen Hours, Gordon Jenkins ZD-19: Velvet Brass, Jackie Gleason ZC-20: Ports of Pleasure, Les Baxter ZD-21: The Stars in Stereo (Various artists, collects tracks missing on other tapes) ZF-22: Beethoven, Symphony No. 7 – Pittsburgh Symphony Orch, Steinberg ZF-23: Britten/Dohnanyi, Slatkin ZF-24: Russkaya The Hollywood Bowl Symphony, Carmen Dragon ZF-25: Debussy: La Mer; Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe (Suite 2) Los Angeles Philharmonic, Erich Leinsdorf ZF-26: Dvorak Violin Concerto – Milstein ZF-27: Gliere Ilya Mourometz, Stokowski ZD-28: Just One of Those Things, Nat King Cole ZC-29: Wild About Harry, Harry James ZC-30: Jimmie Lunceford in Hi-Fi – Billy May ZC-31: Stringtime, Pittsburgh Symphony Strings, Richard Jones ZC-32: Composer’s Holiday Les Brown & His Band of Renown ZD-33: Oooo, Jackie Gleason ZC-34: Young Ideas, Ray Anthony ZF-35: Landmarks of a Distinguished Career, Stokowski ZF-36: Overture – Felix Slatkin, Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orch. ZF-37: The Sound of Wagner Erich Leinsdorf, Concert Arts Symphony Orchestra ZF-38: A World of Music, Carmen Dragon, Capitol Symphony Orchestra ZF-39: Starlight Chorale, Roger Wagner Chorale & Orchestra (tape distorts a lot in opening tracks (bad copy?), 4 track sounds better) ZF-40: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, Pennario ZF-41: The Music Man, Original Broadway Cast ZC-42: I Wish You Love, Keely Smith ZC-43: Rendezvous with Kenton, Stan Kenton (some copies have major drop out issues on each rotation, faulty master?) ZC-44: All Through The Night, Fred Waring 45 ZC-46: Space Escapade, Les Baxter ZC-47: Sea of Dreams, Nelson Riddle 48 ZF-49: Stravinsky Firebird/Petrushka – Stokowski, Berlin Philharmonic ZF-50: Chopin By Starlight Hollywood Bowl Symphony, Carmen Dragon ZF-51: Fiesta Hollywood Bowl Symphony, Carmen Dragon ZF-52: Khachaturian Piano Concerto, Pennario/Slatkin ZF-53: Grand Canyon Suite/Mississippi Suite Hollywood Bowl Symphony, Felix Slatkin ZF-54: Offenbach Gaite Parisienne, Slatkin/Hollywood Bowl Symp. ZC-55: The Music Man, Fred Waring 56 ZD-57: The Torch With the Blue Flame, Jackie Gleason ZC-58: Concert Modern, Les Brown 59 60 ZC-61: Gordon MacRae In Concert 62 63 ZF-64: La Belle France, Dragon 65 ZF-66: Tchaikovsky Swan Lake, Levine, Ballet Theater Orch. ZF-67: Nutcracker Suite, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hollywood Bowl Symp, Felix Slatkin 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 – Holst, Planets (who?) ZD-76: The King and I: Soundtrack 77 78 ZD-79: Sounds of the Great Bands, Glen Gray ZC-80: Medley Time, Don Baker at the Console (organ) 81 82 ZF-83: The Orchestra Sings, Carmen Dragon, Capitol Symphony Orchestra ZF-84: Virtuoso, Roger Wagner Chorale ZF-85: Grieg Concerto in a minor, Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Pennario/Leinsdorf, Los Angeles Philharmonic 86 87 ZD 88: The Military Band, Felix Slatkin 89 90 ZD-91: Carousel, Film Soundtrack Any more past 91?
Sadly the 7 1/2 tape is Duophonic. I have a reel of it, duped on Scotch 150 polyester tape so it's not plagued with breaks.
A bit of a tangent, but does anyone know the significance of "Z" regarding stereo? Capitol used it for these tapes, EMI used it to denote stereo mixes, Decca used it for stereo matrix info, etc.
