Armstrong Complete RCA Set '97 vs. '01 edition.

[J.A.W.]

Whether RCA used No-Noise or Cedar is in itself not the determining factor on NR, it's the degree to which it is utilized. Back in the day when these things were trumpeted on cd packaging I think many made up their mind what "cedarized" transfers sounded like. The fact is that 99% of transfer engineers today use Cedar or a relative of it, but the better PR is to leave off mentioning this, because of the bad rap early over-use of the program caused. I've worked a bit with Cedar de-clicking (relatively hard to screw up) and de-noise (gotta be careful with this....sort of like trying to remove cream from coffee!), and if you stay clear of the threshold were artifacts are audible, then the tools have been useful and not harmful. Problem is putting this equipment in the hands of engineers that don't know what music and/or recordings should sound like.

IMHO, the French B/W series, at the time, sounded pretty good on the lp issues, not so hot on the cd versions, which seemed to have an additional layer of poor eq added to what were already somewhat filtered sounding transfers. Overly squashing the high end was the way many engineers of that era (before decent computer-based de-clicking and de=noising) covered up the noise underneath.

Sorry about the tech rant....yes it's about the music, but may as well get the sound right while we're at it, right?

I agree that the sound on the "Jazz Tribune" sets is far from perfect, on the contrary, but I prefer them to the Complete RCA Victor Recordings box, which has audible noise reduction artefacts.

I sold the box a long time ago; maybe I should buy it again and do some more comparisons

Edited February 14, 2010 by J.A.W.

[king ubu]

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Victor-Recordings-Louis-Armstrong/dp/B00005O6KK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1266269815&sr=1-3

you can see that only 9 tracks were remastered in 2001, the rest seem to be the same... just tried ordering a fairly cheap copy of the 1997 set, had no idea this was OOP and getting difficult to find...

[jazz man]

On 2/14/2010 at 7:37 AM, J.A.W. said:

 

 

I agree that the sound on the "Jazz Tribune" sets is far from perfect, on the contrary, but I prefer them to the Complete RCA Victor Recordings box, which has audible noise reduction artefacts.

 

I sold the box a long time ago; maybe I should buy it again and do some more comparisons

In 2025, where is the best place to get Armstrong's RCA sides? Is the choice still only between the Jazz Tribune sets and RCA box?

[colinmce]

2 hours ago, jazz man said:

In 2025, where is the best place to get Armstrong's RCA sides? Is the choice still only between the Jazz Tribune sets and RCA box?

Nothing in print as far as I know. In the years since this thread was started the RCA material has come out piecemeal on various sets. The old 4xCD RCA box (1997 & 2001 editions) spans 1932-1947 with 2 tracks from 1956

The Complete Masters 1925-45, a 14xCD set on Universal France: https://www.discogs.com/release/9969471-Louis-Armstrong-The-Complete-Masters-1925-45

The Okeh, Columbia & RCA Victor Recordings - 1925-1933, a 10xCD box set on Sony: https://www.discogs.com/release/6023663-Louis-Armstrong-The-Okeh-Columbia-RCA-Victor-Recordings-1925-1933

The Fremeaux & Associates Integrale series of 3xCD sets than runs from the beginning up through 1949 and contains most/all of his recorded material during that span: https://www.discogs.com/label/1533003-Intégrale-Louis-Armstrong

[jazz man]

3 hours ago, colinmce said:

Nothing in print as far as I know. In the years since this thread was started the RCA material has come out piecemeal on various sets. The old 4xCD RCA box (1997 & 2001 editions) spans 1932-1947 with 2 tracks from 1956

The Complete Masters 1925-45, a 14xCD set on Universal France: https://www.discogs.com/release/9969471-Louis-Armstrong-The-Complete-Masters-1925-45

The Okeh, Columbia & RCA Victor Recordings - 1925-1933, a 10xCD box set on Sony: https://www.discogs.com/release/6023663-Louis-Armstrong-The-Okeh-Columbia-RCA-Victor-Recordings-1925-1933

The Fremeaux & Associates Integrale series of 3xCD sets than runs from the beginning up through 1949 and contains most/all of his recorded material during that span: https://www.discogs.com/label/1533003-Intégrale-Louis-Armstrong

Thanks, good to know. I was hoping there would be somewhere else (maybe less comprehensive) that would have this period of Armstrong's career in print. From this thread, it doesn't seem the sony box is very good

[jazzbo]

The final two thirds of this era appear in two Mosaic sets in great sound imo. . . OOP though.