Vinyl Me Please Classics

RHANDMJ said:
Jumping into this thread late here...

- Sunship possible, Seattle not, simply because Seattle is a tougher listen, a rougher recording, and a double album. Sunship tapes exist, Seattle not sure.
- AS does not get any first dibs or have their pick, Chad curates purely based on sales potential. Sure, Universal are not likely to license VMP anything already done in the Chad series, but that still leaves hundreds of great titles to pick from. VMP has the advantage, being a subscription service, of having a high number of locked in sales, whch AS does not, and Chad doesn't do risk.
- There are not really all that many rules that can't find exceptions now and then. I'm sure nobody here drives at precisly the speed limit and never over, and I'll bet many resoultions to lose weight get broken when passing a Krispy Kreme.
- Assuming VMP do an Impulse box, and the pickings there for master tapes are VERY slim, it would be part of the license deal that they do a title outside the box - it helps sell the anthology to have a single title in subscriber hands before an anthology launches. Think Stax, and BN.
- Master tapes for all the titles mentioned so far are iffy at best, as they are all Universal titles. Up in smoke. BUT - there are tapes for most, just second gen obtained from foreign subsidiaries. Anything is possible (except Yusef Lateef, which apparently are all gone).
Click to expand...
With the impulse box, I wouldn’t hate if they were high res digital sources but I’d imagine those don’t exist either in many cases unless Universal transferred a lot of their titles to digital at some point? I’m very intrigued about what titles they will include in it…
 
e.s. said:
There is a lot of debate over exactly what was destroyed in the Universal fire.
Click to expand...
Not really. If the tape was in L.A., it went up in smoke. Very, very little was recovered.

Although Universal tried to cover it up and keep it quiet. Fear of lawsuits from artists. They did a worldwide search for backup tapes, as second and third gen copies went to international subsidiaries at the time of original release. Where they were able to obtain a useable tape, that is now billed as the master tape.

About a decade ago, I spoke with the Universal catalog licensing guy on behalf of a reissue label looking for jazz titles. There is kinda only one guy at Universal who does this, and you give him titles, he types them into the database, and tells you if there is tape, hi-res digital, artwork, etc. and any restrictions on licensing. EVERY SINGLE Impulse and Verve title I fed him came back as 'no tape available'. Although he was forbidden from giving a reason, after about 15 titles, he told me to give it up on Verve and Impulse. Easier for him to just tell me what is available on tape than what is not - because it's a pretty short list. Of course, every BN title I fed him came up as 1st gen master available. They weren't in L.A..

The big Coltrane sellers were in NYC at the time of the fire being cut for a Japanese LP series, along with a few other Impulse titles. Since Coltrane ran two tape machines at most sessions and took the second tape home, there are good Coltrane tapes available. Karma has a backup tape available. Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef, among others, are all gone. Why has Stan Getz - Sweet Rain - his greatest Verve album - not seen a vinyl reissue? No tape.

There is, of course, digital for most. But Universal, being a company populated by accountants and lawyers, was well behind Warner, Sony and EMI at the time of the fire. The defacto standard for digital archiving is 32 bit and the minimum is 24/192, but Universal was behind on that, while EMI and Warner were way ahead at 32 bit and Sony has their achives at DSD256 or better.

Given the strides in ADA equipment and mastering, I have no problem with a good vinyl from digital cut.
 
TCell said:
Could August be Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy? I have that on CD and it's fantastic. Looks like Ryan Smith already remastered it for Analog Spark in '17, but it looks to be OoP.
Click to expand...
you mean for september? august is vocal jazz that was recorded in 1955.. i mean you can definitely argue louis is a vocal jazz musician but he is also just as much a trumpeter, which is confirmed for what September will be (1954 trumpeter), IMO its either that, dizzy gillespie, or clifford brown & max roach
 
duke86fan said:
you mean for september? august is vocal jazz that was recorded in 1955.. i mean you can definitely argue louis is a vocal jazz musician but he is also just as much a trumpeter, which is confirmed for what September will be (1954 trumpeter), IMO its either that, dizzy gillespie, or clifford brown & max roach
Click to expand...

