Vinyl vs CD - what's your experience?

[thoriated]

How many of these D2D recordings hold musical content worth holding?

Harry James and Tower of Power on Sheffield are two that I have (the Tower of Power D2D is particularly good sounding - I understand it was done with an all-tube electronic chain), and one or two early Telarcs (pre-digital) come to mind from my limited collection.

[scott wurcer]

Originally Posted by thoriated

Harry James and Tower of Power on Sheffield are two that I have (the Tower of Power D2D is particularly good sounding - I understand it was done with an all-tube electronic chain), and one or two early Telarcs (pre-digital) come to mind from my limited collection.

Unfortunately the RCA .5 reissue of Reiner's 1952 "Also Sprach..." beats any classical on Sheffield hands down for shear enjoyment. IMNSHO of course.

[mightydub]

Originally Posted by thoriated

Harry James and Tower of Power on Sheffield are two that I have (the Tower of Power D2D is particularly good sounding - I understand it was done with an all-tube electronic chain), and one or two early Telarcs (pre-digital) come to mind from my limited collection.

I have the Sheffield Tower of Power direct to digital - and the highs on it are unbearable. That disk was a huge disappointment, and put me off digital for a long time. I'm listening to it now just to make sure I didn't mis-remember, and no, I didn't, even with the high frequency roll-off brought on by advancing age, much of this disk sounds shrill.

[thoriated]

I have the Sheffield Tower of Power direct to digital - and the highs on it are unbearable. That disk was a huge disappointment, and put me off digital for a long time.

I can imagine. The horns are probably more close mic'ed than they should be on the Direct to Disc I have (Sheffield's micing techniques have often come under criticism), but, with the latest tweaks to my system which have cleaned up high end detail significantly, they have a good deal more of the 'bite' of live horns than anything else I've heard on a commercial recording - almost startling, in fact. I could see where that would translate poorly to CD quality digitization.

[brianco]

Originally Posted by thoriated

I can imagine. The horns are probably more close mic'ed than they should be on the Direct to Disc I have (Sheffield's micing techniques have often come under criticism), but, with the latest tweaks to my system which have cleaned up high end detail significantly, they have a good deal more of the 'bite' of live horns than anything else I've heard on a commercial recording - almost startling, in fact. I could see where that would translate poorly to CD quality digitization.

You have hit the nail on the head regarding close mic placements. In the past I had a friend, totally blind, who was a retired (in the early 70s) recording engineer. He was from the days of tube mics and to show me by demonstration how good they were he played me various copy-masters of some of his recordings. One was of a full choir, organ, and orchestra recorded in Westminster Abbey. It was one of the best I have ever heard. He used a single suspended c-24 microphone with an Ampex two track recorder with a two channel simple eq. unit.

At that time I lived within a couple of hundred yards of Olympic Studios and heard there many tapes of classically recorded sessions, again using simple recording techniques and traditional classic valve mics. In fact I have a few of those tapes which were rescued from a skip (dumpster) when the studio changed hands. These, played on a decent machine, will demonstrate exactly the damage done by cutting rooms with their limiters when the original pressings were made. [I am told that the original reason for such compression was that it allowed for a big increase in cutting head life and thus a degree of economy.]

Given a library of the (copy masters) tapes I would choose, I would not listen to discs of any sort whatsoever!!

[fdegrove]

Hi,

Originally Posted by thoriated

Harry James and Tower of Power on Sheffield are two that I have (the Tower of Power D2D is particularly good sounding - I understand it was done with an all-tube electronic chain), and one or two early Telarcs (pre-digital) come to mind from my limited collection.

Most of the Doug Sax recordings for SL I'm familiar with sound too warm, too lumpy and all in all to tubey.

As for content, to each his own but I pertain there's little there that is of any musical value, D2D or not.

Technically speaking, D2D is of course the next best thing to a master tape but a master tape with no content is only useful as a showcase for what could have been on it. Same goes for D2D, no content.

If you'd want to add content, give me classical music from the mid Fifties or Jazz, for instance. Guess, I'm a bit late with my request...

Cheers,