Robert Parker on 1926 78rpm record restoration

[Eyeball]

Very interesting video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ3jPIWQpEk
The Story of Jazz: New Orleans Stomp DVD extra - Robert Parker on 1926 78rpm record restoration.

Bad, mad part - "
Robert died December 2004. The estates' executor disposed of his lifetime collection and CD pressings, we know not how. A real tragedy."

Wiki entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Par ... _engineer)

[trev]

I dislike his ideas about adding stereo to old recordings – but that was a cool video and a sad story (if indeed the collection was disposed of rather than sold off).

[Eyeball]

I dislike his ideas about adding stereo to old recordings – but that was a cool video and a sad story (if indeed the collection was disposed of rather than sold off).

I recall that any number of people were not keen on his concept.

Well...he/they didn't say that it was trashed. I hope not. I still get excited when I see rows and rows of 78s in a collection all sleeved with matching sleeves. The treasures!

I have heard a few stories where the guy aka collector dies and his stuff is disposed of very quickly. It's the wife's revenge for having put up with all that stuff for years and years. Vicious women! Beware the wives!

[straycat]

Looks like you can still get a lot of the CDs he produced on Amazon. I've ordered a couple out of curiosity.

Although I'm not sure about the pricing on this one :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listin ... ition=used

[Eyeball]

Looks like you can still get a lot of the CDs he produced on Amazon. I've ordered a couple out of curiosity.

Although I'm not sure about the pricing on this one :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listin ... ition=used

That's a lot of lunch money to save up.

btw - did anyone else here pocket their lunch money in order to buy music? (In my case, LPs. I still remember paying $9.45 for the Glenn Miller AAF band 5 LP box set - 1.89 per disc on a Sam Goody's All Label Sale.)


Lemme know how the Parkers sound. I am curious (yellow).

[straycat]

Lemme know how the Parkers sound. I am curious (yellow).

The first one's arrived - it does sound good. I'll try to post a couple of comparisons this evening.

[straycat]

Actually - it looks like you can sample some of them from allMusic.

Example; http://www.allmusic.com/album/fats-wall ... 0000015894

[straycat]

Thought I'd trial a new sound editor.

So I've taken three different releases of the same recording of Ellington's Don't Mean a Thing, and put together a quick demo switching between them. It begins and ends with the Robert Parker one from this album: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Robert-Parker-C ... 20Demo.mp3

It should give an idea what the quality is like.

[Eyeball]

Thx!

For me, I like the third one best. The middle one is way too flat. The parker is Ok until Ivie begins to sing and then the echo on there becomes too pronounced.

On echo-y stuff, I used to try to pretend i was in a concert hall listening, but it never seemed to work.

So on the Parker stuff - if they all sound like this, it is too much of a stretch for me.

[straycat]

Thx!

For me, I like the third one best. The middle one is way too flat. The parker is Ok until Ivie begins to sing and then the echo on there becomes too pronounced.

On echo-y stuff, I used to try to pretend i was in a concert hall listening, but it never seemed to work.

So on the Parker stuff - if they all sound like this, it is too much of a stretch for me.

It's fairly typical of the others, I'd say. I tend to agree about the echo - without that, or if it were just a little reduced, I think I'd be sold on it. As it is - they're impressive, but I'm not 100% convinced. Still one more on its way - so I'll report back when it arrives.

[Eyeball]

Thx!

For me, I like the third one best. The middle one is way too flat. The parker is Ok until Ivie begins to sing and then the echo on there becomes too pronounced.

On echo-y stuff, I used to try to pretend i was in a concert hall listening, but it never seemed to work.

So on the Parker stuff - if they all sound like this, it is too much of a stretch for me.

It's fairly typical of the others, I'd say. I tend to agree about the echo - without that, or if it were just a little reduced, I think I'd be sold on it. As it is - they're impressive, but I'm not 100% convinced. Still one more on its way - so I'll report back when it arrives.

Whatever other improvements he had developed were overshadowed by the spaciousness device and it's echo. All I heard was echo and a wider audio palette.

I do not recall any big groundswell of approval when these first came out.

Seemed like a nice guy, though.

[Eyeball]

Is this one of his works?

http://www.amazon.com/Riverboat-Shuffle ... B0030ZRP50

[straycat]

Is this one of his works?

http://www.amazon.com/Riverboat-Shuffle ... B0030ZRP50

I don't think so - I can't see anything to suggest it is.

[Eyeball]

Is this one of his works?

http://www.amazon.com/Riverboat-Shuffle ... B0030ZRP50

I don't think so - I can't see anything to suggest it is.

OKeh, straycat - thx! It has that nice open sound, but with less echo on this number from youtube.

on yt - 4 posts of this tune

least impressive sound wise - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV--ePeCGEM
good - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LECi2gJzATU
better-ish - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybzG0MlpT-o
best - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ZD2wWEGlY
Says one poster - StevenDFenrich4 months ago
The cleanest acoustical recording I've ever heard.

[straycat]

Been listening to Fats Waller Doesn't Sing! - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fats-Waller-Doe ... n%27t+sing

Looks like I snagged the last cheap(ish) copy...
I have to say - it's a lot better - the echo seems at its worst for vocals - so this works out quite well.

Very clean, sounds good, but still seems to lack a little brightness and energy compared to some of the less over-sanitised versions.

Sample here:
http://blog.straycat.me.uk/wp-content/u ... nizing.mp3