Teufelshunde
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2009
- Posts
- 28
- Likes
- 13
Quote:
Quote:
I originally posted the "Classic Sinatra" so I'll own the responsibility for clarification, since Bob Norberg is a topic of some controversy amongst Sinatra cognoscenti.
LFF is right - considerable liberties were taken in the remastering of the "Classic Sinatra" album.
Bob Norberg hated the tape hiss present on some of the Capitol first gen masters - so he used, what were at the time, state-of-the-art techniques to "improve" the remasters.
Half of the processing being performed in the analog domain and half in the digital domain, Bob's thinking was that this would help neutralize the artifacts.
And if Bob Norberg had stopped there things might not have become so controversial.
But Bob Norberg, besides being a professional sound engineer, was also an amateur audio enthusiast and a DIY hobbiest and he created his own "special circuits" for performing audio enhacements.
Bob was notorious for "widening" the sound of mono masters to create a pseudo-stero effect by running the mono track through two equalizers with the left and right EQ set opposite of each other.
Bob also believed that some of the original Sinatra recordings were mis-miked, thereby placing Frank too far forward; so Bob would tinker with the soundstage to create a more realisitc spatial match between Frank and his orchestra.
Some folks think that Nelson Riddle, knowing full well where Frank and the orchestra would be within the sound stage, wrote the arrangements taking this into consideration and delivered onto the original Capitol masters the artistic result intended.
No mucking about necessary, thank you.
However, not everyone universally derides Norberg's efforts:
MP3 snippets are available at many of these sites and you can listen and decide for yourself.
I've had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting LFF.
He is a thoughtful and well informed observer of Jazz.
He's also cares deeply about proper audio mastering.
And I admire his zeal for artistic and audiophile integrity as well as his considerable collection of Jazz recordings, many of the finest available.
I'm neither a Bob Norberg apologist (honestly don't think his body of work represents the very best available) nor an LFF critic (respect him greatly and prefer his listening preferences) - just saying that there's more to the story and the devil's in the details.
If pressed to make a personal recommendation - here's the Frank that I listen to most often - and this one is notably a Ron Furmanek effort.
BTW - just to keep the post on topic, I do like the sound of Frank's voice on both LCD-3v1 and LCD-3v1.5
T.
Just goes to show how we all have different tastes. I absolutely hated the way the LCD-3 rendered Sinatra's voice. If Sinatra sounds bad...it's a capitol offense to me. Sorry for the lame pun.
^ One of the worst Sinatra albums you can buy! Horribly mastered.
Pick up Classic Sinatra II. Might not have the best song selection but it sounds much, much better. An even better choice is the Sinatra Capitol Collector's disc. It's cheap and sounds phenomenal.
Quote:
I originally posted the "Classic Sinatra" so I'll own the responsibility for clarification, since Bob Norberg is a topic of some controversy amongst Sinatra cognoscenti.
LFF is right - considerable liberties were taken in the remastering of the "Classic Sinatra" album.
Bob Norberg hated the tape hiss present on some of the Capitol first gen masters - so he used, what were at the time, state-of-the-art techniques to "improve" the remasters.
Half of the processing being performed in the analog domain and half in the digital domain, Bob's thinking was that this would help neutralize the artifacts.
And if Bob Norberg had stopped there things might not have become so controversial.
But Bob Norberg, besides being a professional sound engineer, was also an amateur audio enthusiast and a DIY hobbiest and he created his own "special circuits" for performing audio enhacements.
Bob was notorious for "widening" the sound of mono masters to create a pseudo-stero effect by running the mono track through two equalizers with the left and right EQ set opposite of each other.
Bob also believed that some of the original Sinatra recordings were mis-miked, thereby placing Frank too far forward; so Bob would tinker with the soundstage to create a more realisitc spatial match between Frank and his orchestra.
Some folks think that Nelson Riddle, knowing full well where Frank and the orchestra would be within the sound stage, wrote the arrangements taking this into consideration and delivered onto the original Capitol masters the artistic result intended.
No mucking about necessary, thank you.
However, not everyone universally derides Norberg's efforts:
- http://www.sinatra.com/store/music/classic-sinatra-his-greatest-performances-1953-1960
- http://www.dartblog.com/data/2006/03/005236.php
- Not even everyone at sinatrafamily.com or stevehoffman.tv - multiple links available
- Go look at the Amazon reviews for Sinatra albums - the album we're discussing is one of Amazon's top three rated Sinatra albums, along with "Sinatra at the Sands" and "September of My Years".
MP3 snippets are available at many of these sites and you can listen and decide for yourself.
I've had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting LFF.
He is a thoughtful and well informed observer of Jazz.
He's also cares deeply about proper audio mastering.
And I admire his zeal for artistic and audiophile integrity as well as his considerable collection of Jazz recordings, many of the finest available.
I'm neither a Bob Norberg apologist (honestly don't think his body of work represents the very best available) nor an LFF critic (respect him greatly and prefer his listening preferences) - just saying that there's more to the story and the devil's in the details.
If pressed to make a personal recommendation - here's the Frank that I listen to most often - and this one is notably a Ron Furmanek effort.
BTW - just to keep the post on topic, I do like the sound of Frank's voice on both LCD-3v1 and LCD-3v1.5
T.
