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Matter of fact I'm just listening to Tabor on what may be a first pressing. 
Major breakup on the drums and tuttis about 5 minutes in..cleaner with a .7 mil 
stylus (I first tried a 1-mil). Very clean pressing, no surface noise.

dl

Tom Fine wrote:
> Well, to each their own. The critics did not agree with you in most 
> cases. The Mercury mono reissue CD's sold very well worldwide and are 
> now available again as a 4 or 5CD (forgot which) set, all the Kubeliks. 
> I personally greatly prefer the CD's to the original LPs (which we have 
> excellent-condition copies of). Again, everyone's entitled to an 
> opinion. I'll grant you that the master tapes were over 40 years old in 
> 1996, but it was amazing how they played back OK. The LPs noisy surface 
> may mask some of the limitations of tape, machine and microphone.
> 
> If the "Tabor" is what I heard, we have very different opinions. I heard 
> all sorts of digital artifacts, obvious tape degradation and a 
> non-realistic stereo pickup. But again, to each their own.
> 
> -- Tom Fine
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Abrams" 
> <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 10:18 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] commerical reels history (was Boston Pops question)
> 
> 
>> What I am saying is that the Mercury Living Presence CD issued in 1996 
>> of "Ma Vlast" does not sound good.  I remember the LPs sounding better 
>> though I only had them on a cheap reissue in the UK on the Wing 
>> label.  The stereo issue of "Tabor" that I know came out last year on 
>> Music & Arts and was restored by Mark Obert-Thorne.  It sounds much 
>> better than the mono version.
>>
>> Steve Abrams
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Fine" 
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 3:02 PM
>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] commerical reels history (was Boston Pops 
>> question)
>>
>>
>>> Hi Steve:
>>>
>>> Thanks for the RCA clarification. It was the same set of sessions I 
>>> thought but different works.
>>>
>>> Yes, Bert Whyte was permitted by Mercury to bring his 2-track 
>>> Magnecorder and place a pair of U-47 mics at the Kubelik session. 
>>> Some of the tapes were issued on a small label CD in recent years and 
>>> sound terrible to my ears. Could be the tape is deteriorated, could 
>>> be the playback or transfer equipment wasn't good. Could be the 
>>> engineer didn't properly line up the staggered tracks, etc. They 
>>> definitely over-used digital noise-zapping tools so there are 
>>> digi-artifacts galore. I imagine the tapes sounded better when they 
>>> were new and played back on that Magnecorder.
>>>
>>> Bert's tapes were a personal experiment. Never intended for release. 
>>> Not particularly praised or lauded by the professionals involved in 
>>> the session. In fairness to Bert, this was pioneering in many 
>>> respects, as was his pioneering use of magnetic film recording for 
>>> Everest.  Bert wrote a really nice column for Radio & TV News in 1956 
>>> about the day he was invited to the studio to hear the first Mercury 
>>> 3-track tapes that were ready for release. He was treated to a 
>>> full-monty 3-speaker extravaganza.
>>>
>>> -- Tom Fine
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Abrams" 
>>> <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 8:18 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] commerical reels history (was Boston Pops 
>>> question)
>>>
>>>
>>>> Not quite.  The Munch Damnation of Faust in February 1954 was 
>>>> recorded in stereo but only issued in mono. Something happened to 
>>>> the stereo tapes. The Reiner recordings of  Heldenleben and Salome's 
>>>> dance were recorded on March 6th.  Zarathustra came two days later 
>>>> on the 8th.  However - and you should be able to shed some light on 
>>>> this - some stereo recordings were made by Bert Whyte at the 
>>>> December 1952 sessions of the Chicago Symphony recording Ma Vlast 
>>>> under Kubelik.  'Tabor' recorded on December 6th has recently been 
>>>> issued on Music and Arts in a transfer by Obert-Thorne. The very 
>>>> unpleasant overload distortion on the Mercury Living Presence mono 
>>>> set, very evident on the CD issue, is not evident in the stereo 
>>>> version.
>>>>
>>>> Steve Abrams
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Fine" 
>>>> <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 12:10 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] commerical reels history (was Boston Pops 
>>>> question)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> I'd be interested to know what's on them and who released them. I 
>>>>> do not believe you'll find that they are in fact 2T stereo. They 
>>>>> are likely half-track (2-sided) mono. If they are stereo, it would 
>>>>> be very interesting to know who put them out as in 1952 only a few 
>>>>> people were experimenting with 2-channel stereo recording of music. 
>>>>> No major labels yet, although I believe RCA started making 2T 
>>>>> masters in 1954 or even 1953 -- I think Zarathustra with Reiner was 
>>>>> the first 2T session.
>>>>>
>>>>> -- Tom Fine
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jack Palmer" 
>>>>> <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>> Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 12:29 AM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] commerical reels history (was Boston Pops 
>>>>> question)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>    I bought my first 2 track tapes for my reel recorder/player in 
>>>>>> the Base Exchange in Sidi-Slimane, Morocco in 1952.  I still have 
>>>>>> a couple of them in fact.   Jack
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Fine" 
>>>>>> <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>>> Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2007 9:40 AM
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] commerical reels history (was Boston Pops 
>>>>>> question)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Ampex developed their own, was developed by Leon Wortman in NY 
>>>>>>> and detailed in a 1951 Radio & TV News article. Wortman's line 
>>>>>>> made full-track or half-track tapes. Commercial half-track tapes 
>>>>>>> were available as early as 1951 or 1952, but there was only a 
>>>>>>> very small consumer market for reel to reel machines at that 
>>>>>>> point. > Because this was a new format sold at a premium price, a 
>>>>>>> lot of QC attention was paid by the reputable companies in this 
>>>>>>> era, so the net quality is very high. Akin to what happened when 
>>>>>>> stereo LPs came along.
>>>>>> .
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
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>>>
>>
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