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Anatomy of a Murder - Duke Ellington


Teasing the Korean

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Why does this album sound so much worse than Duke's other Columbia albums of the period, and why does the expanded CD sound worse than the LP? It is so tinny and shrill, and the bass all but disappears in many passages. I wonder if the original LP-length CD sounds better than this. I realize that this music was recorded unnervingly close to the film's premiere. Did that have something to do with it?

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I have a Mobile Fidelity reissue and, while the music is of high quality, the sound, as I remember, has an echo-like quality. I've wondered about the reason for that myself.

The reverb is on both the mono and stereo versions of the LP. The reverb is not on the expanded CD, but it sounds shrill off balance anyway. Would love to know what happened with this album.

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Is it possible that it's the same mix that was used for the actual theatre-mix soundtrack?

I've often noticed that the sound for cinema is a bit 'tubby', and more reverberant, possibly to tune or compensate the sound for the large space of the theatre...

It was all recorded on Hollywood sound stages, I believe. None of the music was ever recorded just for album use, that I'm aware of.

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Is it possible that it's the same mix that was used for the actual theatre-mix soundtrack?

I've often noticed that the sound for cinema is a bit 'tubby', and more reverberant, possibly to tune or compensate the sound for the large space of the theatre...

It was all recorded on Hollywood sound stages, I believe. None of the music was ever recorded just for album use, that I'm aware of.

Good points. I will have to look into the recording details.

I do know that there were in theory separate album and film sessions, but because of the late date, the label and studio agreed that everything was up for grabs. So the album may have had a mixture of film tracks and album tracks.

However, wherever it was recorded, the reverb was added subsequently. It is not on the expanded CD, but the latter doesn't sound that good. It is harsh, shrill, and the balances are way off, at least on several of the selections.

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I've scoured the net for the film sessions, but can't find a location.

The 1999 Columbia released CD does seem to have that glassy, clean and brittle recording "quality" that so seduced us all back in the 80s. Perhaps it was recorded on one of those first generation digital recorders? Only kidding. I would like to hear the music with the echo, just to experience the original release, but if it's anything like Miles' Lift to the Scaffold it will be much better without.

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