What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XIV)

Now Playing.........

Ry Cooder & V. M. Bhatt - A Meeting By The River

Ry Cooder (bottleneck guitar, guitar), Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Mohan veena, slide guitar), Joachim Cooder (dumber), Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari (tabla).

Streaming on TIDAL.........  taking out this collaboration album for a spin and it is sounding mighty fine!

40th Anniversary out 29th Aug

(1982)

Roxy Music - Avalon

This one nails down the year for me ('82) when Ferry was playing down near Baie des Anges ,we played it long and hard in the car on the way down after using those wonderful (late-lamented by me) hovercraft thingies to cross the channel. 

Bit of jazz Out early Sept.

Roy Haynes quartet - Out of the afternoon

Great jazz. Recorded in 1962.

• Roy Haynes - Drums
• Roland Kirk - Sax, manzello, strich, nose-flute
• Tommy Flanagan - Piano
• Henry Grimes - Bass

Now Playing.........

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

Streaming on TIDAL..........  A little late morning Radiohead to pick up the beat heading into the noon time hour!

seakayaker posted:

Now Playing.........

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

Streaming on TIDAL..........  A little late morning Radiohead to pick up the beat heading into the noon time hour!

Nice one 'kayaker I love this album. Have a good weekend.

1973 - vinyl - UK pressing....

I've selected some of Jimi on this damp Friday evening. An album I've always liked, especially the songs Drifting and Ezy Ryder.  

Jeroen20 posted:

Dire Straits - On every street

Most reviewers don't think much of this album, but I find it very enjoyable.

 

Me too.  One of DS's best albums in my view.

MDS posted:

I've selected some of Jimi on this damp Friday evening. An album I've always liked, especially the songs Drifting and Ezy Ryder.  

Fabulous album.

  Lynyrd Skynyrd - Lynyrd Skynyrd.

  Seems appropriate with the departure of Ed King, who played a major part in the Skynyrd Southern Rawk sound. 

Johnny Hartman & John Coltrane

(1994)

Seal (ll) 

Luverly stuff and what a great voice.

Great 6 album box set on chess of Blues harmonica legend Sonny Boy Williamson - Brought it back in the early ninety's and so pleased I did as it's all the Sonny Boy you need - Playing on Vinyl on Chess Records

Listening to this superb album/recording that arrived today. It can be ordered on the Rega site and it’s very highly recommended. ????

Here’s  the low down...

Rega's founder Roy Gandy had suggested Stephen record his guitar and vocal separately in the traditional studio manner. Stephen felt the quality of his performance depended on the authenticity of him playing and sing simultaneously.

For this process to work it would be usual to use a Stereo pair of microphones positioned a distance from the singer. However, good room acoustics are crucial for this method to be successful. And Roy’s front room was hardly ideal! Another solution was necessary to capture Stephens virtuosity.

Roy experimented prior to the recording session using two separate microphones close to the voice and guitar. To avoid acoustic bleed between the two, a simple shelf was constructed between the two microphones giving promising results. However, the difficulty of performing in such a restricted environment was a serious concern for Gary Bennett who co-produced the album. This concern was promptly dismissed by Stephens confidence and experience as he immediately sat down, made himself comfortable and began to play and sing.

Tape running…the initial results were astounding, and excitement filled the room. This enthusiasm immediately fuelled the first three songs which were recorded within half a day. By the end of the second day a miraculous eleven tracks had been laid down, of which eight made this incredible album (the other three have been included in the digital download included in the sleeve).

Incidentally, well recorded acoustic guitar nearly always needs some form of enhancement such as added reverb and/or EQ. Stephen plays a guitar handmade by the legendary luthier Linda Manzer which allowed a rare recording without the use of effects.

This album was created with a little luck, a great deal of hard work, iconic tape machines and two days of faultless performances by Stephen.

Capturing the sound.

The voice and guitar were directly recorded onto two tracks of a meticulously restored 8-Track one-inch Studer A-80. No mixer was used.

The two microphones were directly interfaced into the Studer via a custom designed Rega microphone pre-amplifier. This was loosely based on the fully symmetrical design of the exceptional Rega Ios / Aura Moving Coil pre-amplifiers.

The guitar microphone was a Pearl CC22. A uniquely configured microphone using a rectangular diaphragm chosen for its natural characteristics.

Two different voice microphones were used during the sessions, the Pearl CC22 and an Audio Technica AT-4040

Using a Rega custom built, all discrete, 8 track mixer (designed by Regas Terry Bateman and based on Rega hi-fi amplifiers) the two original tracks were then mixed down onto a two-track quarter inch Studer A-80.

This process was particularly critical. Roy used PPM meters to ensure every track was laid down at a similar volume level. This level of care eliminated the need for any further mastering in the cutting studio and a cable was run from the studio tape machine directly to the Neuman cutting lathe.

