posted by Tom Waits
That ¨Scare Myself¨ song is something to behold, Tom, really... That trumpet is round, raspy, so warm...absolutely mesmerizing in good equipment. And, with light out, very close to the real thing
And the percussion, with those tiny sounds barely perceptible -really in the verge of perception-... and the feeling of air surrounding the instruments and the voice
I have the domestic vinyl pressing, which -strangely- sounds a lot better than the american import... I have seen an english pressing in some ignote record shop of my town, among some Elvis Costello and other gems... Hope I´ll make them mine real soon
But, out of question, that Thomas Dolby album is de rigueur when fiddling around with mods in speakers, new preamps, etc. Is a killer album, a real gem.
I have seen that a good deal of the so called ¨prog¨, or ¨prog related¨ music is mentioned here too. Nice!. Is a very overlooked genre, full of innovation and surprise. A lot of friends who are much younger than I are becoming acquainted with that kind of music...Some Jethro, some Crimson... My younger friends (and my 13 years son, too) sometimes can´t believe the musicianship, the substance and the beauty of some progressive rock.
Particularly, Italian prog is beautiful, very melodic. The vinyl version of ¨Per un Amico¨ -¨For a Friend¨-, by the Premiata Forneria Marconi, is full of surprise and subtlety. The kind of music that really shines when played in the right equipment.
Lately, for testing I´ve been using some Porcupine Tree live record that takes my breath away: Warzawa , live in polish radio... I don´t know exactly, yet, which points in this cd are the more remarkable for testing equipment, but I recommend it very much: utterly powerful, with a superbly captured live feel...
Sorry, I was absent of this thread for a long time, and now i´m showing my delayed reactions...
That ¨Scare Myself¨ song is something to behold, Tom, really... That trumpet is round, raspy, so warm...absolutely mesmerizing in good equipment. And, with light out, very close to the real thing
And the percussion, with those tiny sounds barely perceptible -really in the verge of perception-... and the feeling of air surrounding the instruments and the voice
I have the domestic vinyl pressing, which -strangely- sounds a lot better than the american import... I have seen an english pressing in some ignote record shop of my town, among some Elvis Costello and other gems... Hope I´ll make them mine real soon
But, out of question, that Thomas Dolby album is de rigueur when fiddling around with mods in speakers, new preamps, etc. Is a killer album, a real gem.
I have seen that a good deal of the so called ¨prog¨, or ¨prog related¨ music is mentioned here too. Nice!. Is a very overlooked genre, full of innovation and surprise. A lot of friends who are much younger than I are becoming acquainted with that kind of music...Some Jethro, some Crimson... My younger friends (and my 13 years son, too) sometimes can´t believe the musicianship, the substance and the beauty of some progressive rock.
Particularly, Italian prog is beautiful, very melodic. The vinyl version of ¨Per un Amico¨ -¨For a Friend¨-, by the Premiata Forneria Marconi, is full of surprise and subtlety. The kind of music that really shines when played in the right equipment.
Lately, for testing I´ve been using some Porcupine Tree live record that takes my breath away: Warzawa , live in polish radio... I don´t know exactly, yet, which points in this cd are the more remarkable for testing equipment, but I recommend it very much: utterly powerful, with a superbly captured live feel...
FastEddy said:I probably posted this elsewhere:
For comparisons between CD playback, DVD-A playback and high quality LP ... and testing for speaker response 'tween low levels and that fatter, bigger sound: Muddy Waters "Folk Singer" ... an old Muddy and a very young Buddy Guy doing blues duets.
DVD-A: http://www.classicrecords.com/item.cfm?item=HDAD 2008 ..."this true 24 / 96 and 24/192 transfer will bring the intimate and spooky studio production further into your listening room ..."
CD: http://www.amazon.com/Folk-Singer-Muddy-Waters/dp/B00000JNOJ/ ..."the surprisingly clean recording, made even cleaner by the digital remastering ..."
