....because of Sound Quality, Part Two

...and yes, I mean on CD. And no, I don't mean the 20-bit mastered gold CD...I mean garden variety grab it off the rack stuff.

For me, the answer is... none. Mediocre material is mediocre material, whether it's a basement 4-track recording or some massively high end studio recording.

THE RADAR BROS "THE SINGING HATCHET" IS QUITE A SUPERB SOUNDING ALBUM, IT IS SONICALLY EVEN FROM BEGINNING TO END, SETTING A SUPERB TONE THROUGHOUT. DANGIT.

even though i'm a bit of an audiophile, I have to agree with popmusic that quality sound usually can't save bad material. But it can serve good material where it's warranted. So, some CDs that are done right:

The Blue Note RVG editions (these are 24bit remastered but not audiophile gold CDs or anything, just redone with the current mastering technology by the guy who recorded them in the first place) - If your not into jazz, try Somethin' Else by Cannonball Adderley.

In the rock world, an album that i have always felt had noteworthy sound is Aztec Camera's Frestonia. It is a bit overlooked but the songs are good and bang! Roddy Frame's guitar really leaps out of the speakers. He's a great guitar player. This quality is continued on his solo record, North Star --where has he disappeared to?

Another one that I am always talking about is Trash Can Sinatra's I've Seen Everything, such a good album from start to finish and also wonderfully recorded.

Finally, another one I have alwyas been fond of for it's sound quality is Nick Drake's Pink Moon. It has been reissued in a new master but the original was very good too. Admittedly it's not too hard to record just acoustic guitar and voice (for the most part), but the job was very well done, and on a good system he seems to appear between the speakers. This also brings to mind Penguin Eggs by Nic Jones, another great acoustic record. Got to be one of the most pwoerful recordings of acoustic guitar. If you like english folk music and don;t have it, you need to get it.

Fortuantely, there are a lot of good sounding CDs out there. I'd say by 92 or 93 the technology had gotten to a point that it is hard to make a bad CD master unless you really do something wrong. There is a lot of stuff recorded on 4 tracks in bedrooms that sounds just great (Clientele and Screen Prints for ex.) It just seems to me that the initial generation of CDs was bad. They are getting back and redoing a lot of it, which is a good thing, but you may end up rebuying some titles unfortunately (often worth it though, for ex, the reissue of Talk Talk's It's My Life is significantly better than the original CD. - the Talk Talk CDs could fit in the list above, the reissues were UK imports, but not hard to find or anything). The fact that many people don't care too much about sound qulaity does have the benefit that when I have re-bought something, I can usually sell the inferior older version to someone on ebay and get a bit of the $ back...

hey, i did think of an example where the sound quality may actually make marginal material more interesting. The Sara K. CDs on Chesky. Though Chesky is an "audiophile" record label, these CDs are just regular discs, regular price, easy to find. The recording is really special. Well, maybe the material isn't mediocre but it's not really my speed, sort of a modern acoustic jazz type thing mixed with singer songwriter stuff. But I really enojy a couple of her albums for the sound. And I should note that I have a DCC Gold disc version of Joni Mitchell's Blue that sounds like it has some distortion on it. I don't have the regular version so it's possible it was from the master tapes though. Generally I'd say that audiophile/gold discs aren't worth the extra cash. If you can find them used on ebay or something they might be worth a listen. Some of the MSFL discs do sound pretty good. But gold has no sound advantage over regular aluminum and probably not any meaningful archival advantage either. But this is going of on a tangent...

g, I think we have almost the same CD collection. :-)

I will confess to picking up a couple of Holly Cole albums (very cheap, mind) chiefly because they were forever being used as reference material by the hi-fi mags (back when I was fool enough to pay them any mind). Some of it is emphatically Not My Thing, but croaky rambles through Tom Waits songs with double-bass accompaniment I can stand, and the only(?) recorded examples of post-"Miss America" Mary Margaret O'Hara material is a bonus.

Promises of stunning sonix (albeit a very particular kind of recording) are probably what keeps drawing me back to ECM releases, even though I'd find it hard to express great affection for many of the ones I own.

The last couple of Lambchop albums strike me as particularly well recorded, but we're not starting from a position of mediocrity on the musical front there. Likewise, Mr Arto Lindsay.

I guess Lord C's criteria excludes HDCDs (though they cost no more than regular CDs and aren't filed in a separate section or anything)... if I was allowed one, I'd go for Beck's "Mutations", which is rich as plum pudding.

Of course all this raises the wider question (which was possibly dealt with on an older thread, I can't remember) of what we mean when we say 'good sound quality'. Are we talking about fidelity to some imagined live reference, or ear-candy associated with deft use of the mixing desk? Or just something that isn't completely botched up?

Everything But The Girl's Amplified Heart is, in my opinion, one the most beautifully recorded albums ever. The production is immaculate without displaying an unappealing over-produced sheen.

The only form that I really appreciate 'clarity' in is Detroit techno and relations. Everything else, if it's produced TOO clearly (cleanly?) just puts me to sleep for some mysterious reason. (Does anyone else find they fall asleep quicker to CDs than to vinyl?)

>>> I will confess to picking up a couple of Holly Cole albums

I'm not sure who this is... But I know I've seen her (her?) next to Lloyd in the racks. Anything to do with Natalie Cole?

>>> but croaky rambles through Tom Waits songs with double-bass accompaniment I can stand

Me too. As long as it's not Waits doing the croaking.

>>> The last couple of Lambchop albums strike me as particularly well recorded, but we're not starting from a position of mediocrity on the musical front there.

!!??!?!

>>> Are we talking about fidelity to some imagined live reference, or ear-candy associated with deft use of the mixing desk? Or just something that isn't completely botched up?

Steady M is OTM, I think.

"(Does anyone else find they fall asleep quicker to CDs than to vinyl?)"

Oh, absolutely. With vinyl there's the danger that the stylus is going to sit, bouncing around, in the run-out groove for several hours while you snooze. Keeps me on my toes.

"I'm not sure who this is... But I know I've seen her (her?) next to Lloyd in the racks. Anything to do with Natalie Cole?"

More Joe than Natalie, Pinefox.

Casting *RESURRECT THREAD*
Nope. Thats the last spell casted by me today.