This link may work in some countries (other than the USA)… Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry - Alternate Take, a song by Frank Sinatra on Spotify If it does play for anyone, please report your country. (With a suitable foreign VPN connection, it should be playable in the US.)
Thanks again, Bob. I’ll look into the VPN thing later to see how I can listen to this. In the meantime, can I ask how different this version is? Is it a minor difference between takes (like a word or two changed)? An intercut present or lacking?
The tempo is very much the same (guitar intro, languid pacing) but it's a longer arrangement but with different instrumentation popping up around the two minute marker of the song. And then there's instrumental bridge after Sinatra finishes the lyric that's orchestrated almost identical to the back-half of the OTL recording. Sorry, I wish I could describe it a bit better. It's more than a curiosity. Of course, it can't supplant the initially released version of the song from 1958 but it's a version I visit regularly, even if Frank sounds a bit tired. What I really want to see get a release is the extended version of What Is This Thing Called Love? with the lengthy clarinet solo bridge. Christ, that take should've been on ITWSH.
Today I played the Walsh remix again- still so great. Could there really be an improvement soundwise...?
This is the million dollar question isn't it? Will we go forward or backwards, but the possibilities does wet the appetite?
Definitely. I like the Walsh remix, but it's got NoNoise (or similar) going on. Again, I like that mix fine, but I think the original stereo mix had far-better sound. (The original Only the Lonely stereo mix is possibly my favorite of all the Sinatra/Capitol stereo mixes.)
No. That disc is a clone of the 1987 Walsh remix. From 2015, including an audio clip of the original mix:
I just listened to the audio clips on the bottom of your site on this page: Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely - 1958 Notes on Source Quality . Specifically, the 1987 remix and noise reduction comparisons. It would be amazing to get the original stereo mix. I’ve only heard it on a digital copy of the 1983 MFSL LP, and those dropouts on Side B are annoying. Not dealbreakers to me, but they’re hard for me to ignore after I heard them the first time. The Norberg sounds atrocious. Whatever happens, I just hope they don’t release the Norberg version again. What is the deal with Frank’s voice? It’s like he’s singing from inside an empty refrigerator deep inside a cave, and maybe I have some big earmuffs on of my ears are clogged with wax.
+1 We need a well mastered digital version of the original stereo mix, ideally in Hi-Res. And while we‘re at it a well mastered, well pressed vinyl version too. So that copies will play through dead quiet. My concern is though that the high hiss level (which does not bother me at all) may effect that a suboptimal remix and / or no-noised remastering will be issued.
The average consumer will freak out about the hiss on the original stereo mix. That being said, a global total of maybe 5 or 6 average consumers will purchase this set. @MLutthans , are you aware of anyplace that 1986 “Blues in the Night” is available other than the box.com sample link above? I’m curious about the bass drum heartbeat thing. (Not in a place where I can check out box.com links.)
Were the two missing tracks ever actually mixed into stereo, or was it never completed? Ignoring the remix obviously.
I wish MOFI had done a proper stereo remaster along with the beautiful mono vinyl. If you're going to do this for a 60 year anniversary it has to be done right with ALL the original 12 songs on there as Matt said. This is probably one of the greatest albums ever put on tape and you can't f@$% it up with a half-assed, bad sounding release that does no justice to the material. I'll pay good money for it no problem but GET IT RIGHT!
Sure, there are a few vinyl issues which contain all 12 tracks in stereo, but these are not so easy to obtain (check out the dedicated “only the lonely capitol“ thread on the forum and / or Matt’s fantastic pages).
Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality, etc.: "Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely" (1958) Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely - 1958
I think your reply got buried in a quote of my post. But, yeah, I find with modern reissues that it’s often best to set expectations low. Really low. We’ll all be dead soon anyway.
Oh yeah. If Walsh had not used no noise it would have been a great sounding mix. Everyone gets hung up on hiss, which in the grand scheme of every album I own is miniscule. The audible damage caused by using hiss reduction is not acceptable. Someone who uses the proper gear, does good research, and does an authentic mix that is true to the original can make that album sparkle. This has yet to happen. I'm hopeful that this new set will rectify the problem.
The NR is my only complaint with the Walsh disc. Would be nice to have an unfutzed version of that, actually.
Here's the deal on Only the Lonely in stereo. It's the only Capitol album that really has a full-fledged orchestra accompanying him, i.e., full string section, woodwinds in pairs (flutes, clarinets, double reeds), brass -- the whole musical 9 yards. In that sense, it's very much akin to The Concert Sinatra, minus the bombast. Recording-wise, the stereo version verges on Mercury Living Stereo. Where those then-contemporary stereo recordings recorded the orchestra with three omni-directional microphones (Left-Center-Right) at a distance, with no limiting or other processing, Only the Lonely used two omnidirectional microphones (Left-Right) at a distance, with the center mic being Sinatra's vocal mic. Where the orchestra is concerned, there is no limiting or processing going on. Just like with the Mercury Living Presence stereo of the day, the dynamics are just allowed to "run free" -- some parts are very quiet, so the hiss becomes a little more apparent; most parts are fine; some parts go slightly "into the red." Then there's the 3-to-2 channel stereo mixdown. Again, I don't think that ANY compression/limiting/processing was used on the orchestra, so now, even more so than on the 3-track session tapes, you have quiet parts where some hiss comes through, most of it is just fine, and some spots wander a bit into the red. This is (in broad terms) a Mercury or RCA-style classical recording, with a pop vocal in the center. That's very unusual! In the other thread, I've said something along the lines of the hiss problems being hokum, urban legend, B.S., pick your name for it. The liner notes in the 1987 CD made hiss-haters' hair catch fire, but I think the hiss problems are severely overstated. "Experimental tape formula?" I don't think so. On a major session for Capitol's marquee artist? No way. I just don't buy it. That's garbage thinking. Look how long it took Capitol to even finally decide to start tracking all their sessions in stereo.....but try an experimental tape on a Sinatra session? "Sure!" I don't see that happening. Have a listen to this clip, which is the beginning of "Blues in the Night" from the 1986 Australian EMI CD that uses the original stereo mixdown: Box How is that too hissy? Add to this the fact that if we get stereo at all in this new set, it will likely be remixed from the 3-track tape, which will have one generation LESS hiss than that Australian CD has, being itself sourced from the 2-track mixdown tape (at best -- it may even be a tape dub, for all we know). Worst-case scenario, maybe a little "cleanup" could be done in the super-quiet parts, like the guitar-only intro to Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry. Fine. Dab-up a spot or two. Doesn't mean the whole thing should have the life wiped out of it. Beatles did it! Must be okay, then. Only the one release, as far as I know. At the link I just posted, listen starting around 0:30. It's a subtle thing. It's not BOOM BOOM BOOM, but a very soft, delicate poom poom poom in the background. (It's especially apparent on good full-range speakers, more than headphones, but I think you'll pick up on it either way. The extended bass response of the Neumann omni mics working as a widely spaced "stereo pair" on the stereo recording [but not used for broad pickup on the mono recording] then being fed through Capitol's all-acoustic echo chambers in stereo really shines in this little, subtle way.) .
Wow. That clip of “Blues in the Night” from the 1986 Australian comp sounds amazing. Again: wow. I listened on headphones, and the tone was great. The hiss did not stand out. Do original pressings of the stereo mix (the icky abridged ones) have that same awesome heartbeat sound going on?
@MLutthans I appreciate your very detailed comments re: the 1987 CD release. All I can say is that when I anxious;y purchased that ..in the "long box"....and brought it home to play. The incredible tape hissing that I heard (which I'd never heard before) left me absolutely crestfallen.
