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Beating the RVG Horse

I wanted to throw yet another question out there related to the Rudy Van Gelder re-masters.

If you read any of the previous threads on this topic you might recall that I'm not a huge fan of the sound quality, generally finding the recordings to sound thin and tinny.

Ordinarily I try to stay away from the tone controls on my pre-amp, or as Rotel calls it “tone contouring” (I guess it’s sort of an internal EQ with four pre-set levels plus neutral). I try to stick with the sound as originally recorded on the grounds of trying to get a sound as true to originally played as possible. I do confess that this position is born out of some sort of ‘don’t mess with mother nature’ philosophy rather than any consideration to whether or not it sounds any better. Neurotic or not, I generally equate these things to touching up the Mona Lisa because you don’t like the color of the dress.

On the other hand, I have recently started playing around with the tone control on my pre-amp and found that –particularly with some of these thin RVG recordings, they do help to fill out the sound, even if it is by artificially boosting the bass.

Anyone have any thoughts on this kind of fiddling?
grimace
grimace OP
624 posts
 
Started another good thread here.

I'm not trying to boost the bass to the point that it is obtrusive or bloated. What I am trying to do is boost it enough to fill out the sound, which in turn reduces the tinnyness of some of these recording. And yes, although it is a pre-set eq in my pre-amp, it is simply a more advanced version of the old fashioned 'loudness' button.
qdrone
1,039 posts
 
Anyway we slice it when alot of this stuff gets re mastered it sounds different. I mean there is at least 4 different remasters of some of these CD's. I have some recordings of original Eric Dolphy on Vinyl and compared to the Out There and Outward Bound 24 bit remasters the sound has lost some of it's throatyness,some warmth. But they still sound good and if the word sterile is used I prefer cleaner.
qdrone
1,039 posts
 
Another thing, many of these early recordings 1956-59 were Hi Fi NOT stereo. Instead of adjusting or contouring your system see if it isn't recorded in stereo and just switch your system to MONO. I just did this with Lush Life by Coltrane and the sound is fuller. It is a Hi Fi recording,
pardales
652 posts
 
I find most of the RVG recordings to sound pretty darn good on my system. That said, I don't have any originals to compare them to.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Qdrone: I recently got the RVG CD of "Outward Bound" [New Jazz/Concord]. It's the only version I have, but I don't think the tonal balances sound all that natural and the ride cymbal can be downright annoying. The whole thing has a certain 'mechanical' quality -- some might say "sterile" -- that suggests to me it may have been tinkered with a bit too much in remastering, but since there's no indication that it's been remixed maybe the original wasn't that great sounding either. Wish I had an older vinyl to compare -- my guess, based on other Prestige vinyls I have, is that this edition would probably sound fairly different.
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