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Author Topic: The McPartlands Live at the Monticello  (Read 8334 times)

Offline ironbut

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The McPartlands Live at the Monticello
« on: November 15, 2008, 06:51:20 PM »
I've been chasing this Halcyon/BC tape for a couple of years now and I finally got one. I'd never heard it but I've heard Marian in concert before and she's a joy. This is one of the only Barclay-Crockers that I've read a formal review on. It was an absolute rave and was in an old issue of The Audio Amateur I have around. The music runs from Dixieland w/vocals to almost bop but the energy and fun that the players are having is totally infectious. The sound is just outstanding (aside from a microphone glitch or two) and for some reason or other it sounds totally balanced without the Dolby decoder that it originally asked for ( tape age or the original recording?). All the solos are flawless and the rhythm section is just outstanding. What more can I say, if you have a chance to, snatch one up for yourself. Just 8 great musicians have a good time in front of their peers.
steve koto
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Offline xcortes

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Re: The McPartlands Live at the Monticello
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2008, 10:15:54 PM »
Steve,

you're still listenining to your BCs without dolby units? I've been meaning to buy one or two but the idea of adding a dolby decoder has kept me from that. Still they look like THE option to build a music library to make more use of our tape related hardware.
Xavier Cortes

Offline mstcraig

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Re: The McPartlands Live at the Monticello
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2008, 09:23:23 PM »
Unless I'm mistaken, The Monticello Room was here in Rochester, NY where that recording was done. I've seen Marian McPartland several times over the years, and I agree that she is great. She was kind enough to autograph some of her LP's for me, including a double LP of her group playing at the Hickory House in NYC. Has a good sense of humor, too!
Craig Sypnier
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Offline ironbut

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Re: The McPartlands Live at the Monticello
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2008, 07:33:57 PM »
Yeah, the liner notes mentioned that the audience was made up of a number of students and teachers from the Eastman School of Music. The notes were written by Will Moyle from WROC. It was recorded in 1972.
Xavier, that Dolby thing just keeps coming back to haunt me. I've got to finish that project this year!
Aside from that issue, the performances are all hand picked and overall, excellent. Without a Dolby unit, they sound bright and a little unbalanced but they still have that nice rich tape midrange. I've read that if you don't have a decoder but do have some manner of tone controls, turning the treble down 2dB is supposed to help.
I'm pretty purist so it has to "do not harm" as far as I'm concerned. I really just need to set aside a weekend to devote to nothing but working on this thing. Maybe Thanksgiving?
steve koto
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Offline steveidosound

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Re: The McPartlands Live at the Monticello
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2008, 08:46:20 PM »
I don't really want to go off here on what I really think of Dolby, but it should theoretically sound better with.
Turning down the treble helps but since Dolby (B) is a dynamic high frequency compression/expansion scheme, the amount you would need to lower the treble would change with the dynamics of the music. Typically brighter sounding on the lower level passages than those nearer to "0".
My frustration with B on cassettes always was unless everything was perfectly calibrated, it always sounded too dull with it in on playback. Because of other high frequency losses it typically came back to about right with it off. But if you had a better machine and or were using 70 ? sec. high bias or metal tape then it tended to sound too bright with it off and still too dull with it on. Now, when I try and play back any random cassette on my good machine I just use whatever sounds closest to a normal balance throughout most of the material - 120 ? sec. or  70 ? sec. eq and/or Dolby on or off.
Steve Williams

you don't want to know what equipment I listen to...

Offline ironbut

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Re: The McPartlands Live at the Monticello
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2008, 10:06:21 PM »
Hi Steve, I've fooled around with outboard Dolby B units a bit ( I have 8 laying around here ) and getting one to sound good has been an ongoing project of mine. The sound that I get (after calibrating for a particular tape ) runs the gamut from too bright to too dull. The best sounding "stock" unit I have is one from a British company called Integrex. It was actually distributed by Barclay-Crocker and it falls in the too bright camp. All of the consumer class decoders I've tried has what I consider a fatal flaw and that's a partial loss of the midrange richness that I find most attractive in reel to reel. The unit that I'm putting my money on is a Dolby Labs model 330 which was used for high speed cassette duplication. The reason I want this unit to work out is that it does retain that midrange. Unfortunately it falls in the dull camp in stock form. Actually, I think I have most of the problems with it figured out but I just haven't made the time to make the changes and work out the details (it's a balanced unit and I plan to make it -10). There's also the early Dolby Labs model 301 which Stellavox and U47 have both said sounded pretty nice after Charles did some mods but one of the guidelines for this project is to develop one that's easily obtainable and the 301 is as rare as hen's teeth.
Well, after about a year and a half of messing with this, I think you can see that I agree that the sound should be better with one.
As I've said many times here, I'm slow but persistent.
steve koto
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