All the tracks were recorded at 15 IPS on 80R tape. Finally, Ray Staff conducted the tape splicing of the recorded tracks but crucially no studio mastering was necessary or used.

And now enjoying my favourite Ten Years After album.  One of my very few MFSL CDs which I think I picked up at one of the Heathrow Hi-Fi shows many years ago.

Ok, I'll come clean. I already have the 'At the Village Vanguard' album, which I think I purchased when I was living in London. I also have 'Waltz for Debby' twice, once on CD and once on vinyl. And I have 'Sunday at the Village Vanguard'. In summary, I have ~95% of the material in this box set. However, this is the first time I've heard everything, including the introductions and all the chatter between each song. Everything is in the original sequence too, so this is now as close as possible to actually being there on 25th June. These albums have long been favourites, but this is now like finding the holy grail. Absolutely marvellous! 

ALANP posted:

Paul Weller - Stanley Road, following on after playing Wild Wood earlier in the week.

I surprised myself by liking this and his eponymous album, given I was never a fan of The Jam or Style Council. Saw him live at Brixton Academy back in the last century (supported by a Gallagher, I forget which) and enjoyed that too.

steve 

Dan Steel posted:

Listening to this superb album/recording that arrived today. It can be ordered on the Rega site and it’s very highly recommended. ????

Here’s  the low down...

Rega's founder Roy Gandy had suggested Stephen record his guitar and vocal separately in the traditional studio manner. Stephen felt the quality of his performance depended on the authenticity of him playing and sing simultaneously.

For this process to work it would be usual to use a Stereo pair of microphones positioned a distance from the singer. However, good room acoustics are crucial for this method to be successful. And Roy’s front room was hardly ideal! Another solution was necessary to capture Stephens virtuosity.

Roy experimented prior to the recording session using two separate microphones close to the voice and guitar. To avoid acoustic bleed between the two, a simple shelf was constructed between the two microphones giving promising results. However, the difficulty of performing in such a restricted environment was a serious concern for Gary Bennett who co-produced the album. This concern was promptly dismissed by Stephens confidence and experience as he immediately sat down, made himself comfortable and began to play and sing.

Tape running…the initial results were astounding, and excitement filled the room. This enthusiasm immediately fuelled the first three songs which were recorded within half a day. By the end of the second day a miraculous eleven tracks had been laid down, of which eight made this incredible album (the other three have been included in the digital download included in the sleeve).

Incidentally, well recorded acoustic guitar nearly always needs some form of enhancement such as added reverb and/or EQ. Stephen plays a guitar handmade by the legendary luthier Linda Manzer which allowed a rare recording without the use of effects.

This album was created with a little luck, a great deal of hard work, iconic tape machines and two days of faultless performances by Stephen.

Capturing the sound.

The voice and guitar were directly recorded onto two tracks of a meticulously restored 8-Track one-inch Studer A-80. No mixer was used.

The two microphones were directly interfaced into the Studer via a custom designed Rega microphone pre-amplifier. This was loosely based on the fully symmetrical design of the exceptional Rega Ios / Aura Moving Coil pre-amplifiers.

The guitar microphone was a Pearl CC22. A uniquely configured microphone using a rectangular diaphragm chosen for its natural characteristics.

Two different voice microphones were used during the sessions, the Pearl CC22 and an Audio Technica AT-4040

Using a Rega custom built, all discrete, 8 track mixer (designed by Regas Terry Bateman and based on Rega hi-fi amplifiers) the two original tracks were then mixed down onto a two-track quarter inch Studer A-80.

This process was particularly critical. Roy used PPM meters to ensure every track was laid down at a similar volume level. This level of care eliminated the need for any further mastering in the cutting studio and a cable was run from the studio tape machine directly to the Neuman cutting lathe.

All the tracks were recorded at 15 IPS on 80R tape. Finally, Ray Staff conducted the tape splicing of the recorded tracks but crucially no studio mastering was necessary or used.

Need to have a listen to this. Used to buy all Stephen's albums but got a bit bored with his music so sold them all.

Stanley Clarke - School Days. Having a great funky evening..

Released 2002 - Stephen Fearing’s music embodies a fierce intelligence, haunting candor, and steady-handed pursuit of fleeting beauty. Fine album. 8)

Lionel Richie

Back To Front - 24/96

The past few days I have felt something was not right with the sound from my new Nova after 2 weeks of running in it should be sounding a lot better than this, after reading a few posts about the 2.6.1 update I noticed that a few owners had the same problem and recommended pouling out the power cord to reset the Nova, this I have just done and all I can say is WOW, the difference is huge, detail, depth, etc. Very happy man this evening.

Edward

Tom Jones & Jools Holland.