SwingDJs

Okay, so I saw a 3disc Basie set for $9.99. Even though I had versions of many of the tracks, I couldn't resist. 3CD's for $9.99? Even if it's trash, I'm not out that much. Much to my suprise the quality is decent, and the track selection was very enjoyable. They have some sweet live versions that I hadn't heard before. One major drawback: no liner notes; nothing; not even a piece of promotional paper.

I liked the set so much, I went and bought the Woody Herman 3 disc set for the same price. (Getting these at my local Tower Records) This set is excellent, too. And I don't have much Woody Herman, so I'm even happier. Still sad there are no liner notes, but 3 CD's full of pretty good recording quality, and fine track selections make it easily worth the $9.99.

Wondering if anyone has bothered with these box sets.

interesting. I'll have to keep an eye out for these. Are they imports? They must be for that price.

Yea, imported from The Netherlands I believe. Label is DISKY. Disky Communications Europe B. V. The actual mastering and stuff was done in London.

I've bought a couple of them - Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. For the most part, I found the sound quality to be only mediocre (sometimes unacceptable for DJing). But maybe it's just those two specific sets.

Well, I don't have experience with either of those two sets. The quality of the Woody Herman and Basie sets aren't great, or even very good. The recordings themselves were lo-fi, and I do think they're good enough to play at a gig.

Would I pay $20 for these sets? Maybe. Possibly not because of the omission of liner notes. Fact is, at $9.99, I think they're worth it. We'll see what the dancers think...

Given that your sets were dealing with Basie and Herman, a lot of the material would have been recorded later than a lot of the Ellington and Armstrong stuff on my sets, so I can definitely understand that yours might have better sound quality.

Yea, I mentioned the same point to Rayned last night... I played some of those sets for the first time last night and they passed my test for quality at the venue. Although, I can definitely imagine some of that older Armstrong and Ellington being scratchy/hissy/low-quality. allgood

I have purchased five of these sets, Nat King Cole, Glenn Miller, Andrews Sisters, Peggy Lee, and the compilation Greatest Swing. Like what was stated before, they are okay quality. It is pretty hit and miss with some of the tracks. The Andrews Sisters disc is the only one I have had complaints about. I thought the quality was fine, and so did just about everyone else, but one person ( who shall remain nameless) didn't like it. I think they were mostly annoyed that they weren't asked to dj that week and I was. Anyways, stay away from the Greatest Swing Box set. The first disc, starting on about track 5, runs all of the songs together on one track, leaving the remaining 22 tracks blank and you scratching your head wondering where the music is on your cd. If you want to buy it you will have to take the time on a program like Nero to seperate the tracks and burn them to a new disc.
The Glenn Miller stuff is not the greatest. Most of it is very old stuff, from his first few years.
Nat King Cole is good all around. One of the cds has a misprint on the track listings. You have two track 22s printed on it.
In general, they are mostly good in quality. Well worth at ten spot at your local music store.

I bought a Big Band compilation set once, it was only $9.99, so I figure what the heck. Even if it was bad, it was only $9.99- so it wasn't a total loss. There were no liner notes, and there were one or two tracks that were switched in order on the case- but still, the music is good and the quality's not bad at all. All in all, worth what I paid- though I wouldn't have paid much more for it.