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Do the reviews of Way Out West and Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section amount to a polite vote of no confidence in the Analogue Productions reissues of Contemporary/Riverside/Prestige records (remastered by Doug Saxe)? Are the new versions enough to warrant putting on the brakes for further APO purchases of this (and perhaps Blue Note and Impulse) material?
Hmm, the folks on the Hoffman site tell us APO is the ne plus ultra....
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Post by Claude April 20, 2011 (2 of 5)
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SteelyTom said:
Hmm, the folks on the Hoffman site tell us APO is the ne plus ultra....
I don't think they do.
The APO SACD of Way Out West has added reverb. Other reissues like the AP 45rpm LP reissue or the "vintage" 1984 MFSL CD sound completely dry, which is much more realistic in my view.
The Art Pepper AP SACD suffers less from added reverb, but it also sounds more distant than the best transfers of this title.
So the APO SACDs are hardly considered a benchmark.
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Post by analogue April 20, 2011 (3 of 5)
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Howdy.
I own both the original Analogue Production version and the shm-sacd's. Doug Sax did a very good job with the earlier versions but the new Universal Japan sacd's are really exceptional. Not just because they are drier but because of the newer hardware they are using.
Sax had the original master's to transfer from but the Japanese used secondary copies but their quality is so much better. In side by side comparison the newer discs are so much more realistic and natural sounding. Also they are not compressed at all whereas Sax used some compression.
Are the new discs worth the extra money??? Only the individual can answer that.
I think they are.
Just my two sense.
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Post by Espen R April 20, 2011 (4 of 5)
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analogue said:
Howdy.
I own both the original Analogue Production version and the shm-sacd's. Doug Sax did a very good job with the earlier versions but the new Universal Japan sacd's are really exceptional. Not just because they are drier but because of the newer hardware they are using.
Sax had the original master's to transfer from but the Japanese used secondary copies but their quality is so much better. In side by side comparison the newer discs are so much more realistic and natural sounding. Also they are not compressed at all whereas Sax used some compression.
Are the new discs worth the extra money??? Only the individual can answer that.
I think they are.
Just my two sense.
@analogue, I certainly agree with you that the SHM-SACD of both Sonny Rollins and Art Pepper smokes the AP SACD versions.
But you said that Sax used the original master...?? It's very unlikely that the original stereo master has that fake added reverb to it. Do you mean that Mr Sax has added that reverb to his SACDs by using the mastering console to do it?
Another thing is that the stereo imaging is wider on the SHM-SACD on both Rollins and Pepper (try listen by headphones), that indicates that the master used for the japan SHM-SACDs are CLOSER (more true) to the original stereo master, than the tapes Sax used for the AP SACDs, even if the japan tapes are straight 1:1 copy from the US masters.
This is how I see it.
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Post by analogue April 20, 2011 (5 of 5)
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Hi.
I'm glad you feel the new versions are fantastic as well. They are better in every category of levels. I still respect Mr. Sax's versions but not as much.
Oddly I have read reviews on other sites where listeners were less than happy with the results which made me wonder why that would be.
It was mentioned that Sax did use the original master tapes which seems to go along with Analogue Productions mindset. This could actually be a two channel mixdown as well. But Sax did say the original tapes were used.
As for any post production tinkering he may have done..whether he wished to massage more sound out of the tapes, add reverb and compression I cannot say. Every mastering engineer has tricks and opinions on what sounds best. Doud Sax is one of the very best around.
Mobile Fidelity creates flat transfers as does Universal Japan. Sometimes it works and other times it doesnt. With regards to the Art Pepper and Way Out west sacd's.......they rule. By a large margin I might add.
i am simply wowed by the quality of the new sacd's. I need to turn the volume up a tad and then the focus tightens. The sound is gorgeous and natural.
I'll be keeping my eyes and ears open to new shm-sacd's in the coming future.
Cheers and happy listening.
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