More of the Music of Laurindo Almeida
- A killer copy of this 45 RPM direct to disc recording featuring Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
- Some of the tubiest, warmest acoustic guitar sound you could ask for from a “modern” record – this is the sound of analog done right
- It has the kind of sound we prefer, with none of the razor sharpness that you get on some direct to disc recordings
- One of the best Almeida albums we know of and probably the best Crystal Clear title (which we know isn’t saying much)
Volume Is Key
This recording has very little processing or EQ boost, and the studio is somewhat dead sounding (all too common in the late 70s). That combination can mean only one thing: If you don’t play this record loud enough, it will not sound right.
The famous Sheffield S9 is exactly the same way. It sounds dead and dull until you turn it up. When you do, lookout — it really comes alive.
The best pressings can sound shockingly like live music, something one just does not hear all that often, even when one plays records all day long as we do.
More of What To Listen For
What typically separates the killer copies from the merely good ones are two qualities that we often look for in the records we play: transparency and lack of smear. Transparency allows you to hear into the recording, reproducing the ambience and subtle musical cues and details that are the hallmark of high-resolution analog.
(Note that most Heavy Vinyl pressings being produced these days seem to be rather seriously transparency- and ambience-hallenged. A substantial amount of important musical information — the kind we hear on even second-rate regular pressings — is simply nowhere to be found. We believe that a properly mastered CD is likely to be more transparent and have higher resolution than the vast majority of Heavy Vinyl remastered pressings being produced these days.)
Lack of smear is also important, especially on a recording of the guitar (and percussion). The speed and clarity of the transients, the sense that fingers are pulling on strings, strings that ring with tonally correct harmonics, are what make these kinds of records so much fun to play. The best copies really get that sound right, in the same way that the best recordings of Cat Stevens and the Eagles and Pink Floyd and so many others get the sound of their stringed instruments right.