LP: http://www.classicrecords.com/item.cfm?item=CHS 1483-200G ..."The most talked about "true audiophile" blues recordings ever. ..."
I got the MFSL version of the CD. It sounds great in spite of the fact that it was recorded in the 60's.
Toothpaste
Can I just say, twice now, I've repaired none playing disks with toothpaste. My sons DVD of the original Transformers Movie, the cartoon version from the 80's was scored. I tried to DeCrypt it in my PC drive too no avail. So I buffed the score mark with toothpaste on a bit of loo roll, put it in my drive and it played. I also repaired an album, can't remember which but remember getting good results. Don't throw your discs away when you've paid a lot for it in the first place. Give them a rub with toothpaste, see if it works. What ya got to loose?
iUSERTLO72p
Can I just say, twice now, I've repaired none playing disks with toothpaste. My sons DVD of the original Transformers Movie, the cartoon version from the 80's was scored. I tried to DeCrypt it in my PC drive too no avail. So I buffed the score mark with toothpaste on a bit of loo roll, put it in my drive and it played. I also repaired an album, can't remember which but remember getting good results. Don't throw your discs away when you've paid a lot for it in the first place. Give them a rub with toothpaste, see if it works. What ya got to loose?
iUSERTLO72p
posted by Jerishi
Glad that you remembered it. It was a classic recording for reviewers everywhere in the late eighties; if I remember well, a quasi- direct to dat recording using Ambisonics processing and Calrec microphones... And one of the first really good sounding cd´s in town!
The approach was very unusual: a rock band performing live inside a church, playing ¨plugged¨ instruments, with the resultant sound captured by the Calrec omnidirectional mike.
The resulting sound is very spacious and detailed, marred a bit by a low level rumble which was caused, someone told me, by the air conditioning system in the church and for the natural acoustic resonances of the hall.
Is a very good record for evaluating low level resolution, air and midrange clarity (voices are a little recessed, but superbly portrayed).
I have one Cowboy Junkies record called ¨Studio¨, which has excerpts of ¨Trinity Sessions¨, as well as many other songs recorded with different studio techniques. Is a record that I have used a lot for sound evaluation, mainly in the areas of midrange resolution and low level detail.
Anecdotically, I remember the first time when I heard the Cowboy Junkies slow cover of Velvet Underground´s ¨Sweet Jane¨... It was on the ¨Natural Born Killers¨ movie. And I don´t know why, but the music matched perfectly the bizarre imagery of the movie.
Cheers!
" ... Is a very good record for evaluating low level resolution, air and midrange clarity (voices are a little recessed, but superbly portrayed). ..."
Wondering? Is this available somewhere on LP ? (Then maybe I could capture it on 24bit DVD-A so we could hear what it really sounds like ... )
Wondering? Is this available somewhere on LP ? (Then maybe I could capture it on 24bit DVD-A so we could hear what it really sounds like ...
)(by FastEddy)
err..., yes:
http://www.amazon.de/Trinity-Sessions-Vinyl-Cowboy-Junkies/dp/B00004WQPJ
Evidently an import, so not a cheap alternative, but veeeery worthwhile.
I have read that there´s a new ¨revisited¨version on cd, dvd video; and maybe, perhaps, some hi definition media. Check out ´cause it´s very fine.
The original cd sounds good though.
I like vinyl very, very much; but sometimes I have found some stunning cd´s that sound really good.
IE, Patricia Barber´s ¨A Fortnight in France¨ -EMI, live cd- is a superb recording by any standard: you can catch a great deal of acoustic cues there - the layerings of the cheering audience (front to back), the reverb of the PA sound in the hall itself -... you can even feel the muscular playing of Ms. Barber, and the superb interplay between the band members. Dynamics are, par course, awesome.
" ... I have read that there´s a new ¨revisited¨version on cd, dvd video; and maybe, perhaps, some hi definition media. ..."
I'm a collector of such esoteric art ... early CDs of quality that may relate to the abysmal quality of today's overly compressed CDs (This is my favorite rant ... "CDs suck" - Bob Dylan in Rolling Stone Mag. interview).
