Hot Stamper Pressings of Miles’s Albums Available Now
Listen to the trumpet at the start of Freddie Freeloader. Most copies do not fully convey the transient information of Miles’ horn, causing it to have an easily recognizable quality we talk about all the time on the site: smear.
No two pressings will have precisely the same amount of smear on his trumpet, so look for the least smeary copy that does everything else right too.
Meaning simply that smear is important, but not all-important.
- Here are more recordings that are good for testing smear.
- Here are some records with a tendency to have smeary sound
If you click on the above link, you will see that we regularly talk about smeary brass instruments, smeary violins and smeary Classic Records classical reissues.
Pianos are good for testing smear simply because it’s easy to hear when the individual notes blur together.