Tape Project Forum

Tape Project Albums => False Accusations => Topic started by: jcmusic on December 17, 2008, 09:56:58 PM

Title: New Music
Post by: jcmusic on December 17, 2008, 09:56:58 PM
WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!! is all I can say about this tape!!! Got it a couple days ago gave it a listen and really liked it, today sat down for a more serious listen alone. WOW!!! this is am awesome tape, the music is new to me. I have never heard Robert Cray before, I like the music alot, but the tape to me is just over the top!!!

I thought that the first two tapes sounded real good, this one just blows me away!!! You guys did a fantastic job on this one, not that the other two or bad or anything like that. This music I like much more than the first two tapes, I played it around 100db and man I just don't have the words to describe my feelings!!!

Keep up the great work guys I am one who definitly appreciates it, thanks again!!!

Jay
Title: Re: New Music
Post by: Ben on December 17, 2008, 11:12:37 PM
Boy are you lucky I don't have cast iron skillet to throw your way.  Still waiting for that email telling me to look
for that package coming soon.

100 db ... that is loud but it sounds about the right volume for the real thing. If it is too loud and you can't hear
the detail at all.
Title: Re: New Music
Post by: astrotoy on January 28, 2009, 10:20:15 AM
I listened to the Robert Cray for the second time last night - with no distractions and a little cognac. Of all the tapes so far, this genre is the most unfamiliar to me. My 30 year old daughter knows Cray, but I didn't. Of my 15K records, I have exactly 1 blues record - the Chess issue of Muddy Waters - Folk Singer, which despite its title is really blues. First, the realism of the tape - I didn't play it at 100 db - is startling. I am not used to hearing amplified instruments much and the sounds of the guitar playing were especially notable - very unlike an acoustical guitar. And Cray's voice is very expressive, even though the subject matter of all the songs seems the same - infidelity. Anyway, I enjoyed the album, though I will probably play it less than the other titles. I've continued with a full subscription to the second series in part because it does introduce me to artists and genres (like most of jazz) that I am not familiar with. Larry
Title: Re: New Music
Post by: jcmusic on January 28, 2009, 11:29:59 AM
Well let me clarify something before we go any further, when I said 100db I meant the peaks were around 100db. Which is to say that every now and then it would bump 100db. this is just a guess on my part as I only have a RS meter, how accurate is it; who knows.


Jay
Title: Re: New Music
Post by: ironbut on January 28, 2009, 11:44:20 AM
Getting to know and enjoy music you don't normally listen to is a real plus. When I've demoed the tapes, one of the comments I've gotten quite a few times is that, " I don't listen to this kind of music, but if it sounded like this, I would.".

To me, the Tape Project tapes do honor to the artist. I used to play classical guitar and from the very beginning of studying to play classical music, there's a great emphasis on "touch" and all the little subtleties that make music of the notes (which is the real trick and what stands out with the great talents in the world, the music just seems to flow out of their hands). And just like audiophiles, musicians love their gear. I was at the guitar studio I used to hang out in when Christopher Parkening was trying out some different string sets ( he and the shop owner studied with Segovia at the same time and were close friends). There was a regular group that usually spent their Saturdays there and almost all of us used a combination of different string sets on our guitars (usually the wounds ones from one company and the solid ones from another, the really anal guys even used a third companies for the D [4th string] since it was kind of like the crossover point from wound to solid).
Well, to make a long story short(er), as he'd borrow each of our guitars and play a little, and we sat their praying that some of that talent would flow into our guitars permanently, we were all struck by how similar the different guitars sounded. The music making trumped every other factor that might have made the sound different. But sure enough, after playing different guitars/string sets, Parkening would stop and say things like " those are a little nasal sounding" or "Wow,  I like that reedy tone". We'd all nod our heads as if we knew that all along.
The point to this story is, once an artist get to a certain technical level, it's all about subtleties. That's what is really important and that's what they work on the hardest. On the Cray tape, those little inflections in his voice, and the choices of just how sharp an edge a particular guitar note has is what sets one performance of a song from another. It's this kind of careful craftsmanship that gets lost in lesser formats. I find this to be one of the great charms of these tapes too. There's something about being able to listen to something that on the outside, seems raw and spontaneous, and then to listen into the mix and see all those "ducks lined up in a row". It's a rare pleasure.