Why the delay in releasing Audio Wave Blue Note XRCD24s?

[dreamcatcher_43]

Anybody here have an "in" with Michael Cuscuna? I'd like to know what the hold up is in bringing the rest of these titles to market. Thanks.

[Chuck Nessa]

Geez! How much whoring of the original masters will EMI allow before the tapes are ruined?

[Shawn]

anything for a buck.

[J.A.W.]

You'd better contact Audio Wave directly. There's a list on their site with the titles that have already been released and scheduled titles.

Edited July 9, 2011 by J.A.W.

[jazzbo]

Perhaps the earthquake, tidal waves and nuclear reactor problems have had an impact.

The XRCD machinery is very limited and if I'm not mistaken all releases go through the same chain of mastering and pressing and there could be a backlog.

Edited July 9, 2011 by jazzbo

[.:.impossible]

Geez! How much whoring of the original masters will EMI allow before the tapes are ruined?

What good are they sitting in a warehouse though? What are they preserving them for? Any even more superior format? I'm serious. I've never really thought much about it.

[bertrand]

An audio preservation copy should be made of these things for historical purposes, but I'm sure there is no funding for this. Of course, the world will end in few billion years anyway, so does it really matter?

Bertrand.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Geez! How much whoring of the original masters will EMI allow before the tapes are ruined?

Chuck, although you don't add any "smilies", I assume you're joking. I've asked Michael Cuscuna about this a couple of times and he says that if the tapes are handled properly, they can be played back many, many more times. Do you not agree with him?

If I think about how many times I played back one of my favorite cassettes or VHS tapes, I realize that it takes and awful lot of wear to hear a difference. I can only think of a couple of VHS tapes that I wore out (Disney movies for the girls) and that was after probably 75-100 playbacks, with numerous long pauses in there.

[Shawn]

Every time you play a tape the some of the metal particles on the tape get stripped off as they pass over the heads (that's why you had to clean cassette players, the dirt was tape residue). With tapes as old as these, some degradation is natural anyway, then add to that playing them each and every time someone wants to make a fresh master and there is risk of permanent damage.

There have already been 24bit transfers of this material (the RVG's for example), so to some it could seem like an unnecessary risk to keep playing these over and over.

Edited July 9, 2011 by Shawn

[dreamcatcher_43]

Perhaps the earthquake, tidal waves and nuclear reactor problems have had an impact.

The XRCD machinery is very limited and if I'm not mistaken all releases go through the same chain of mastering and pressing and there could be a backlog.

I called Audio Wave and you're correct: the recent events in Japan have caused a delay in shipping to the USA.

[ShowsOn]

There's only one CD pressing plant left in Japan that is compliant with the XRCD24 process.

Frankly I wish they would just knock $5 off the price and release them as regular CDs made in any other CD plant.

It is the MASTERING (the tape playback, the equalisation and the A2D conversion) that counts, not the silly XRCD process. I have CDs made in 1984 that sound fantastic, these discs would sound good even if they were just regular CDs, because the mastering engineer knows what he is doing.

[sonnymax]

...It is the MASTERING (the tape playback, the equalisation and the A2D conversion) that counts, not the silly XRCD process. I have CDs made in 1984 that sound fantastic, these discs would sound good even if they were just regular CDs, because the mastering engineer knows what he is doing.

Actually, it's the MUSIC that counts, something that's often lost in the never ending search for perfect sound.

[Shawn]

Actually, it's the MUSIC that counts, something that's often lost in the never ending search for perfect sound.

I joined the Hoffman board recently and it's more of a comedy than anything else. I don't think those guys ever actually listen to music, they just sit there with 17 different versions of the same album and keep switching them back and forth, trying to find the right one....then they stop to swap out speaker cables, perform some witchcraft over their tubes...then argue their findings for 50 pages.

[jazzbo]

There's only one CD pressing plant left in Japan that is compliant with the XRCD24 process.

Frankly I wish they would just knock $5 off the price and release them as regular CDs made in any other CD plant.

It is the MASTERING (the tape playback, the equalisation and the A2D conversion) that counts, not the silly XRCD process. I have CDs made in 1984 that sound fantastic, these discs would sound good even if they were just regular CDs, because the mastering engineer knows what he is doing.

In my opinion with the XRCDs the process does make a difference. Attention to all the different parameters pays off in a certain "sound."

[Jay]

Actually, it's the MUSIC that counts, something that's often lost in the never ending search for perfect sound.

I joined the Hoffman board recently and it's more of a comedy than anything else. I don't think those guys ever actually listen to music, they just sit there with 17 different versions of the same album and keep switching them back and forth, trying to find the right one....then they stop to swap out speaker cables, perform some witchcraft over their tubes...then argue their findings for 50 pages.

You are 100% correct. Unfortunately, some of them have now come over here and want to discuss the 11,000th remastering of The Sidewinder (OMG - Steve Hoffmann "rescued the precious master tapes!!!!" which of course, Ron McMaster just had used a few months earlier for the LP remasters) when most of us remember talking about how lucky we were to have any of this material out at all at the old Blue Note board with Tom Evered.

Besides, the Hoffmannites are spending $50 per Blue Note 45RPM LP title for music they have never previously heard before, for a reissue program that hasn't used him as a mastering engineer for well over a year. It's hilarious, actually.

[J.A.W.]

Actually, it's the MUSIC that counts, something that's often lost in the never ending search for perfect sound.

I joined the Hoffman board recently and it's more of a comedy than anything else. I don't think those guys ever actually listen to music, they just sit there with 17 different versions of the same album and keep switching them back and forth, trying to find the right one....then they stop to swap out speaker cables, perform some witchcraft over their tubes...then argue their findings for 50 pages.

You are 100% correct. Unfortunately, some of them have now come over here and want to discuss the 11,000th remastering of The Sidewinder (OMG - Steve Hoffmann "rescued the precious master tapes!!!!" which of course, Ron McMaster just had used a few months earlier for the LP remasters) when most of us remember talking about how lucky we were to have any of this material out at all at the old Blue Note board with Tom Evered.

Besides, the Hoffmannites are spending $50 per Blue Note 45RPM LP title for music they have never previously heard before, for a reissue program that hasn't used him as a mastering engineer for well over a year. It's hilarious, actually.

Many of them seem to be listening to sound, not to music (example).

What irks me is that some people over on the Hoffman site who have never listened to jazz and who are only buying jazz CDs and LPs because Hoffman mastered or recommended them, are suddenly acting as if they know all about jazz, while ignoring everything recorded before the mid-1950s...

Edited July 13, 2011 by J.A.W.

[erwbol]

There are four titles now scheduled for a November 2013 release over at elusivedisc.com (via a link on Audio Wave Music's own website). The series is not dead after all?

[jazzbo]

I've bought three of these (favorites of mine: Soul Station, True Blue, Tom Cat.) They all sound excellent, the best I've heard these titles in digital format. The mattering is excellent, and the care in the manufacturing may also be a contributing factor.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

the hoffmann mastered Sidewinder is the be all & end all of sidewinders. the vangelder doesnt hold a candle to it. id sell my mint NY USA stereo if it wasnt autographed by bob cranshaw

[Late]

Candy and Bluesnik from this series are also excellent — stellar, even.

I wish Joe Harley liked Sam Rivers' playing.

And I wish Robert Bantz liked Complete Communion.