I really love the feeling/pacing of Coffee (Arab Dance). Fun fact, I attend the New Ballet/Symphony San Jose "Nutcracker" yesterday set in 1880s San Jose and the dancer was a diamondback rattle snake and I know from now on when I hear that tambourine I'm going to think oh-no, better watch out!
Whatever stylus you're using, it has an amazing transient response. The triangles in the overture come through crystal clear! Thanks so much for this meticulous and pristine transfer, Glen.
Although I have a number of different size styluses, and always try to purchase preferably the earliest pressings to transfer, if you look in the Description, the source from this was taken from a George Blood transfer on the Internet Archive as I could not find a copy to purchase. I used the 3.3mil stylus transfer. The vinyl V-Discs (when unplayed) had a far quieter surface and much better highs than shellac. That is until someone tries to play them on an acoustic player in the trenches. Even so, crystal and ceramic cartridges of the day tracked at a much higher force than the magnetic ones today so there can still be quite a lot of wear and the grit from the stylus bashing dust into the walls. As you can hear from listening to the unprocessed file on the Archive, the disc was still needed quite a bit of work.
Really excellent performances, as one expects from Toscanini. Nice polishing, Glen. I only wish it had been done in another venue than the acoustically dry as dust 8H. I think a little reverberation would have enhanced the mood greatly.
There are those that do love to add reverb and fake stereo, and make a living at it, but I pretty much decided that these recordings are what they are and just try to lift as much of the distracting crud off the top and adjust tonal balance if necessary. NBC seems to have done a lot of trying different microphone placement in 8-H as the acoustic seems to change quite a bit from recording to recording. Some of them, I don't remember which, actually do include a small amount of ambience that was revealed when the rumble from the disc was removed. There were also some of the later LPs where RCA did add reverb. That said, I did do a little experimenting a while back adding reverb do back surround channels, which helped some, TH-cam does not support multichannel sound.
@GlensAudioRestoration I agree with your approach. Over the years, I've heard a scattering of enhanced fake stereo recordings that actually sound quite good, but they're few and far between.
When NBC disbanded the orchestra in 1954, 80% of the members self-organized into the "Symphony of the Air". Whether the harpist in 1945 was the same as the one in the 1954 conductorless Symphony of the Air performance I don't know. How does the harp compare to the official 1951 studio performance?
@ idk. Maybe it is the same harpist within the Toscanini Recording who played in the Symphony Of The Air, so maybe that’s the reason I noticed the cadenza was similar.
Wonderful performance! It is a bit strange to see "Property of the War Department of the United States." I hope those in the Armed Forces were able to enjoy it.
I imagine in WWII it was just like in M.A.S.H TV show. I imagine there were PA systems in the camps in the battle zones and they would play these discs over them.
Part of the problem is that Studio 8-H (home of Saturday Night Live) was designed as an all purpose television studio and has incredibly dry acoustics requiring much quicker tempos other wise the sound just falls apart. Similarly very reverberant acoustics require much slower tempos or the sound becomes a muddy sonic mess.
Esecuzione di un virtuosismo abbagliante! Splendida Irresistibile Grazie!
I gotta say, Toscanini was one of the greatest conductors of all time. I even think that this interpretation is splendid and outstanding!
I really love the feeling/pacing of Coffee (Arab Dance). Fun fact, I attend the New Ballet/Symphony San Jose "Nutcracker" yesterday set in 1880s San Jose and the dancer was a diamondback rattle snake and I know from now on when I hear that tambourine I'm going to think oh-no, better watch out!
Superb!
Whatever stylus you're using, it has an amazing transient response. The triangles in the overture come through crystal clear! Thanks so much for this meticulous and pristine transfer, Glen.
Although I have a number of different size styluses, and always try to purchase preferably the earliest pressings to transfer, if you look in the Description, the source from this was taken from a George Blood transfer on the Internet Archive as I could not find a copy to purchase.
I used the 3.3mil stylus transfer. The vinyl V-Discs (when unplayed) had a far quieter surface and much better highs than shellac. That is until someone tries to play them on an acoustic player in the trenches. Even so, crystal and ceramic cartridges of the day tracked at a much higher force than the magnetic ones today so there can still be quite a lot of wear and the grit from the stylus bashing dust into the walls.
As you can hear from listening to the unprocessed file on the Archive, the disc was still needed quite a bit of work.
@@GlensAudioRestoration Gotcha. I just listened to the IA original, as you suggested. Can't believe how well you cleaned it up! Thanks again.
@@steveluciani Thanks! Yeah this one required quite a bit of work.
Really excellent performances, as one expects from Toscanini. Nice polishing, Glen. I only wish it had been done in another venue than the acoustically dry as dust 8H. I think a little reverberation would have enhanced the mood greatly.
There are those that do love to add reverb and fake stereo, and make a living at it, but I pretty much decided that these recordings are what they are and just try to lift as much of the distracting crud off the top and adjust tonal balance if necessary.
NBC seems to have done a lot of trying different microphone placement in 8-H as the acoustic seems to change quite a bit from recording to recording. Some of them, I don't remember which, actually do include a small amount of ambience that was revealed when the rumble from the disc was removed. There were also some of the later LPs where RCA did add reverb.
That said, I did do a little experimenting a while back adding reverb do back surround channels, which helped some, TH-cam does not support multichannel sound.
@GlensAudioRestoration I agree with your approach. Over the years, I've heard a scattering of enhanced fake stereo recordings that actually sound quite good, but they're few and far between.
I just noticed that harp scadenza I heard was very similar to how Symphony Of The Air’s Harpist did it.
When NBC disbanded the orchestra in 1954, 80% of the members self-organized into the "Symphony of the Air". Whether the harpist in 1945 was the same as the one in the 1954 conductorless Symphony of the Air performance I don't know. How does the harp compare to the official 1951 studio performance?
@ idk. Maybe it is the same harpist within the Toscanini Recording who played in the Symphony Of The Air, so maybe that’s the reason I noticed the cadenza was similar.
Wonderful performance! It is a bit strange to see "Property of the War Department of the United States." I hope those in the Armed Forces were able to enjoy it.
I imagine in WWII it was just like in M.A.S.H TV show. I imagine there were PA systems in the camps in the battle zones and they would play these discs over them.
Less espresso for Arturo.
Part of the problem is that Studio 8-H (home of Saturday Night Live) was designed as an all purpose television studio and has incredibly dry acoustics requiring much quicker tempos other wise the sound just falls apart. Similarly very reverberant acoustics require much slower tempos or the sound becomes a muddy sonic mess.