With the amount of times this title gets licensed for audiophile reissue, it's one of the ones I'd absolutely love to see get duped as 15ips title. Preferably full track mono if that's possible. Preferably from the tape Steve prepared in the 90's. and hey, if these Z-reel masters are all still extant - they should be used to run off new dupes of these titles too!
The complete listing of Capitol "Z" tapes is available on the Yahoo reeltoreel group under Files with the title tapeindex15.xls Yahoo! Groups »
My copy of ZD-11 Love is the Thing (Nat King Cole) is problematic, and I'm wondering how many others have experienced this. While the strings are stunning, Nat's voice has extreme sibilance. The s's are almost impossible to listen to. Is this typical of this title, or do I just have a bad copy?
Mine is like that too. I think they are all like that as I've seen others comment on this problem as well, including Mr. Hoffman.
You may notice that my 'avatar' now contains the image of Capitol ZH-8, "The Orchestra" conducted by Stokowski. This is an unusual album as it is packaged in the same (13" x 13") box as the vinyl version of the same title. The tape itself is packaged in a smaller (7.5" x 7.5") box encased within. The idea, I supposed, was to provide the same program notes booklet that accompanied the record. The tape, unfortunately, is not the best-sounding Capitol 2-track, unfortunately. I'd give it a B or B+ sonic rating.
You need to join the group to access the files and photos. As you probably know, Yahoo is a mess. If you can get your email address to me, I might be able to 'invite' you ...
Guys, I just got into r2r last year. I rebuilt an RT-707. It sounds great and I'm enjoying it a lot. But the bug has bittten. I have on the bench now a Revox PR99 and a Technics RS-1500 on the post. The PR99 is rebuilt and I'm just doing last stages of calibration. I have only one of these Z series so far - the George Shearing, Black Satin. As another poster mentioned the mic setup changes around a bit between some of the tracks and it's a bit weird, but boy I now have a taste of what 2 track can do. And so I google search and come across this thread. I'm now collecting the series (and others) so I will post some of my experiences here as my adventure matures. But I just wanted to get in now and say thank you to the many posts, especially from Matt and Steve. I'm new to r2r and recording practices from this era and this thread has given me an adrenaline rush due to high density of new info - I've been so lame as to make a little google doc for myself of some key interesting points. okay, I better get back to work now, so I can get home and finish of the PR99!
The PR99 has been declared finished. You can see the details over on AK if interested - pic of PR99 and celebratory beer. I now have a small collection of maybe 10 z-series tapes. Sadly one (Stan Kenton) had been near a magnetic field at some point; all of the high frequency was erased. Other than that the tapes play great with just a couple of level fluctuations on a couple of the tapes. Much better experience than I had with the 4-tack tapes, but I suppose that extra track width does help! The shiny gold reel labels and the entire package just feel special!! Honestly, I have also been having, on average, a really good experience with 2-track in general, with some great sounding tapes I have now heard from Mercury, Columbia, RCA and a couple of others. I promise to post some thoughts as a newcomer to r2r and share pics as my collection grows (and I hope that is interesting for people here). I do have one question and I apologize if it has been answered already, is what type of Scotch tape where they recorded on?
Probably Scotch 111, at least for Capitol. But don't quote me on that. Welcome to the world of tape - it sounds great when conditions are ideal. I've got some four tracks that sound excellent, so I think the difference has to do more with duplication quality than it does track width. The wider tracks of an in-line tape do provide some benefit, and crosstalk is less of an issue. But I've got a Capitol four track of Sinatra's Nice 'n Easy that sounds 90% as good as my best half tracks, and ditto for some Reprise titles. But I've noticed that four tracks seem more susceptible to problems, since the quality of the pre-recorded tapes is less consistent, especially between labels and vintage.
Thinner tape, at least one more tape-copy step prior to the actual duplication process, higher dubbing speeds -- it's amazing that ANY 4-track tapes sound any good!
