Post by Jomama! April 27, 2013 (1 of 10)
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This disc is amazing! Why can't I review it yet?
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Jomama! said:
This disc is amazing! Why can't I review it yet?
I think it's because its listed as not released yet. I like the disc myself but wish he wasn't singing out of the left channel.
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hooperthom said:
I think it's because its listed as not released yet. I like the disc myself but wish he wasn't singing out of the left channel.
Are you talking about the balance on this SACD from Acoustic Sounds, or an earlier version? I expect you're right either way though, since one track was Presley's mike and the other was The Jordanaires' in this case.
It's still listed as "Not available yet", but jpc have a price, and I can get it in Australia from Birdland at AU$38, which seems reasonable (indeed relatively cheap) compared to the prices that appeared on Amazon UK & Amazon US for "Elvis is Back!". jpc's release date is 3 May 2013.
The two-track tape is a back-up tape, not the master tape (which was mono), so was never intended for a stereo release. "Like with the Jordanaires when he sang, we would set it up with a unidirectional mike, so he would be standing right in front of them, facing them, and they would have their own directional microphone and they would be singing to one another."—Thorne Nogar
Makes me wonder if L/R presentation is the best possible. It would be nice to reproduce this studio interaction at home. Perhaps front centre to surround centre would be better, but how could you get some spread on the Jordanaires' sound without mussing it up?
Cheers
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Acoustic Sounds lists this as a new arrival. Rio touched on some interesting issues but a further exploration from Acoustic Sounds "description" of this recording revealed that Bones Howe (producer/recording engineer) rescued this tape which was marked "Erase" from the home of recording engineer Thorne Nogar, who was going to toss it in the garbage, and stored it in a bank vault.
The masters used by AP to press this disc were the original back up stereo tapes with the instructions "ERASE" on the cover.
Interesting stuff. And a must purchase for me as well.
ELVIS LIVES ...... in the right channel, only.
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rammiepie said:
Acoustic Sounds lists this as a new arrival. Rio touched on some interesting issues but a further exploration from Acoustic Sounds "description" of this recording revealed that Bones Howe (producer/recording engineer) rescued this tape which was marked "Erase" from the home of recording engineer Thorne Nogar, who was going to toss it in the garbage, and stored it in a bank vault.
The masters used by AP to press this disc were the original back up stereo tapes with the instructions "ERASE" on the cover.
Interesting stuff. And a must purchase for me as well.
ELVIS LIVES ...... in the right channel, only.
The back-up tape isn't stereo, it's two-track, and there's nothing to be done about that. The master tape is mono. Really, it doesn't matter whether Acoustic Sounds used the mono master tape or the two-track back up, but wouldn't it be truer to the original recordings to produce a mono SACD?
Isn't this reminiscent of the early Dylan two-track recordings, which ended up as "stereo" releases with Dylan's voice in the left channel and his guitar on the right?
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rio98765 said:
Are you talking about the balance on this SACD from Acoustic Sounds, or an earlier version?
I rather would have liked it better in mono, it just hard to listen to anyone coming out of one channel and everything else from the other. But that's just me.
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hooperthom said:
I rather would have liked it better in mono, it just hard to listen to anyone coming out of one channel and everything else from the other. But that's just me.
I grew up during the early days of stereo and stereo experiments where the mono TV speaker was a right channel and a plug in radio's mono speaker was the left channel (or vice versa) for early Television "stereo specials." Talk about mismatched speakers and who knew anything at the time about imaging.
Rechanneled stereo was also a poor by product of these early trials and the early days of DVD~A and even some SACDs were released in phony surround (Silverline for DVD~A (but not all, of course) and some of the membran (or all?) for SACD mch.
It is thus disconcerting for me as well to have vocals come from one speaker but in the case of Elvis it's better to have an album of this caliber than none at all. One can always play the album in MONO if one desires (even though it's not quite the same).
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rammiepie said:
It is thus disconcerting for me as well to have vocals come from one speaker but in the case of Elvis it's better to have an album of this caliber than none at all. One can always play the album in MONO if one desires (even though it's not quite the same).
Sure, but...
Oh for the days when amplifiers had MONO switches and a -20dB temporary volume reduction button! But no multichannel amplifier I've owned has had these (I'd put up with the MONO switch being called some sort of downmix option.) The heart of the problem is that Absolute Sounds is releasing a stereo version of a mono recording session. Better for Absolute Sounds to have released a dual mono release of this caliber than this false stereo one!
I guess the cover would have to be changed though...
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Post by Lunna May 15, 2013 (9 of 10)
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Got mine last week from _, so it's definitely on the streets. But haven't played it yet ....
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Post by rio98765 May 23, 2013 (10 of 10)
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It's interesting that 100% of participants in this thread don't like the artificial stereo on this release (in a sample of 3, admittedly, and only if I include myself).
I'd try these options if I wasn't setting up a sound room, and can only listen through headphones at the moment. People have mentioned Elvis being in the left channel only, and in the right channel only. I'm assuming left for this hypothetical.
Has anyone with surround (and no Mono switch for 1) tried these options:
1. DIY mono
Connect LF or L (Elvis) to CF (if you have a centre speaker);
Connect RF or R (the rest) to LF and RF using a double adapter.
2. DIY surround
Connect LF or L (Elvis) to CF (if you have a centre speaker), or LF and RF using a double adapter;
Connect RF or R (the rest) to LS and RS using a double adapter. Dual mono at the rear might, if anything, give a slight sense of spread.
Are the results ludic, or ludicrous? I'd love to know.
Cheers
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