Re: [ARSCLIST] Aren't recordings original sources?

[Clark Johnsen <clarkjohnsen@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 2:07 PM, Steve Abrams <steve.abrams@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> I spoke to Hardwick once on the telephone, c. 1987.  He told me that he had
> to do some CD work from tape copies because of time pressure. With respect
> to special pressings I note that many if not most of the originals  in the
> original LP great performances series (in the late '50s and early '60s) are
> supposed to have been destroyed in the mistaken belief that it would never
> be possible to improve on the tape copies made at that time.


[Sigh] There's a word for that: hubris.

I once wrote up my own experiences with playing 78rpm originals over a
widerange system (read: bass-capable) and the effect on others. Would those
fellows (Hardwicke, Crimp, etc.) had heard this before venturing ahead with
diminished capability! (The process, not them.)

"Besides containing an historic musical treasure-trove, 78s can sound *more
like the real thing than any other source, *bar none except live feed—an
extravagant claim, perhaps, but consider what 78s have going for themselves,
besides those great old tubes. They have: high velocity, wide grooves, inert
material, ribbon microphones, direct-master pressings—in short, a medley of
superior engineer­ing attributes."

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue25/cjdiarires.htm

clark