[toocool4]

A friend stopped by and had me play an album he had just gotten from Acoustic Sounds, All In One Day by a new artist to me, Lorna Hunt, on the Classic Recordings label.  Whoa, dude.  What a fine recording this is and she is quite an original.  Acoustic music live in the studio and the sound is almost in a class by itself.

In the same session, tis the season for exchanging gifts, I played one of my own that I hadn't spun since I dunno when, Music for Percussion by the Tristan Fry Ensemble on Gale Maximum Fidelity Recordings.  Gale used to make speakers in the UK about three decades ago.  Beautiful instrumental purity and clarity w/o any compression.

I'm ordering the Lorna Hunt album.  Four discs recorded at 45rpm and cost an arm and a leg.  But, I like everything about this release.  I would appreciate and suspect I'm not alone knowing something about recordings of special merit to you.     

Nice album just listened to a few tracks on the Internet like it, so just ordered it on vinyl.

Thanks for sharing.

[Kenneth Patchen]

A big +1 for the 180 gram 3 lp set of Blonde on Blonde ... Huzzah! huzzah! Huzzah! Well worth the coin. (The two blondes are Warhol and Sedwick, yes?) Bob at genius level and rockin'. I still have the original lp well used, beat and pockmarked by god knows what (actually, it would be best if god doesn't know).

And a big +1 for DC's If I Could Only Remember My Name ... Wonderful sound, beautifully done.

And distantly related ... we just put away the Christmas decorations including the Christmas recordings and in the batch was Bob's Christmas cd. Christmas isn't over until we don the turtle necks and cashmere sweaters and to sit back on the couch, eggnog in hand, to listen to Bob croaking his way through our favorite carols. It takes a few doctored eggnogs before we can even get to a place where we admit that the recording might not be as weird as we had initially thought. If you haven't heard this, you should. Bob's cover of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" seems more like a threat than anything else.

[Minn Mark]

Hey jimgoulding,
Just curious if you received the Lorna Hunt discs, and what you think of them. I'm considering getting the single disc copy-any good in comparison? 

http://www.soundstagedirect.com/lorna-hunt-all-in-one-day-200-gram-box-set-clarity-vinyl-lp.shtml

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[jimdgoulding]

I have yet to send off the money, Mark.

[Folsom]

One of the only recordings that was done so that you could believe the instruments are in the room.

[charmerci]

Junior Mance Trio - At the Village Vanguard


Crank it up and you'll be in there!

[jimdgoulding]

One of the only recordings that was done so that you could believe the instruments are in the room.

Your comment is intriguing, one of the only recordings, eh, but I gotta ask, have you any info on how this was done?

This is a nice duo for interesting songs and lovely performances:  Fairytales- Radka Toneff and Steve Dobrogosz from ODIN records.  ODIN is a Scandanavian label and like ALL the albums I have originating from that region, it has very pure sound.

[Folsom]

All I really know is what my ears say.

The album is a spoof of older music (but not a funny one).

Everything else I've personally listened too (somewhat limited) sounds like a guitar on a stage. This album has many tracks that make me think the guitar is in the room. I get some pretty serious vibration in my wood floor from the guitar parts. I can "feel" it, you might say.

[jimdgoulding]

A simple but effective way for they, the players, to be here, or you, the audience, to be there can be achieved with ye olde volume control.  Least ways on music recorded with minimal messing about and speakers a generous distance from surrounding walls, ime. 

[Wayner]

I've really gotten into the "In Concert" 3LP album by Dead Can Dance. The recording is awesome and the soundstage is huge. It is a recording of special merit....

Wayner

[Russell Dawkins]

A simple but effective way for they, the players, to be here, or you, the audience, to be there can be achieved with ye olde volume control.  Least ways on music recorded with minimal messing about and speakers a generous distance from surrounding walls, ime.

I think when the reverb or "room" component of the recording is a larger component of what you are hearing than your own room, as might happen with controlled dispersion speakers such as the types employing horns in the midrange, like Gedlee and Audiokinesis, or when listening in the nearfield, then you tend to be taken "there". "They" come "here" when the recording is very dry, so your room is providing more of the ambiance you hear than the recording itself.
You don't have to be at the mercy of your speakers, the recording or your room, though; you can adjust this with the Rane Pseudoacoustic Infector which has a here/there pan control, plus a "back again" button. Very handy. Click on the front panel image for a better view.
http://www.rane.com/pi14.html

[jimdgoulding]

I wouldn't contradict Russell for love nor money, but with his very own engineered recordings of which I have one*, I can change seats very convincingly in the hall with no investments other that judicious use of the volume control.  I can become nearer to the stage and the performers more expansive or more distant with them more collected at no loss of detail or penalty and with greater hall ambience depending.  Don't cost squat.  This is something you can try for yourself using most any on-location made recording.

*International Guitar Night II (Warner Music Canada)

PS- I gotta add that the more clear of walls you can get in your room with speaker and seating placement, the more neutrality and transparency in all regards will be made available to your head and it's parts.

[Russell Dawkins]

Thanks for yet another endorsement, Jim; you are too kind.    That disc got a small award.
I was aware of mixing quite a lot of room into that recording with the intention of duplicating the concert experience, i.e. putting you there. I was also mixing for a moderately dead room, or at least one with some bass control - through fundamental shape (non-cubic, one or more non - parallel wall) or lots of absorbent furniture–or some bass trapping.

The thing is, I don't think with all that reverb (actually room mic) that it is possible to make them sound like they are in your room no matter how loud you play it–it should sound like you are getting closer to the edge of the stage. If you turn it still further up, it should duplicate the sonic experience of you losing it and jumping up on stage to join the musicians, not them jumping off the stage into your living room.

[jimdgoulding]

And you succeeded.  My earlier post was a generalization.   

[toocool4]

Got the 4 vinyl box set Lorna Hunt album arrive 3 days ago. Just listened to the first vinyl and wow amazing recording. Track 2 and 4 stands out so far, they sound so big with regard to space and dynamic it’s amazing.

But one thing I would say about the recording so far is that it’s not the quietest recording I have heard, I will run them through the record cleaner.

[Minn Mark]

To the OP Jim,
Just got All in One Day on Classic Records 2 LP as a RSD buy, based on this thread and your recommendation. Just want to say THANKS !  Sounds phenomenal on my system (AVA solid state electronics, VPI Classic I/Sumiko Blackbird and Maggies 3.6/R.   I love it so far. I hear a  combination of Rickie Lee and Suzanne Vega, but Lorna is definitely her own singer.  Thanks again. Highly recommended as a ROSM.

 

Best,

Mark

[jimdgoulding]

I got a pal coming over tomorrow to listen and I'm gonna waste him with-

1. That Radha Toneff one, Fairytales, on the Scandanavian ODIN label
2. Volume One, Mark Levinson Acoustic Recording Series (the choral side, not the organ)
3. Listen . . The L.A. Jazz Choir
4. Stravinsky's The Solder's Tale performed by Chicago Pro Musica's 11 players
5.        "           The Firebird and the flip side which mesmerizes me, The Song of the Nightingales, by the Minnesota Orchestra.

Don't let the door hit you in the ass getting that last one.  Reference Recordings, the label, has a website.