I think Chet Baker at Ann Arbor is probably a good candidate as well.
 
e.s. said:
I suppose I should have said "lost" as opposed to "destroyed," because my point was there has been conflicting information about what exactly is gone forever and what has turned up on a copy, etc. A lot of the reporting on the subject has been somewhat hyperbolic.

Like you, though, I have no problem with digitally sourced vinyl if it's done well.
Click to expand...
What is gone forever is what never got transfered - multitracks, sesson tapes, alternates, unreleased material. That is what got artists really pissed, and what most of the legal issues are about. Potential lost income from remixes, box sets, archive releases
 
RHANDMJ said:
Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef, among others, are all gone. Why has Stan Getz - Sweet Rain - his greatest Verve album - not seen a vinyl reissue? No tape.
Click to expand...
This made me catch my breath. Not that they would be gone completely since there are copies available, but a world without Alice Coltrane or Yusuf Lateef is a noticeably diminished world.
 
yukbon said:
This made me catch my breath. Not that they would be gone completely since there are copies available, but a world without Alice Coltrane or Yusuf Lateef is a noticeably diminished world.
Click to expand...
More - it makes me angry. Angry that Universal was so cavalier with the art they were entrusted with. Universal, more so than any other, considers music as product, not art.

Agree. Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef, among others, are the deep treasures of the Impulse catalog. Lateef is one of the greatest musicians of the era, and hugely undervalued these days.

Copies, of varying quality, will ensure the music is never really lost. But the trove of unreleased material, session tapes, alternates, etc. is, for the most part, gone. Pisses me off no end.
 
Get pumped y’all. My Johnie Taylor has sickkkkkk right channel crackle on Side B. Sounds like that signature GZ treatment. Replacement requested, hopefully it’s a one-off but I saw someone on Reddit mentions it’s their nosiest VMP record so I’m not confident

Crackle has stretched two and a half songs so far, no signs of letting up
 
Ghost said:
To make it worse Labcabincalifornia sounds wholly unremarkable
Click to expand...
Why? What is wrong with the VMP copy of Labcabincalifornia that you received?

I’m really looking forward to this release so that’s bad to hear your copy sounds “wholly unremarkable”!
 
NathanRicaud said:
Why? What is wrong with the VMP copy of Labcabincalifornia that you received?

I’m really looking forward to this release so that’s bad to hear your copy sounds “wholly unremarkable”!
Click to expand...
Labcabin sounds like it was mastered hot or something. Harshness to the vocals that kinda splatters out the sound, outside of that it sounds kinda lifeless idk.
 
Ghost said:
Labcabin sounds like it was mastered hot or something. Harshness to the vocals that kinda splatters out the sound, outside of that it sounds kinda lifeless idk.
Click to expand...
That’s devastating to hear!!! At least the other three June ROTM’s sound extremely good, judging by what everyone says! Just a shame this one isn’t good sound quality wise…
 
Ghost said:
Get pumped y’all. My Johnie Taylor has sickkkkkk right channel crackle on Side B. Sounds like that signature GZ treatment. Replacement requested, hopefully it’s a one-off but I saw someone on Reddit mentions it’s their nosiest VMP record so I’m not confident

Crackle has stretched two and a half songs so far, no signs of letting up
Click to expand...

That stinks . I had a warped copy but my replacement was flat. Both are quiet with no noise/crackle so it’s an isolated incident hopefully that yours was noisy, hope your replacement is better
 
keylime_5 said:
The Johnnie Taylor smokes! Best Classics RotM since Lee Morgan. 10/10 mastering. Mono Stax heaven
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more. I know some folks got sick of all the Stax releases we were getting a few years ago, but this album is so much better than any of the mid to late 70s soul/funk/disco stuff this track has been dabbling in for the last year or so.
 
Glad to hear Johnnie sounds good. Was on the fence about sticking around for another month to grab it but decided against it. My Phineas has a bit of crackle, even after vacuum cleaning. You really only hear it with headphones. Not enough to warrant trying to get a replacement but also not worth the premium VMP charges for a GZ pressings.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top