Hot Stamper Pressings of Blue Note Albums Available Now
UPDATE 2019
This commentary was written way back in 2008.
Since then we’ve learned a great deal about Blue Note and the work Rudy Van Gelder did for them.
Needless to say, we are now very big fans.
Most of the sonic complaints you see in our review from 2008 originated from our inability to clean the records properly, play them back properly, and to know which pressings and labels tended to have good stampers and which ones did not.
In 2008 we had a lot more research and development ahead of us, probably ten years’ worth. I thought I knew what I was talking about in 2008 with Song for My Father, but I clearly had a lot more to learn.
When we finally did hear some killer copies, we were knocked out by the quality of the sound.
Our Understanding in 2008
This is our first Hot Stamper listing for the album, and believe me, it’s not for want of trying. The best sounding original copies I had picked up over the years were far too noisy and scratched to be acceptable to audiophiles, not to mention the fact that the originals were (and are) replete with mastering issues that often exacerbate problems in the recording itself.
Trade-Offs
Having said all that, every Hot Stamper copy we found had its own mastering strengths and weaknesses — the tubey magic and fullness in the best originals isn’t really heard on the later pressings, but the later pressings have a clarity and freedom from obvious compressor and cutter-head distortion that makes them appealing in their own right, not to mention much better brass sound: more dynamic and less smeared.
Rudy, Nice Piano For a Change
One surprising finding was how good the piano sounds on the better copies. It has good weight, real solidity, and lacks that irritating “boxy” hard sound that you find on so many RVG recordings.
Pinched horns and boxy pianos are the hallmarks of most Van Gelder recordings; how on earth this guy is considered one of the greats is beyond me.
[Now of course we know better.]
We did this shootout after having played a few Contemporaries the day before, and the difference in the quality of the sound is nothing less than shocking. The Contemporary sound is so relaxed and musical, the RVG Blue Note sound so forced and artificial.
[Speaking of the piano sound Contemporary is famous for.]
But Contemporary never had the likes of Horace Silver in their stable of artists, and we love this music, so there was no alternative, we just had to dive in and hope for the best. And the best was pretty good.
The Best Ever
Unlike so many of the later pressings, this one has real weight, richness and fullness to the sound, with super-tight, note-like bass, and it does it without sacrificing clarity in the mids and highs. The leading edge transients on the horns were excellent, with the pinched quality of their sound you hear on some tracks kept at a minimum, and the whole of the ensemble was transparently clear. This copy was obviously cut with super-low distortion mastering equipment, and boy did it help the sound. Side two was the best side of this album we have ever played.
Side one was nearly as good at Two Pluses. We didn’t know it could get any better, and then we turned it over and went wow!
Both sides had a wonderful quality to the drums: they actually sound like hollowed out, three dimensional objects that are being made to resonate — which is pretty much what they are — the opposite of the cardboard drums you hear on bad rock records, the ones that sound like somebody is slapping an old packing box.
When it comes to stampers, labels, mastering credits, country of origin and the like, we make a point of revealing little of such information on the site, for a number of reasons we discussed in a commentary we wrote many years ago, at the dawn of the Hot Stamper revolution. (Ahem.)
However, in 2024 we decided to reverse our previous policy. We now make available to our readers a great deal of that information, under these four headings:
Please to enjoy.
Some information has been left out, the specific stamper numbers for our Shootout Winners for example, and in the cases where we give out the stampers for the top copies, we do not identify the title of the record with those stampers. As you can imagine, our sizable investments in research and development over the course of decades make up a big part of the costs we are required to pass on to our customers.
We are more than happy to give out some tips, plenty of them in fact. However, if you really want to find the best sounding pressing of any given title, you have to do the work we did, and that means buying, cleaning, playing and evaluating a big batch of LPs. It’s often expensive, it’s never less than a huge amount of work, but our experience tells us there is simply no other way to do it.
Further Reading
Guys, love to read everything you write but having a hard time to identify, which pressing you actually are talking about? Am i blind or is it a secret?
Love
Dear Sir,
Pretty much a secret!
I took the time to write this up today to give a better answer as to what is secret and what we can tell you:
When it comes to stampers, labels, mastering credits, country of origin and the like, we make a point of revealing little of such information on the site, for a number of reasons we discussed in a commentary we felt compelled to write many years ago, at the dawn of the Hot Stamper revolution. (Ahem.)
However, in 2024 we decided to reverse our previous policy. We now make available to our readers a great deal of that information, under these four headings:
Country Advice
Label Advice
Mastering Information
Stamper Information
Please to enjoy. Some information has been left out, the specific stamper numbers for our Shootout Winners for example, and in the cases where we give out the stampers for the top copies, we do not identify the title of the record with those stampers. As you may well imagine, our sizable investments in reseach and development over the course of decades make up a big part of the costs we are required to pass on to our customers.
We are more than happy to give out some tips, plenty of them in fact. However, if you really want to find the best sounding pressing of any given title, you have to do the work we did, and that means buying, cleaning, playing and evaluating a big batch of LPs. It’s often expensive, it’s never less than a huge amount of work, but our experience there is no other way to do it.
Best, TP