Which digital version of Waltz for Debby & Sunday at Village Vanguard do you prefer?*

I've got the OJC "Waltz for Debby". The sound is fairly unremarkable, IMHO. Not terrible, but not great. Great music, though!

 

Like I mentioned before, I have an Asian multi-channel (???) SACD of Waltz for Debby. No mastering credit. Riverside/Naxos (Far East) RCD-9399SACD. If anybody knows the story behind this version...

I personaly prefer the OJC. More dry.

 

Ummm, OK.

 

The APO SACDs are the only versions of these albums I've owned, and I like them both. Waltz for Debby is probably my favorite Evans record, so I wouldn't mind hearing the gold CD to see the difference, but I'm not going on a wild-goose chase. Seems like a lot of times here that the recommended version of a disc is the one that happens to be near impossible to find.

 

I think you'll be fine with the APO SACDs. They're miles ahead better than the standard OJC CDs and you can use your money for more discs.

 

I really like the early JVC CDs from the 1980's for these two titles. May be hard to find though.

 

For Village, I really like the European 20bit OJC20 140-2 remastered from the original tapes by Joe Tarantino at Fantasy Studios.

For Waltz, I like the 20bit K2 RCD-9399-2 remastered by Shigeo Miyamoto under the supervision of Tamaki Beck.

 

Those European 20-bitters were remastered in Germany by now former licensee ZYX. They were released in digipaks and to my ears they sound uniformly horrible. As stated on the back insert Joe Tarantino mastered the original OJC version at Fantasy in 1987.

In my experience those K2s often suffer from boosted higher frequencies.

 

I agree with this. The OJC sounds ok, but the bonus tracks in take 1, take 2 order is really distracting and really disrupts the flow. I do like that it has Porgy (I Love You, Porgy) as an added bonus.

 

Some sound good, some don't. In the above mentioned case, i found both versions very good.

 

I had both versions and I have to disagree.

 

And I was so happy thinking that the box (Complete Village Vanguard 3 CD) was probably the best digital version out there... it seems like I was wrong. This mastering sounds really fine, I'm surprised.

Is there any major flaw with the box? Folded channels, no-noise filtering, strange EQ, compression... anything obvious that makes it loose to other CD versions?

So, for the ultimate sounding versions I should go for the AP Waltz, and for Village it looks like I need to find some JVC XRCD... is it JVC 051?

 

The box is good-- i have it and it's a bargain-- you get everything they did and it sounds fine to me.
I have the 45 rpm that SH did as well, to compare.

 

As noted earlier in the thread, the "best" versions are as follows:

Sunday at the Village Vanguard: JVC XRCD JVCXR-0051-2 (mastered by Alan Yoshida at A&M in Hollywood)

Waltz for Debby: Analogue Productions gold CD CAPJ 009 (mastered by Doug Sax)


NB: Acoustic Sounds has the above version of Vanguard in stock.

 

Is there any major flaw with the box? Folded channels, no-noise filtering, strange EQ, compression... anything obvious that makes it loose to other CD versions?

 

Agreed - Some years ago I picked up a couple of the cheap XYZ 20-bit European remasters - a Bill Evans title and a copy of Benny Carter "Jazz Giant". I could not believe how bad they sounded. It was painful.

 

Yes Steve, that is one, AP gold. I have made my own comparisons long ago, I sold the others and kept the AP WFD.

 

Isn't it hard to believe that this music was recorded 47 years ago today?

 

Wow - thanks for pointing that out.

One question re the SACD of Walt For Debby - Steve and others have suggested that there are some problems with the SACD of this and perhaps Sunday at the Village. Can someone provide a nutshell summary of what the characteristics of these discs are, and why they might not be definitive. I was thinking of getting the SACDs.

 

Posts 7, 10, 11, 15, 18, 22, 23, 24 and 25 of this thread provide some info.

 

Thanks - I did read the thread, and gleaned bits of info - and I understand that the APO gold disc is regarded as the best. But I guess I was wanting a bit of low-down on what the "issues" are with the SACD that Steve mentioned, and how they translate to sonic comparisons with other versions. Perhaps I'll just have to buy it and see what I think.

 

I am looking forward to the day I have money to spare for the Tape Projects 3rd g. master tape version of Waltz For Debby.
I would bet that this very rare version would be the best, my favourite, the closest you can get to being in front of the event back then.

R2R of course.

"dolph"

 

I received my tracking number last night for two of the TP tapes on the way, with luck one of them will be the Bill Evans tape.

Jay

 

Hi:

I was thinking the same thing last night. I would have to comb through the archives to find what Steve said. My memory is that he said it didn't sound right. I don't think he elaborated on what he didn't like about the sound. Personally I like both the AP SACDs of WFD and Sunday at the Village Vanguard. The XRCD of the SATVV is also very good. I did a little comparing of the SACD and XRCD of SATVV last night. The XRCD is cut at a higher level than the SACD. When I turned up the vol. a notch on the SACD things clicked more. I will have check with a Db meter to check this out. To me there wasn't a great deal of difference between the two. But I am not a mastering engineer, just a listener.

Michael

 

Hi:

Just saw that Sunday at the Villiage Vanguard is being issued in the Keepnews edition. Yet another remaster of this master work! I doubt it will sound better than the XRCD or SACD.


Michael