Archive: Latest music 8/03-3/04

Whitese · « **Reply #40 on:** 15 Sep 2003, 07:08 pm »

I should also suggest Maia Sharp...a mix of rock, country, some jazz...extremely well recorded...her voice just locks in the center stage...great drummer and band...
Everywhere I audiotioned something with it,,,the salesman asked who it was....

The CD is called Maia Sharp,,its her 2nd.

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #41 on:** 15 Sep 2003, 10:25 pm »

Quote from: cjr888

There's a couple real good ones on that.

Also, one real stinker. The Victoria Williams track is the weirdest cover I've ever heard--her voice is strange to start with and she seems to crank the strangeness up to "11" on her song.

jqp · « **Reply #42 on:** 25 Sep 2003, 02:19 am »

used CDs

John Hammond - Got Love If You Want It

Various - Jazz At The Pawnshop 2

Ottmar Liebert - Borrasca

Earl Klugh - Earl Klugh Trio Volume One

Eagles - Hell Freezes Over

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #43 on:** 25 Sep 2003, 02:27 am »

Picked up a few used CDs today:

Ravenettes, Whip It On- Very cool, all the songs pile on layer upon layer of fuzzed out distorted noises. Awesome!

Joshua Bell- Mendelsson & Beethoven Violin Concertos (Sony Classical). Great recording, nicely recorded.

Peter & the Wolf, Patrick Steward narrating. I've wanted this one since I heard it in a bookstore a few years back.

kd lang, ingenue- I'm not a big fan of hers, except of course the awsome "Constant Craving." Been meaning to get this one for years, finally found it cheap in the used store.

Also I bought "Love Scene" by Diana Krall on DVD-A. Absolutely fantastic. I can now ditch my DTS CD version. Anybody want it, real cheap?

rosconey · « **Reply #44 on:** 25 Sep 2003, 08:22 pm »

just picked up the new dave mathews-some devil

so far so good

mule.variant · « **Reply #45 on:** 1 Oct 2003, 05:52 pm »

First post on this forum, so thought I'd start here and use a boring emoticon.

Just picked up:

Joe Henry, tiny voices - Great album. Possibly better than scar. Highly recommended if you like his slightly dark groovy mood...or even if you don't. On a side note, I just read an interview with him and he stated that he only sold 20,000 copies of scar which is just a damn shame IMO.

Elvis Costello, North - Major departure from his last release. Mainly piano centered. Very mellow. Along the same vein as what he did with the Brodski quartet, but a bit more lush. I really like it, but I've yet to hear anything EC did that I didn't like.

David Bowie, Reality - A little more straightforward than his last record, but not Tin Machine raw or anything. It's growing on me...

Emmylou Harris, Stumble Into Grace - Very good album. More interesting (to me anyway) than Red Dirt Girl. Not as far into Lanois-ville as Wrecking Ball.

jqp · « **Reply #46 on:** 6 Oct 2003, 09:25 pm »

Welcome to AC. You started at the right place - "its all about the music"

Pretty good variety of new music too. I just got a real variety of CDs last week that I have to post...

Tyson · « **Reply #47 on:** 6 Oct 2003, 09:40 pm »

Led Zeppelin - 4 CD "best of" remaster box set
What can you say other than they sound great and the music is epochal.

Nina Simone - Sugar in my Bowl
2 CD set of the best material from her RCA years.

Aimee Mann - Bachelor #2
I'm a big fan of hers and this CD does not disappoint, decent but not great recording quality. Also, check out her work on the magnolia soundtrack, another very worthwhile album

Rosanne Cash - Rules of Travel
Wow, I actually like this album. Took a chance base on the good reviews, as I haven't liked her previous efforts all that much, but this one has a nice modern sensibility and good recording quality. Some interesting guest spots too.

jqp · « **Reply #48 on:** 7 Oct 2003, 02:46 am »

The first three ordered from DirectMusic.com – very reasonable prices and shipping. Inspired by posts in this very circle...

Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat - The Songs of Leonard Cohen
At long last I located and obtained this CD. Jennifer Warnes’ voice has to be in the top 10 of modern female vocalists. I was very surprised to find that it was a DDD recording. But how good can it be from Sony digital equipment in 1986? I will review this CD soon.

Blood, Sweat & Tears Blood, Sweat & Tears
This digital remaster of the 1969 2nd album has several big hits. There is a good variety of music here and the recording quality is good for the late 60’s. More importantly, the musicians produce quality music, and it is a welcome addition to my collection.

Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Stephen Stills Super Session
This is remastered by Al Kooper (of Blood Sweat & Tears). and features tracks without the added horns. Bloomfield didn’t make it the second day – sadly he apparently went off to slowly kill himself with Heroin over the next decade. But his electric guitar mastery is apparent. Stills came in the next day to finish the recording. A real experience of a 2-day super session.

From the local Borders on a whim: heard a cut from the first CD on the way home and after dining out went by Borders at 10:40pm . Its nice to live in a big city!

Keller Williams Home
This one is kind of a novelty. It has “acoustic” guitar, but it is so synthesized/digitized that it may as well be a piece of plywood with strings. Every possible attack/decay of the sounds is sucked into the recording. You can tell it is an acoustic guitar though. He plays every “instrument” on this CD (jaw harp, piano percussion and “Boom Whackers” and others. He likes to do iterative vocal harmony tracks and lots of almost self-indulgent studio tricks. " Apparition" was the song that I heard on the radio (public radio)

Bireli Lagrene Gypsy Project & Friends
The next CD I picked up after spotting an acoustic guitar on the cover. I was in the jazz section and there it was – acoustic gypsy swing with double bass and several guitars and delicious jazz violin. What a find! Never heard of these guys but I will bre looking for more. 5 or 6 tracks are Django Rheinhardt songs!

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #49 on:** 7 Oct 2003, 12:47 pm »

Quote from: jqp

Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat - The Songs of Leonard Cohen
At long last I located and obtained this CD. Jennifer Warnes’ voice has to be in the top 10 of modern female vocalists. I was very surprised to find that it was a DDD recording. But how good can it be from Sony digital equipment in 1986?

That DDD thing doesn't sound right: I'm looking at the LP (ie vinyl) and there's no mention of digital in the chain (there's no explicit mention of analog either). It states that the LP was mastered by Bernie Grundman, and I thought he was an analog kinda guy. Also, "Famous Blue Raincoat" was such an audio demonstration favorite that one would suspect there was something analog there to appeal to the audiophiles (esp. given its 1986 origin).

addendum: no luck in finding any authoritive info on digital/analog lements of FBR; one post on Audio Asylum suggests it was recorded to DAT.

Obviously, there's nothing I've said that CLEARLY indicates it's AAD, or AAA but it's just an inkling on my part. I couldn't find my CD copy to see what code it listed.

jqp · « **Reply #50 on:** 7 Oct 2003, 08:30 pm »

If it was recorded to DAT, which actually makes much more sense - didn't CDs come out in the 90's? - then for vinyl it would be DAA or DDA. And I don't think those codes were used until Redbook.

The CD says something like "recorded on Sony digital equipment" and that's it as far as the first "D". There was more info on the mastering and I think Bernie Grundman sounds familiar. I will check when I get home...

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #51 on:** 7 Oct 2003, 08:39 pm »

"If it was recorded to DAT, which actually makes much more sense - didn't CDs come out in the 90's?"

Your timeline is a little off!

I had over one hundred CDs already by 1990!

mule.variant · « **Reply #52 on:** 7 Oct 2003, 08:42 pm »

Quote from: jqp

- didn't CDs come out in the 90's? -

I think I got my first player in, like, 1985 so they probably showed up on shelves around 83. Just a best guess.

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #53 on:** 7 Oct 2003, 08:46 pm »

Sony's first CD player was reviewed by Stereophile in '83--

http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?193

jqp · « **Reply #54 on:** 8 Oct 2003, 02:20 am »

OK OK at least give the figures

1967 NHK Technical Research Institute demonstrates a 12-bit PCM digital audio recorder with a 30 kHz (30,000 times per second) sampling rate. The digital recording goes onto a high-grade video tape.

1969 Sony introduces it's 13-bit PCM digital recorder at a 47.25 kHz (47,250 time per second) sampling rate. The digital recording is sent to a 2" video tape.
Klass Compaan, a Dutch physicist comes up with the idea for the Compact Disc.

1970 At Philips, Compaan and Pete Kramer complete a glass disc prototype and determine that a laser will be needed to read the information.

1971 Microprocessor produced by Intel
Digital Delay line used by BBC's studios (first digital audio device).

1972 Compaan and Kramer produce color prototype of this new compact disc technology

1973 BBC and other broadcast companies start installing digital recorders for master recordings.

1977 Mitsubishi, Hitachi & Sony show digital audio disc prototypes at the Tokyo Audio Fair.
JVC Develops Digital Audio Process

1978 Philips releases the video disc player
Sony sells the PCM-1600 and PCM-1 (digital audio processors)
"Digital Audio Disc Convention" Held in Tokyo, Japan with 35 different manufacturers.
Philips proposes that a worldwide standard be set.
Polygram (division of Philips) determined that polycarbonate would be the best material for the CD.
Decision made for data on a CD to start on the inside and spiral towards the outer edge.
Disc diameter originally set at 115mm.
Type of laser selected for CD Players.

