Rudy's supposed hearing loss

[mmilovan]

Rudy's supposed hearing loss...

and copy controled more!

Edited August 29, 2003 by mmilovan

[Claude]

Steve Hoffman could probably tell us exactly what is going on with  these BN remasters being bright. He has a bulletin board, but I can't find it at the moment.  I have quite a few of his jazz remasters(Prestige, etc.) that are great.

Here's what Steve Hoffman said of RVG's recordings :

"The Rudy Van Gelder sound recipe? That's easy. Take three or four expensive German mics with a blistering top end boost, put them real close to the instruments, add some extra distortion from a cheap overloading mic preamp through an Army surplus radio console, put some crappy plate reverb on it, and record. Then, immediately (and for no good reason), redub the master onto a Magnatone tape deck at +6, compressing the crap out of it while adding 5 db at 5000 cycles to everything. That's the Van Gelder Sound to me".

The Rudy Van Gelder "Sound". Steve, did you really describe it like this

Here are some discussions on Blue Note remasterings, with comments from Steve (but he seems to be quite prejudiced on new remasterings generally):

Steve: What you can't remaster...

Which Blue Train: SACD or DAD?

Blue Note SACDs Are Here!

Edited August 29, 2003 by Claude

[Jim Alfredson]

I just find this so incredibly funny....

GregM:

I have a revealing system, and the SACD is not too bright. It's actually very good, comparable to boutique label productions, which is quite something from Blue Note.

The dude's a broken record, isn't he?

[brownie]

From the Steve Hoffman thread on 'Which Blue Train SACD or DAD?' that Claude posted here. I only see more reasons to cherish my first-generation mono copy of this album.

[Dmitry]

Since the acquisition of the original Mono would eat up half of my kid's college fund, what about the Japanese Mono Blue Train LP?

[brownie]

Dmitry, if you're asking me, you're asking the wrong person. I got my original copy from the BN gentlemen back in 1958. This was the only copy of this classic that I had until BN reissued the socalled Ultimate Blue Train CDc with alternates.

Believe me, I won't be looking for the SAC or the DAD.

I'm not with Steve Hoffman. Good old Rudy and the BN gentlemen knew what they were doing. The mono LP has been playing thousands of times. Still looks and sounds great!

[wolff]

Thank you, Claude. The posts from Hoffman's forum answered quite a few questions I had.

At this point, I'd have to trust Hoffman's ears and opinions. His remasterings of Nat King Cole/The Very Thought of You, Rollins/Sax Colossus and Elvis Presly/Elvis is Back are three of my go-to LP's whenever I can't decide what to play.