Deutshe Grammophon recordings

Posted by: quad2805 on 14 February 2014

Anyone agree - just how do they manage to get their recordings to sound so bloody awful?...

Posted on: 14 February 2014 by sheffieldgraham

Maybe you should listen to Deutsche Grammophon instead.

 

Sorry.

Posted on: 14 February 2014 by mutterback

Partly. I've found their recordings really inconsistent. Some are wonderful, especially the older LPs, before they went to digital recordings.  Newer titles have been mixed. They are way behind Harmonia Mundi, Chandos, even nonesuch (also owned by a major) and other classical labels, who's recordings just keep getting better and better.

Posted on: 14 February 2014 by sheffieldgraham
Originally Posted by mutterback:

Partly. I've found their recordings really inconsistent. Some are wonderful, especially the older LPs, before they went to digital recordings.  Newer titles have been mixed. They are way behind Harmonia Mundi, Chandos, even nonesuch (also owned by a major) and other classical labels, who's recordings just keep getting better and better.

+1 

Posted on: 14 February 2014 by George J

How strange that the DG Arkiv label seems to make very good recordings. 

 

I don't think the main DG branch has ever made very fine recordings, but mostly their artist catalogue is not that interesting so I am happy to pass by their offerings.

 

Out of over 500 CDs I have about six from DG, but perhaps 150 from Arkiv.

 

ATB from George

Posted on: 17 February 2014 by Ebor
I found their digital recordings improved hugely when they brought out their '4-D' [sic] system in the early 90s. The 'original image-bit processing' they did to some of their early recordings really improved them (thus proving that turd-polishing isn't always futile).

I have a soft spot for most of Karajan's digital Beethoven cycle because it was the first I really encountered. I'm well aware that most people regard it as a textbook example of how digital ought not to be done. I've read that Karajan insisted on some very odd miking techniques and he was by then too powerful to be overruled.

Mark
Posted on: 17 February 2014 by Ebor
I found their digital recordings improved hugely when they brought out their '4-D' [sic] system in the early 90s. The 'original image-bit processing' they did to some of their early recordings really improved them (thus proving that turd-polishing isn't always futile).

I have a soft spot for most of Karajan's digital Beethoven cycle because it was the first I really encountered. I'm well aware that most people regard it as a textbook example of how digital ought not to be done. I've read that Karajan insisted on some very odd miking techniques and he was by then too powerful to be overruled.

Mark
Posted on: 04 March 2014 by bluedog
Originally Posted by Char Wallah:

It's meant to be homiletical : if you don't attend a live performance or learn to play a musical instrument as well, you are only left with a s##tty recording to listen to.    

 

"There is no substitute for the real thing."  Which is why I like drinking diet coke.  

You appear to be attempting to relaunch a recent thread that, to be honest, became rather tedious.

 

The answer to the OP's question, IMHO, is that ALL classical recordings deteriorated in the early days of digital in the early/mid eighties. I generally avoid digital recordings so not heard an awful lot since those days when everything, to my ears, sounded quite hard and glassy.

 

Pre-digital DG recordings never sounded as good as, for example, Decca, to me and I think that was down to recording technique.  DG went in for a lot of multi-micing and mixing, whilst Decca and others adopted a relative simple approach to recording.  Having said that, I do own some 50's DG recordings and they are quite listenable.

Posted on: 04 March 2014 by lutyens

Oh well. I clearly live in a small happy bubble of ignorance. Some of my favourite recordings of some classical pieces are on DG. Bohm conducting Beethoven's 6th for instance. This may be the equivalent of listening to Bucks Fizz but I still enjoy it enormously! I suppose it is fortunate that very little English music is on DG so Decca etc win there.

 

Oh and I have attended some really terrible live classical concerts. Some of which I have walked out of just like i have on some so called rock concerts.

Posted on: 04 March 2014 by Loki

 the DG Arkiv label seems to make very good recordings. 

 

I don't think the main DG branch has ever made very fine recordings, 

 

Agreed. Never had a bad Arkiv recording. In fact, I search them out in the SH market simply because they are reliably good.

Posted on: 08 March 2014 by uroš

All of my Archiv CDs sound very nice to my ears too. One of the reasons (besides the repertoire) this will be the next box set purchase:

 

Archiv Produktion 1947-2013

Archiv