1979 Prototype CD System demonstrated in Europe and Japan.
Sony agrees to join in collaboration.
Sony & Philips compromise on the standard sampling rate of a CD -- 44.1 kHz (44,100 samples per second)
Philips accepts Sony's proposal for 16-bit audio.
Reed-Solomon code adopted after Sony's suggestion.
Maximum playing time decided to be slighty more that 74 minutes.
Disc diameter changed to 120mm to allow for 74 minutes of 16-bit stereo sound with a sample rate of 44.1 kHz

1980 Compact Disc standard proposed by Philips & Sony.

1981 Matsushita accepts Compact Disc Standard
Digital Audio Disc Committee also accepts Compact Disc Standard.
Sharp achieves production of semiconductor laser.
Philips & Sony collaboration ends.

1982 Sony & Philips both have product ready to go.
Compact Disc Technology is introduced to Europe and Japan in the fall.

1983 Compact Disc Technology is introduced in the United States in the spring
The Compact Disc Group formed to help market.
CD-ROM Protoypes shown to public
30,000 Players sold in the U.S.
800,000 CD's sold in the U.S.

1984 Second Generation & Car CD players introducted.
First Mass Replication Plant in the United States built.
Portable (i.e., Sony DiscMan) CD Players sold.

1985 Third generation CD Players released.
CD-ROM drives hit the computer market.

1986 CD-I (Interactive CD) concept created.
3 Million Players sold in U.S.
53 Million CD's sold in U.S.

1987 Video CD format created.
Allen Adkins of Optical Media International joins with SonoPress in Amsterdam and demonstrates a desktop system for pre-mastering CD's (Adkins and SonoPress, produced a replicated CD in less than 24-hours using this system).

1988 CD-Recordable Disc/Recorder Technology Introduced

1990 28% of all U.S. households have CD's.

jqp · « **Reply #55 on:** 8 Oct 2003, 02:34 am »

Quote from: Tonto Yoder

That DDD thing doesn't sound right: I'm looking at the LP (ie vinyl) and there's no mention of digital in the chain (there's no explicit mention of analog either). It states that the LP was mastered by Bernie Grundman, and I thought he was an analog kinda guy. Also, "Famous Blue Raincoat" was such an audio demonstration favorite that one would suspect there was something analog there to appeal to the audiophiles (esp. given its 1986 origin).

addendum: no luck in finding any authoritive info on digital/an ...

Here is the info off of the CD...

DDD

Mixed by Frank Wolf, George Massenburg, Henry Lewy, Larry Brown, Tim Boyle (different songs)

7 different studios

Mastering by Bernie Grundman Mastering

"Recorded on Sony Digital Equipment"

Interesting:
Stevie Ray Vaughn plays guitar on First We Take Manhattan
Jennifer Warnes retained rights to all this music...

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #56 on:** 8 Oct 2003, 04:23 am »

jqp,
I hadn't noticed SRV's name until scouring the liner notes for recording info. I guess there's even a 12" single called the "SRV mix".
Still, that DDD surprises me: I played the LP tonight and it sounds awfully good. My recollection is that the CD sounds good as well.

Tyson · « **Reply #57 on:** 8 Oct 2003, 06:53 am »

Ella Fitzgerald - The Cole Porter Songbook

I'm slowly collecting all of the songbooks that Ella recorded, so far I've got this and the Gershwin songbooks. Recordings are decent but not great. But Ella, well Ella is "the" voice and "the" talent for this music. Incomparable, indeed.

The White Stripes - Elephant

Well, you New Yorkers are right, they are a pretty good band, the music is very well crafted, I just wish the lead singer's voice did not edge over to whininess on a regular basis.

Aimee Mann - I'm with Stupid

More good stuff from Ms. Mann. In fact this may be my favorite of the 3 discs I have of her's so far.

PJ · « **Reply #58 on:** 8 Oct 2003, 11:59 am »

Danny Howells : 24/7

Nick Warren : Reykjavik

Deep Dish : Toronto

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #59 on:** 8 Oct 2003, 12:05 pm »

How's the Danny Howell's disc? I've considered that on DVD-A...