The Concert Sinatra on Reprise from 1963 (including discussion of remixed Concord CD release)*

Frank is very up front but hearing the nuances of the arragements in this mastering is fascinataing. It was always there but I'm just hearing it now. The beginning of "Lost In The Stars" even sounds different.

 

Thanks for all the Reviews , bummer to read this is not what everyone hoped it would be .
We all wish they would just revamp the full catalog done right ....... Sadly it seems this may never happen ...

 

YIKES!!!!!!

 

well "Soliloquy" is so hard to spell...and since some call me "Bill"...

another "Bill" song to add to my collection...

 

Any other reports on the sonics?

 

Initial thougts after previewing on big sound system are:

1.) Yes! You definitely hear more instruments...and more from the instruments than ever before.

2.) While Mr. S is up front and center, he sounds detached from the recording session. It's as if he were hermetically sealed in another room and singing. There is little-to-no reverb to make it sound as if he is there with that orchestra in those huge sound studios at MGM.

I shall give it a thorough exam tonight or tomorrow night.

 

Not trying a comprehensive opinion here, just some impressions. Not going to settle on a personal opinion yet either. It is interesting to hear. More "modern" sensibilities in the mix. Sounds more 1980. Placements favor the center, seem shy of the extreme sides of the stereo soundstage, there isn't quite the sense of scale and in terms of EQ it is a bit "toppy" (forwards, trebly) with comparatively limited "bloom" in the mids. The big one for me is as Paul points out, that Frank sounds detached. He sounds as if he could as well be in an isolation booth. On the other hand, it is also obvious some generations of tape etc have been peeled away, working from a cleaner, higher fidelity source. Some are going to prefer this. The isolated sense of Frank's voice is making it difficult for me.

 

Unfortunately, I totally agree. I listened to it on headphones, and my main system. On both, Frank's voice sounds very harsh, upfront, and to me, very isolated. On the previous two versions, Frank's voice sounded very natural and perfectly blended with the orchestra. I hate to say it, but the two previous versions sounded slightly muted, but very natural and pleasing. This new release sounds, well for lack of a better term, much too digital. If I could, I'd send it back to Amazon.

AJH

 

Always been a huge Sinatra fan, but I never warmed up to this album.

 

Uh-oh, we're bordering on ugly now!

 

Well... I appreciate that Frank Jr., Nancy and the folks at FSE and Concord Records are making the efforts and showing Frank's recordings attention and are being involved with the intention of optimising presentation of these classics of American music.

But yet again I can't say it's succeeding as intended. Even though I have never exactly liked the old relatively murky stereo mix, I'm afraid I have to say that, going between them, I'm finding that old mix more effective. Quirks, obvious edits and all that, the old mix still seems more cohesive and this new mix sounds more artificially re-constructed. That's not getting into iffy details like the specifics of EQ, the sync etc; the new mix brings a new list of quirks. The new mix sensibilities (and possibly equipment) at work here really aren't doing the music favors.

 

Give the original Mono mix a try.

 

Check out the sustained "AM I" at the end of "Bewitched," as compared to the version in the Reprise Years box (which is the same as the EOTC?). The new version doesn't sound right; the old version, drenched in reverb, at least still sounds human...

 

I agree with you here too, except I was listening to the Sinatra/Basie re-mix a few days ago, and then I played the ETOC Basie CD and really lowered my opinion of the Sinatra/Basie re-mix- (IMHO) the vocal seemed slightly dull, and the band didn't have the same intensity as the EOTC remaster.

I really hated Frank's voice on the re-mixed September of My Years for the same reasons as I do on the new Concert Sinatra, but the vocal here seems even more harsh and up front (and Frank was NOT using the AKG/Sennheiser/mystery microphone he used on SOMY- he was reportedly using one of the MGM/Church microphones on The Concert Sinatra). I just don't understand why they went for such an unnatural up front placement and tonality. I guess I have to say I am just downright disappointed in this release because, for some reason, I was expecting so much more. I won't make this mistake again.

AJH

 

Sad.

 

In the original mix, the strings in Bewitched as he sings "lost my heart / but what of it? / she is cold I agree / she can laugh," etc, are picked up by multiple mics arranged/mixed so as to spread them (violins left, violas right ? iirc) fairly broadly across the stereo soundstage behind Frank. In the re-mix, one hears a more strident sounding but less delineated string section crowd both center left and center right of Frank, revealing that they're on multiple tracks and that those tracks are somewhat out of sync with each other...

 

It seems from what I'm reading is that real experts were brought in for the delicate job of getting the sound off of the original mag tape, but none brought in to actually remaster it.

 

Is Larry Walsh responsible for the remix here?

The vocal presentation has been so bad on virtually all of these Concord releases (dull, muffled, isolated, unnatural, etc.) that its hard to believe that they're done by the same man who did such a nice job on many of the late-80s capitol CDs:

WRU?, Jolly Xmas, Come Fly, Come Dance, Come Swing, OTL, NOC, Swingin Session.

The vocals are pretty uniformly well-presented on those titles.

What a shame that they're wasting time and resources on these remixes instead of, say, releasing Deluxe editions of the original Reprise albums that include the mono and stereo versions (through Sinatra-Ellington).

 

Yes, Larry Walsh and Frank Sinatra, Jr.

AJH