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This was the very first album ever issued by Warner Bros. Records, and it was unique in that there were no titles or logo on the cover. I have the Stanyan C.D. reissue.
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I can only say if they are going from the Stanyan master, it's not going to be better other than maybe doing some EQ work. I doubt Stanyan has the album masters (and if they did that would kind of being illegal) - they probably have this in perpetuity, a shame, of course. When this transfer was made many moons ago, no one knows how competently it was done - for example, Nun's Story never sounded anywhere near as good as the original Warners LP release. What should have happened here is a new transfer and mastering from the album masters. And if Stanyan owns this in perpetuity then they probably could have requested them and helped get a new transfer done.
Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, although had they done anything I think they would be touting it in a rather large way.
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I can only say if they are going from the Stanyan master, it's not going to be better other than maybe doing some EQ work. I doubt Stanyan has the album masters (and if they did that would kind of being illegal) - they probably have this in perpetuity, a shame, of course. When this transfer was made many moons ago, no one knows how competently it was done - for example, Nun's Story never sounded anywhere near as good as the original Warners LP release. What should have happened here is a new transfer and mastering from the album masters. And if Stanyan owns this in perpetuity then they probably could have requested them and helped get a new transfer done.
So can we look forward to a properly-done Nun's Story from Kritzerland then?
Not if Stanyan owns it in perpetuity, which clearly they do. IF they'd license to us, presuming Varese hasn't already hit them up for this stuff, they would have to go back to Warner's. Considering Mr. McKuen's age and interest, I doubt that would happen, frankly.
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I have to confess that I also thought that this was the Decca recording - or a combination of it and the original tracks - when I hit the order button.
I wonder if the Gershwin LP by Ray Heindorf will now also make the shot sooner or later. It's a shame that it has been left out in the Stanyan series.
I'm a bit cautious, though, when Varese writes something like "sounding better than ever". The re-issued Rozsa stuff was fairly compressed in comparison to their original CDs - I hope the same isn't true for "Fedora". The Stanyan CDs were mastered by Steve Hoffman. Now anybody who knows Mr. Hoffman's stuff will confirm that there are seldom any new transfers that will sound any better than the work he has done (despite improved technology). I'm sorry to say that I never considered Varese an audiophile label. Much of their stuff sounds OK, but nowhere close to the stuff that's been released by the likes of DCC, MFSL and so on (just listen to their transfers of Bernard Herrmann's Decca recordings). Time will tell, though, if this new transfer of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" will be better than the original CD - maybe Varese really had access to a transfer a generation closer to the master tape...
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Posted: |
Dec 2, 2014 - 12:17 AM
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By: |
Smitty
(Member)
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I'm a bit cautious, though, when Varese writes something like "sounding better than ever". The re-issued Rozsa stuff was fairly compressed in comparison to their original CDs - I hope the same isn't true for "Fedora". The Stanyan CDs were mastered by Steve Hoffman. Now anybody who knows Mr. Hoffman's stuff will confirm that there are seldom any new transfers that will sound any better than the work he has done (despite improved technology). I'm sorry to say that I never considered Varese an audiophile label. Much of their stuff sounds OK, but nowhere close to the stuff that's been released by the likes of DCC, MFSL and so on (just listen to their transfers of Bernard Herrmann's Decca recordings). Time will tell, though, if this new transfer of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" will be better than the original CD - maybe Varese really had access to a transfer a generation closer to the master tape...
Have you at least listened to the samples? They are MP3, but are high bit-rate and allow for accurate judgment of quality.
I agree that the Erick Labson masterings for Varese are hit-or-miss as he can at times be bad with dynamic compression, but the For Whom the Bell Tolls samples sound damn good to me. I dare not speculate on whether better elements exist, as I haven't the slightest clue about that. But I do know that the samples sound great to my ears.
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I'm a bit cautious, though, when Varese writes something like "sounding better than ever". The re-issued Rozsa stuff was fairly compressed in comparison to their original CDs - I hope the same isn't true for "Fedora". The Stanyan CDs were mastered by Steve Hoffman. Now anybody who knows Mr. Hoffman's stuff will confirm that there are seldom any new transfers that will sound any better than the work he has done (despite improved technology). I'm sorry to say that I never considered Varese an audiophile label. Much of their stuff sounds OK, but nowhere close to the stuff that's been released by the likes of DCC, MFSL and so on (just listen to their transfers of Bernard Herrmann's Decca recordings). Time will tell, though, if this new transfer of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" will be better than the original CD - maybe Varese really had access to a transfer a generation closer to the master tape...
