Bach

Bach is a composer I'm slowly making my way through in building up a sizable selection  of his compositions and recently I bought this 96/24bit transfer of the 1980 recording of the Goldberg Variations and the 1976 Italian Concerto for Harpsichord performed by Trevor Pinnock who normally conducts.

I love this account of Bach's Cello Sonatas that originally came out in 1985

This account of the Brandenburg Concertos originally came out to great acclaim in 1992 on EMI Eminence but four years ago was reissued by Classics For Pleasure in a slim double cd form.

 This is the later 1991 re-issue of the recording by violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Salvatore Accardo with the English Chamber Orchestra made in 1983 I bought on phase on of replacing my records and tapes with cds.

Bach wrote rather a lot for the organ and so at some point you are wanting a recording of his Organ works such as the Toccata and Fugue and this a re-release of a two cd set originally issued in 1992/3 by Peter Hurford a distinguished organist fits the bill.

Ludwig's re-masters

Robert Ludwig was one of finest mastering engineers of the vinyl era but without wishing to appear as if if I'm personally attacking him, I have to say I find his more recent CD work in the re-mastering field less than impressive.
One can't fault him for finding good clean sounding tapes but there appears to be something almost automated about what happens next.
His processing of the recordings seem to leave them with a harsh frozen edginess.
This is very evident in his current Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry re-mastering for Virgin Records.
He also seems to favour limiting the dynamics to make these re-masters sound louder compared to what is actually on the masters.
I personally find it hard to listen to Sister Morphine by the Rolling Stones where the track just fails to expand as Charlie's drums kick in. It is a very strange state of affairs when even my ancient pre-recorded 8 track has a bigger difference between the quiet and loud portions of this track.
Another is the introduction to the first track on Roxy Music's Manifesto which starts at too high a level.
He compounds this by adding extra low and high frequencies to this track resulting in earache as you trying listening to this at a loudish level. Many of us have been replacing these titles on cd lately. For the Rolling Stones generally the 1987 CBS issues made in the States and Europe sound much more like the lp's. With Roxy Music you can get either the 1984 EG/Polydor issues or the otherwise perfectly fine 1988/1991 EG/Virgins issued in the UK that sound more natural (the catalogue numbers have EGCD** on the spines).
For Avalon, you can't beat the Polydor/EG issue catalogue number 800 032-2.

See the next entry for my collection.

Outside-in

Although I sometimes talk about technical things, I am not about technical things at all so much as they are things I use on a regular basis in my life as ways of dealing with things such as my anxiety and confidence issues because it helps and so maintaining them myself matters.

In a lot of ways I'm a stereotypical girl or perhaps legally adult-child in that I love arts and crafts even if my co-ordination is kinda rubbish because I love taking art in making things probably because stimulating activity really helps even if I need help doing them.
I'm also a very much a dressy kind of girl, not liking really ornate fussy dresses and separates but easy put on dresses with simple print motifs or patterned fabrics and I love cute things round me.

Converting CD's for your digital music player.

I have done for this several years using such programs as Audiograbber but would like to talk about one I'm currently using.
It is called dbPowerAMP.

You can download this from the website dBpoweramp Music Converter
It is available on a free monthly trail basis after which you need to register it at which point you pay either$ 24 for the basic program or $36 for some extras including a CD burner.
This is a very simple program to use. You can either copy a single track or do batch ripping - ideal for albums - which also gives you track titles added from a database. That saves you typing them!
You have a choice of what sort of files to make - you can have the evergreen Mp3 which can be set for really good sound - or WMA or Flac by downloading the appropriate 'codec' from the site and selecting from the drop down menu before 'converting' (Ripping').

I mainly use the Mp3 option and have set it so it rips slowly for the best quality sound and set the file speed at 320kilobits per second (Kbps) which produces a nice sounding file.
This is the best sounding program I've ever used for one it's almost as good as the actual CD.
What you need to do before 'converting' is make a folder for the files and copy and past this to where it asks for the output path. I make a folder in 'My Documents' and use that.

To burn it off for a MP3 CD, just open up a burning program like Nero, select 'make an audio CD - MP3'. From ADD menu select the file from My Documents and double left click and it will load into it and follow up with selecting Burn following the prompts.

Dancing On The Valentine

Yes, it was 25 years ago that I bought this VHS EP video of Duran Duran performing three songs from the Seven and the Ragged Tiger album. This was video, issued by Picture Music International/EMI, was one of first to be done in stereo.
I still have my original copy in excellent condition. I guess everyone has a videotape collection and this is a part of my 'legacy' collection.

My Duran Duran VHS video collection
















The track list for this videoalbum first issued in April 1983 on VHS and Betamax is as follows:

Rio

Planet earth

Lonely in your nightmare

Careless memories

My own way

Hungry like the wolf

Nightboat

Girls on film (Night version)

Save a prayer

The chauffeur

Is there something I should know

The videos for Lonely In Your Nightmare and The Chauffeur aren't available on DVD plus the version of Girls On Film is the 18 CERT (US NG-17 version) which has been re-edited for later issues including the DVD's. This is a tape you sure need to hang on to!


























This Video came out on VHS and Betamax and is a EP meaning it has only 3 videos on it but retailed for much less than a full video back then.
Issued in 1984 it has the videos for The Reflex, Union Of The Snake and New Moon On Monday. These titles are available om THE GREATEST HITS dvd.


















This came out in 1989 and has the videos from the singles issued from Notorious and Big Thing albums. A big thing at the time was the the audio was Digitally Mastered on this release and it sounds amazing on my Hifi stereo VHS machine!


















This video is of a live concert from 1989 part of the "Skin Trade" tour and is highly recommended.VHS only release!

Alice Rose

Here's Alice Rose in red and yellow livery. Again notice the floral decor.
Caught just after the passengers had disembarked to stock up on food and other provisions.

Final picture of Alice Rose for ya taken toward the next bridge on the Trent and Mersey Canal.
In the background you can just see the local Public House. 
A great place to relax after spending several hours afloat.

Tchaikovsky the Karajan way

One character that loomed large in my childhood discovery of classical music was the conductor Herbert von Karajan who rather like André Previn during that era were superstars, always recording and performing and promoted by record companies more than most.

During that period I acquired a number of  his Tchaikovsky recordings on record, listened to more thanks to the municipal library and the radio who'd have show playing recordings and even live concerts.
Recently I bought this 8 cd set that has many of his stereo recordings made for DG of Tchaikovsky's works that included a good number from those I owned but what is so good about this set is the six symphonies have a separate disc each to which overtures and other shorter pieces are added rather than being put together that often leads to two of them being split between cds which is a pain.
The 1972 disc of the Sleeping Beauty and Swan lake ballet suites that original came in their memorable silver foil lp jacket are joined by the 1967 Nutcracker Suite that originally coupled with Serenade For Strings as a single cd. 
Talking of which in this set they don't use that Serenade for Strings but the 1981 digital remake which is odd but it's very similar so the only real difference is improved inner detail.
The final disc has Christian Ferras's 1965 account of the violin concerto which is rather sentimental but one I loved at the time and the 'about-face' 1963 Richter performance of the piano concerto which always gave me the impression pianist and conductor were at odds with each other about how to play this piece.
The re-mastering for cd is completely new unlike some previous cd issues in the past with the sound in the 1812 Overture with the Don Cossack choir sung introduction sounding fuller.
While my tastes have moved on, this set is highly enjoyable for the performances and also for bringing back those childhood memories.