Anyway, the availability on DVD (or SACD) is really of more interest than the LP, 'cause as nice as my equipment is, it seldom comes up to that of professional recording equipment.
Also, did you mean this DVD (plus CD)? : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trinity-Revisited-DVD-Cowboy-Junkies/dp/B000VF8R6S/ ... warning = probably PAL Zone II video requiring a Euro player or "universal" player.
I'm a collector of such esoteric art ... early CDs of quality that may relate to the abysmal quality of today's overly compressed CDs (This is my favorite rant ... "CDs suck" - Bob Dylan in Rolling Stone Mag. interview).
Anyway, the availability on DVD (or SACD) is really of more interest than the LP, 'cause as nice as my equipment is, it seldom comes up to that of professional recording equipment.
Also, did you mean this DVD (plus CD)? : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trinity-Revisited-DVD-Cowboy-Junkies/dp/B000VF8R6S/ ... warning = probably PAL Zone II video requiring a Euro player or "universal" player.
trinity sessions
Yes, Eddie, I think is that. I´d read about it in an obscure blog some time ago; I forgot the URL...
I agree with you in your disgust about the current vogue of overcompressing... CD, IMHO, never was a hyper-quality media -merely adequate, maybe-; excessive compression makes things worse: what once was ¨merely adequate¨ now sucks horribly. I have some discs that are intolerable, but in this age of mp3, piracy and the desire to get everything for nothing, is evident that quality has been leveled according to the lowest factor...Those bloody companies. But marketing rules everything this days.
Sad state of things, but...what can we do?
I really don´t want any more formats. Such a mess, and the expenses... it´s obscene!! I´m very tired for that, really.
Why can´t they do itright?
It´s only a cd, man... not rocket science!!
Anyway, I´m a ¨vinyl hunter¨ this days. Sometimes I indulge in cd´s as ¨guilty pleasures¨, but seldom can find one that shows what the format is capable of. So, the ¨guilty
pleasure¨ turns into some kind of masochist exercise. And it´s the music that suffers the most.
I have a reasonable system, but once that a compressed cd enters your system, quality don´t matter anymore: all sounds the same: like bad examples of vintage cd´s, ca. 1985, but LOUDER!!!
Yes, Eddie, I think is that. I´d read about it in an obscure blog some time ago; I forgot the URL...
I agree with you in your disgust about the current vogue of overcompressing... CD, IMHO, never was a hyper-quality media -merely adequate, maybe-; excessive compression makes things worse: what once was ¨merely adequate¨ now sucks horribly. I have some discs that are intolerable, but in this age of mp3, piracy and the desire to get everything for nothing, is evident that quality has been leveled according to the lowest factor...Those bloody companies. But marketing rules everything this days.
Sad state of things, but...what can we do?
I really don´t want any more formats. Such a mess, and the expenses... it´s obscene!! I´m very tired for that, really.
Why can´t they do itright?
It´s only a cd, man... not rocket science!!
Anyway, I´m a ¨vinyl hunter¨ this days. Sometimes I indulge in cd´s as ¨guilty pleasures¨, but seldom can find one that shows what the format is capable of. So, the ¨guilty
pleasure¨ turns into some kind of masochist exercise. And it´s the music that suffers the most.
I have a reasonable system, but once that a compressed cd enters your system, quality don´t matter anymore: all sounds the same: like bad examples of vintage cd´s, ca. 1985, but LOUDER!!!
test tracks
The first test track I always run is a bit of a dull one, from a Chesky records audiophile test disc: Left/right imaging test -- 'my voice should now sound like it's coming from the left speaker....'
Very useful as in the past I've gone several days with the channels the wrong way around....
The first test track I always run is a bit of a dull one, from a Chesky records audiophile test disc: Left/right imaging test -- 'my voice should now sound like it's coming from the left speaker....'
Very useful as in the past I've gone several days with the channels the wrong way around....