Have you at least listened to the samples? They are MP3, but are high bit-rate and allow for accurate judgment of quality.
I agree that the Erick Labson masterings for Varese are hit-or-miss as he can at times be bad with dynamic compression.
How do you know what the hell he does in the first place?
Have you ever even tried to ask him or are you just GUESSING?
My "Guess" is the later.
Ford A. Thaxton
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Kind of weird they didn't fix the "original soundtrack" mistake too.
Eagerly visited the Varese website Monday morning and was really excited when I saw 'Original Soundtrack' for For Whom The Bell Tolls. I thought 'where' did this come from? Then went to the samples and lo and behold. It was stereo and sounded familiar. What a disappointment. Enough said.
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I'm a bit cautious, though, when Varese writes something like "sounding better than ever". The re-issued Rozsa stuff was fairly compressed in comparison to their original CDs - I hope the same isn't true for "Fedora". The Stanyan CDs were mastered by Steve Hoffman. Now anybody who knows Mr. Hoffman's stuff will confirm that there are seldom any new transfers that will sound any better than the work he has done (despite improved technology). I'm sorry to say that I never considered Varese an audiophile label. Much of their stuff sounds OK, but nowhere close to the stuff that's been released by the likes of DCC, MFSL and so on (just listen to their transfers of Bernard Herrmann's Decca recordings). Time will tell, though, if this new transfer of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" will be better than the original CD - maybe Varese really had access to a transfer a generation closer to the master tape...
Have you at least listened to the samples? They are MP3, but are high bit-rate and allow for accurate judgment of quality.
I agree that the Erick Labson masterings for Varese are hit-or-miss as he can at times be bad with dynamic compression.
How do you know what the hell he does in the first place?
Have you ever even tried to ask him or are you just GUESSING?
My "Guess" is the later.
Ford A. Thaxton
You can hear it for one. But just to make sure I wasn't hearing things I pulled up a track in Audacity for Eye of the Needle to see what was going on and compared to the original and sure enough, there's a healthy dose of compression on the new release, whereas the first issue has the more natural dynamics of the original recording. I'm really not a fan of altering the balance the composer originally was going after with these new-fangled masterings. All that said, it's hardly a show stopper, except when it gets too loud and there's clipping.
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Posted: |
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:31 PM
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By: |
finder4545
(Member)
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... I'm a bit cautious, though, when Varese writes something like "sounding better than ever". The re-issued Rozsa stuff was fairly compressed in comparison to their original CDs - I hope the same isn't true for "Fedora". The Stanyan CDs were mastered by Steve Hoffman. Now anybody who knows Mr. Hoffman's stuff will confirm that there are seldom any new transfers that will sound any better than the work he has done (despite improved technology). I'm sorry to say that I never considered Varese an audiophile label. Much of their stuff sounds OK, but nowhere close to the stuff that's been released by the likes of DCC, MFSL and so on (just listen to their transfers of Bernard Herrmann's Decca recordings). Time will tell, though, if this new transfer of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" will be better than the original CD - maybe Varese really had access to a transfer a generation closer to the master tape...
I found Stanyan sound never fully satisfying. The label released a lot of LP albums in a format called Quadraphonic, with a special encoding giving 4 channels from the vinyl grooves by a special pickup, a sort of precursor of 5.1 in the analogue domain. Maybe Hoffman handled heavily the masters to get the new “format”, worsening the quality. Two of these Quad items were SPELLBOUND (SRQ 4021) conducted by Heindorf and THE NUN’S STORY (SRQ 4022), both reissued later on compact as Stanyan STZ-116-2 and STZ-114. Hopefully Varese, licensing the titles, will remaster and release them in the right way, for the better knowledge and pleasure of new adepts enchanted by the magnificence of the Golden Age scores. In the meantime, thanks to Varese, for this Victor Young.
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