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Verve Acoustic Sounds Series Reissues

Last nights ‘live’ 45rpm Audiophile session with Chad Kassem, Burnie Grundman and Ryan K Smith. Nearly 2.5 hours long so still working my way through it.

But chaps - is it worth 2.5 hours of our time? Is it particularly interesting or covering well trodden ground? Any revelations?

Just waiting for one of these analogue mastering gurus to be photographed in front of shelves full of CDs.

Which reminds me, whatever happened to Fremer? No longer the go to guy? Mike45 seems to be the current favourite.
 
But chaps - is it worth 2.5 hours of our time? Is it particularly interesting or covering well trodden ground? Any revelations?

Just waiting for one of these analogue mastering gurus to be photographed in front of shelves full of CDs.

Which reminds me, whatever happened to Fremer? No longer the go to guy? Mike45 seems to be the current favourite.
Well of course most have heard a lot of all of it before, but there is some interesting stuff. Bernie Grundman dominates the discussion, but has some interesting things to say. Including “Bigger is not always better”, not only with regard 96/192 digital, but also 1/4 inch 30ips tape is better than 1/2 inch 30ips tape. DSD is good as a storage medium, but you can only edit in pcm and every transfer causes deterioration.
 
DSD is good as a storage medium, but you can only edit in pcm and every transfer causes deterioration.

Thanks Jim. That fact in itself opens up another can of worms - DSD transfers from analogue tape may not be as direct as some labels would have us believe.
 
Thanks Jim. That fact in itself opens up another can of worms - DSD transfers from analogue tape may not be as direct as some labels would have us believe.
Grundman has a lot to say, but appears open and honest throughout. He stresses everything you do in mastering makes a difference and usually at least a degree of deterioration, but it is a balancing act and if you take care the final result may be an improvement in the final result. I’m not really a believer in pieces of wire making a difference, but he makes a good case for why it does in the case of an AES to EBU connection wire.

The noise wars comes up and he and RKS both say they do try to persuade the client against excess compression, but again they are honest enough to if that is what the client insists on they don’t turn the job down.

So overall worth listening through the whole video.
 
I am keen to get it as well, but see above as I edited as it now no rescheduled release date as far as I can see.

I'm reconciled to the wait, plenty of other good records to buy after all. Evolution is stunningly good for example.

It'll be interesting to see what they're planning for the next batch...
 
I'll drop this here - new merch from Acoustic Sounds. Got to love the 'Buy Now or Cry Later' T Shirt :)

 
Picked up Karma today. All I can say is absolutely stunning! No other vinyl versions to compare it to but this is an OMG! release. Definitely one of my reissues of the year.
 
I’ve got a copy landing tomorrow. Ridiculously expensive at nearly £40, but I just love this album so it will inevitably get some good use. My current copy is the CD which sounds great and has the advantage of keeping The Creator Has A Master Plan complete rather than split in two to fit vinyl. It is a great recording so I have high hopes for the vinyl.
 
Mine is supposedly arriving from Amazon tomorrow as well, but that may depend if the van get get into our still iced up road. I got it at just over £35 on pre order. I wonder how the track listing is on this reissue. Back to the original the back cover lists 3 tracks. The Creator Has a Master Plan on side 1 and Light of Love and Colours on side 2. The record labels though list Creator... side 1 and only Colours side 2, but the fade out on 1 and in at the start of 2 does indicate Creator carried over.
https://www.discogs.com/master/54110-Pharoah-Sanders-Karma/image/SW1hZ2U6NjYxODQwMw==
 
I'm still waiting on last week's order from Juno. RM is only delivering the tracked stuff so they don't get found out but the rest is in big piles. All the couriers are under severe pressure just now.
 
Mine is supposedly arriving from Amazon tomorrow as well, but that may depend if the van get get into our still iced up road. I got it at just over £35 on pre order. I wonder how the track listing is on this reissue. Back to the original the back cover lists 3 tracks. The Creator Has a Master Plan on side 2 and Light of Love and Colours on side 2. The record labels though list Creator... side 1 and only Colours side 2, but the fade out on 1 and in at the start of 2 does indicate Creator carried over.
https://www.discogs.com/master/54110-Pharoah-Sanders-Karma/image/SW1hZ2U6NjYxODQwMw==
The new version replicates the original sleeve & labels
 
Well I suppose that makes some sense as Chad likes to replicate the originals as far as possible. Better than getting the track listings wrong as happen to a few of the Tone Poet reissues.
 
Playing Karma now. Sounds superb, seriously good just as I hoped. I love this album despite being an atheist without a religious/spiritual bone in my body. Same goes for A Love Supreme, much Bach etc. It is wonderful stuff. I see from the inside gatefold (fabulous quality tip-on, again spoiled by a barcode that should have been on a sticker on the wrap) that Ron Carter plays bass on it. Because of course he does. Why wouldn’t he? He must play on at least half of my jazz collection!

PS Here’s the Amazon link, got to pay for it somehow!
 
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Just to follow up I can’t fault Karma despite the high price. It really sounds superb, is flat, centred, has a lovely hefty cover and I didn’t notice a single click or pop anywhere. As ever I gave it a squirt with the Zerostat and a wet clean before playing, but it would probably be fine without as it came in a nice MoFi style inner.
 
Just to follow up I can’t fault Karma despite the high price. It really sounds superb, is flat, centred, has a lovely hefty cover and I didn’t notice a single click or pop anywhere. As ever I gave it a squirt with the Zerostat and a wet clean before playing, but it would probably be fine without as it came in a nice MoFi style inner.
I can confirm that it plays superbly straight out of the sleeve:)
 


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