Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool...there's no good version on CD!

But you hear it now, right?

 

Indeed!

 

It does!

 

2014 guys! The RVG is still the best? What about the new HDtracks version? Any information about the mastering? What about the best versions of Miles Davis Vol.1 and Vol.2? The Rudy Van Gelder remaster is the best version? Is different from the HDtracks one? There is a box set too called Miles Davis Take Off: The Complete Blue Note Albums.

 

The HDtracks version sounds better than the RVG CD.

I think the new Blue Note box is just repackaging of existing masterings.

 

Does the 1989 CD made in USA have NR?

 

Does the HD Tracks version have any limiting or sharp EQ like the RVG? That's the problem with the RVG. The EQ, you can kind of alleviate that with a sound editing program, but I wish they left the full dynamic range intact. Any way, if you do some EQ work, the RVG is definitely better than any edition that came before it, there's no mistaking that the other CD's were mastered from heavily futzed dubs when you compare them to the RVG.

 

As far as I know Blue Note did not use noise reduction on their 1980s CDs.

 

I don't have many recordings from this period just yet, but comparing the sound quality of the "Birth of the Cool" sides to Masterpieces by Ellington, for example, is total night and day. Was BotC recorded on tape? If so, then there should be modern, audiophile mastering effort. I can't say I'm too pleased with my US Capitol CD, which may be bested by an early Japan, but I was hoping for a hi-res, audiophile SACD release (or otherwise excellent redbook).

 

If by this you mean the Miles Davis Blue Note material packages as the two cd set, they are new masterings by Kevin Reeves, from transfers by Bernie Grundman. They sound pretty darned good, though the new Japanese cds (from the same transfers I assume, but mastered by a different uncredited engineer) sound a bit better to me.

 

Has "Birth" been mentioned as a potential MoFi release? I have been very pleased with the other Miles releases.

 

No, it hasn't. The previous MoFi have been Columbia releases; Birth of the Cool were originally Capitol releases and have been reissued under Blue Note.

I honestly don't think that there is much interest in this and many other pre-hard bop titles by those who license and reissue jazz titles in audiophile editions.

 

What are the new Japan CDs? Catalog#, etc?

 

CD Japan is a good source for this type of information.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/TYCJ-81008

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/TYCJ-81018

 

I don't believe that these selections were recorded on tape. Recordings that were made at WOR Studios in NYC in general do not sound nearly as good as those made by Columbia in the same time period.

 

Yeah, I use that site. Why did you link to Miles Davis Vol. 1 and Vol. 2? Hoping to track down the best representation of the BotC sides on CD.

 

BoTC was all recorded on tape.

 

Okay, thanks.

 

Because you quoted a reply I made about the Miles Davis sides. At present there do not seem to be Japanese versions of Birth of the Cool in print, I haven't heard any, I was not referring to any.

 

Well, I sure hope that there's a nice analog source to work with. If so, then one of the audiophile labels should reissue on SACD.

 

I'd like to see it, but I'd be surprised if one appeared.

 

The original tapes were finally located for the RVG CD on the single reels at Capitol. But they really messed up the mastering on that CD. Who knows where the tapes are now, and if we'll ever get a proper mastering.

 

I won't play anything mastered by RVG, so yeah, those tapes must get into the hands of a competent engineer. Meantime, I'll chase down a "black triangle" or the 2nd Japan and hopefully get a little improvement over the US Capitol CD.

 

I'm holding out to hear the Classic Records Bernie Grundman version!

 

That's good to know. When I wrote my earlier post, I thought these were just repackagings of the old RVG masterings because the promo text did not mention a new mastering. The Grundman mastering is so superior to the RVG mastering that these are worth rebuying.