The Blue Note Thread

MikeH said:
I disagree about the VBR being the best we are going to get. BeWith's pressing of The Awakening was from digital and much better. I don't doubt the VMP Blossom Dearie will be better than the VBR. Same with Rubiyat. The AS series sound great.

Verve is just shitty when they do their own reissue series in-house.

Here's some more info on this series:

The original tapes were sent to Third Man’s Detroit mastering and pressing facility where their extensive all analog re-mastering process ensured that the albums delivered live up to the tradition they are part of. The Third Man Records team’s commitment to audio purity means no corners can be cut; sound and mastering engineer Warren Defever’s goal being to provide the closest possible approximation of the magic found on the original master's tape brought to your living room. From the lacquers cut in the studio on the Neumann VMS-70 Cutting Lathe to the 180 gram vinyl pressed across the hall, every step of the process is tested in the facilities against exacting standards.
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Well, I can't dispute that Universal is a shit company.

Remember that the AS series only has titles for which there are tapes. Big advantage.

The VBR I have only two, as the titles don't overly excite me. The Alice Coltrane is good - and I have a very mint OG to compare to. Kwanza is pretty decent as well.
 
RHANDMJ said:
Well, I can't dispute that Universal is a shit company.

Remember that the AS series only has titles for which there are tapes. Big advantage.

The VBR I have only two, as the titles don't overly excite me. The Alice Coltrane is good - and I have a very mint OG to compare to. Kwanza is pretty decent as well.
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To amend what you said, I think the VBR is the best we're gonna get....from Verve themselves. They should just let other companies reissue their albums. Nearly everybody else does a better job. Remember the Vital Vinyl series? Yuck.

I though the Alice was really lifeless compared to the 1997 reissue I have (maybe its 96...). Awakening wasn't much better.
 
HayesWeighsIn said:
🎯
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these are a bit different to VBR though in that Third Man is mastering in house from actual tapes. It appears that RKS had shitty digital transfers for some of these VBR series and Third Man was just given plates. i agree with you from your other comment that the pressing quality leaves a lot to be desired. lots of dirty records in paper inners from Third Man.
 
MikeH said:
these are a bit different to VBR though in that Third Man is mastering in house from actual tapes. It appears that RKS had shitty digital transfers for some of these VBR series and Third Man was just given plates. i agree with you from your other comment that the pressing quality leaves a lot to be desired. lots of dirty records in paper inners from Third Man.
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The difference is that pre-fire Universal, run by bean counters and lawyers, digitally archived their tapes at relatively low resolution.

Blue Note tapes were digitally archived during EMI ownership at 32 bit resolution.
 
RHANDMJ said:
The difference is that pre-fire Universal, run by bean counters and lawyers, digitally archived their tapes at relatively low resolution.

Blue Note tapes were digitally archived during EMI ownership at 32 bit resolution.
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yea but the TMR BN releases seem to be done AAA. The VBR ones (mostly) weren't. I still don't think I've seen which ones were AAA from that series--they said initially some would be AAA but never seemed to say which ones.
 
MikeH said:
yea but the TMR BN releases seem to be done AAA. The VBR ones (mostly) weren't. I still don't think I've seen which ones were AAA from that series--they said initially some would be AAA but never seemed to say which ones.
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NONE of the VBR are analog, and the upcoming titles I know of won't be. For example, there isn't a single Lateef tape left.
 
Blue Note sale 20% off.
Some really decent represses included but not all.

Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil LP (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition) × 1
$22.38

Grant Green - Born To Be Blue LP (Tone Poet Series) × 1
$31.18

Art Blakey - The Witch Doctor LP (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) × 1
$31.18

Stanley Turrentine - Comin' Your Way LP (Tone Poet Series
 
RHANDMJ said:
NONE of the VBR are analog, and the upcoming titles I know of won't be. For example, there isn't a single Lateef tape left.
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that's what I thought, but I'm pretty sure their verbiage when the series launched was that some would be cut analogue...and of course the verbiage used on the series on other store websites like Elusive Disc and AS say the classic "sourced from the original tapes". Sure....I guess they were at some point haha.
 
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Jbraswell said:
Blue Note sale 20% off.
Some really decent represses included but not all.

Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil LP (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition) × 1
$22.38

Grant Green - Born To Be Blue LP (Tone Poet Series) × 1
$31.18

Art Blakey - The Witch Doctor LP (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) × 1
$31.18

Stanley Turrentine - Comin' Your Way LP (Tone Poet Series
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FWIW, it looks as though pre-sales on the next 4 Tone Poet releases (Caddy for Daddy, Sonny Clark, Morgan's Infinity, Pearson's The Right Touch) are included, 20% off. And free shipping if you get to $80.
 
hatfieldpdx said:
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FWIW, it looks as though pre-sales on the next 4 Tone Poet releases (Caddy for Daddy, Sonny Clark, Morgan's Infinity, Pearson's The Right Touch) are included, 20% off. And free shipping if you get to $80.
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Yeah I think those will be great. Holding off for a better sale on the newer releases since stock will be available for a while. I also hate paying sales tax:rolleyes: vs getting them from Plaid or AS.

The represses are kind of tricky on the other hand.
 
Jbraswell said:
Yeah I think those will be great. Holding off for a better sale on the newer releases since stock will be available for a while. I also hate paying sales tax:rolleyes: vs getting them from Plaid or AS.

The represses are kind of tricky on the other hand.
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Hey, if you're willing to wait 18 months, maybe one or more will pop up on SOV for $8...

No sales tax in Oregon, but I can understand that making a difference elsewhere. I'm tempted to grab Hutcherson's The Kicker from Plaidroom, as it's the first place I have seen the repress available outside of the BN site.
 
hatfieldpdx said:
Hey, if you're willing to wait 18 months, maybe one or more will pop up on SOV for $8...

No sales tax in Oregon, but I can understand that making a difference elsewhere. I'm tempted to grab Hutcherson's The Kicker from Plaidroom, as it's the first place I have seen the repress available outside of the BN site.
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I don't see it available there, just the BN store.
It's been available for a bit of time now on the BN site.

Might see some retailers get it but it's not easy to predict with the repress qtys. They vary widely. The Prisoner has been popping up several places but some other titles are gone same day.
 
Jbraswell said:
I don't see it available there, just the BN store.
It's been available for a bit of time now on the BN site.

Might see some retailers get it but it's not easy to predict with the repress qtys. They vary widely. The Prisoner has been popping up several places but some other titles are gone same day.
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It was listed in their weekly email today...must have already sold out. Interesting to note the randomness of how these re-presses get distributed (or not).
 
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I was looking for an affordable re-release of Lee Morgan’s Leeway and found a relatively recent release by Scorpio Records.

Anyone have experience with this release or Scorpio records in general?
 
Angsty said:
I was looking for an affordable re-release of Lee Morgan’s Leeway and found a relatively recent release by Scorpio Records.

Anyone have experience with this release or Scorpio records in general?
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Scorpio are grey market releases unfortunately. CD sourced from what I’ve read online so not the best quality I’m afraid.

There’s limited options for this title by the looks of it, but if I was you I think the money would be better spent towards a Japanese reissue from the 70’s or even the connoisseur series release (can anyone comment on the quality of this one?) from the 90’s. Not as cheap as the Scorpio but they are authorised pressings and will sound miles better.
 
Selaws said:
Scorpio are grey market releases unfortunately. CD sourced from what I’ve read online so not the best quality I’m afraid.

There’s limited options for this title by the looks of it, but if I was you I think the money would be better spent towards a Japanese reissue from the 70’s or even the connoisseur series release (can anyone comment on the quality of this one?) from the 90’s. Not as cheap as the Scorpio but they are authorised pressings and will sound miles better.
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Thank you! I’ll look for a Japanese reissue.
 
Selaws said:
Scorpio are grey market releases unfortunately. CD sourced from what I’ve read online so not the best quality I’m afraid.

There’s limited options for this title by the looks of it, but if I was you I think the money would be better spent towards a Japanese reissue from the 70’s or even the connoisseur series release (can anyone comment on the quality of this one?) from the 90’s. Not as cheap as the Scorpio but they are authorised pressings and will sound miles better.
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Was Scorpio actually grey market? I didn't know that. I think I have one or two and remember them not sounding great but don't know that i realized they were grey market releases!
 
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