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View Full Version : Discussing Reprise Sinatra sound quality (Feinstein?!)


ArneW
03-05-2002, 07:25 AM
Hi,

on the Sinatrafamily forum Feinstein wrote:
Unfortunately, Sinatra's Reprise STUDIO (unlike his Capitol, Columbia, and RCA) recordings have NEVER been released with the sound quality that they deserve and potentially have. Post-processing done to the 3 and 4 track studio masters has robbed them of the great sound that was originally put down by Frank and the orchestra. Albums such as "Ring-a-Ding-Ding" are thin, overprocessed, and full of fake echo which is distracting. (…)

I don't agree, at least not for a lot of the early 1960s Reprise LP releases. There are some which sound awful and processed ("Ring-A-Ding-Ding", "Swingin' Brass") and some which are dynamic, punchy and don't lack any "breath of life" ("Sinatra-Basie", "I Remember Tommy", "Sinatra Swings", "Moonlight Sinatra").

(...) Many fans have heard a mono mixdown of tapes from the "Ring-a-Ding-Ding" sessions. It reveals that the original master tapes are alive, brilliant, and crisply recorded (...)

The sound is indeed faboulous. I sat with my mouth open when I listened to "Zing" for the first time - expecting the sound quality to be equal to the dreck that had been released as a bonus track to "Ring-A-Ding-Ding" by Reprise itself.

It's funny too that Dean Martin Reprise LP's and CD's from the same era sound FABULOUS (...)

Mmh, I have never thought them to be superior (strictly talking LPs, that is - the Bear Family stuff and Steve's "Robin" are fantastic, no doubt about that). Dino's later Reprise stuff is even worse than "Watertown". I have not heard a single Dean Martin album later than 1966 that sounds only half-decent. Au contraire: I cannot recall a Frank Sinatra Reprise album that sounds as muffled, flat, compressed, noisy and distorted (all at the same time) as Dino's "I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am". Perhaps I only have the wrong pressings and Mr. Humorem can enlighten me?

Anyone care to comment? I thought this topic belongs here rather than on the Sinatrafamily roundtable.

Arne

RDK
03-05-2002, 09:12 AM
Are there any great sonic differences between Sinatra's stereo and mono Reprise recordings (as there are on some of the Capitols)? I recently picked up some very clean mono copies, but have yet to spin them more than briefly. Sounded very good to me, but i don't have stereo versions of these sessions to direcrtly compare them with.
Ray

ArneW
03-05-2002, 04:05 PM
Hi,

I have several Reprise mono pressings, but in general it doesn't seem to be much of a difference. The only one I do actually prefer in mono is "Strangers In The Night" - the orchestra seems a bit tighter on that, but that's probably nonsense because one can assume that it's a mixdown from the stereo. I'd like to hear the mono version of "Ring-A-Ding-Ding" though because I don't think it uses the same odd reverb-laden mix than the stereo version.

Arne

Steve Hoffman
03-05-2002, 04:32 PM
None of the Sinatra United/Western mono masters (except the overdubbed stuff like "That's Life") are mixdowns of the stereo or three track, no matter what some folks might remember.

All of the mono versions were mixed "as they were happening" in the studio, echo, EQ and all, just like it was done at Capitol, RCA and most other studios in that time.

That is why that funky echo is only on the stereo version of "Ring-A-Ding-Ding". It was added in the remix stage.

Only after Western started using Four-track and overdubbing on songs like "That's Life" were the mono mixes created from the multi-track. But as far as I can tell, "Strangers In The Night" was mixed live in mono and three-track. Both the three-track tape and the mono tape have that edit in them when the key changes. If the mono was created from the three-track, it wouldn't have the edit....
:)