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Vinyl Lovers; Anybody Here Ever Listen To A 45 RPM 12" Album?

MakeMineVinyl

Well-Known Member
I don't know how many of you here are aware that many of the more popular albums have for some time been released on vinyl at the higher than normal speed of 45 RPM. These albums are always split into two discs, usually with 2 or 3 songs on each of the four sides because of the shortened playing time at the higher speed. The packaging is always very much deluxe with gate fold jackets of heavy cardboard and are priced accordingly, usually about $50.

However, the sound quality is incredible.

Because of the higher linear speed of the grooves, there is much less chance of the physical limits of disc cutting being approached, much like a faster tape speed or higher digital sampling rate spreads things out more. Also, the grooves are never cut anywhere near the relatively small inner diameter of a traditional 33 1/3 RPM disc so there is no inner groove distortion. Also, the vinyl itself is always of such a high quality and the pressing is done so carefully that I rarely hear even a soft tick or crackle on an entire side.

This, on top of the fact that vinyl just yields a much more organic listening experience (yeah, yeah, I can hear the digital zealots screaming bullshit, but what my ears perceive matters more to me than dry lab measurements).
 
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Santana and John McLaughlin did an album, mostly a white background on the cover, called something like Love, Devotion, Bigly, that I recall was a single album length but printed on two disks, but I can't remember if it was a 45 or not. That would be the only one.
I can't remember if it sounded more organic or not, either. :cool:
 
Thanks.

Downloaded it. Will play it in the main HT later today - errands to run now.

Jeff

ps. Strangely enough, while I have both Van Morrison and The Canadian Brass' versions of that song in my collection, I don't have Louis'.

ps. Had time to do another sort / search on the song title in my collection. This time when I use "St." instead of "Saint" I get a couple dozen hits - the earliest from 1929. But still none by Louis.
 
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I have about a dozen 45rpm vinyl records from Frank Zappa, most are picture disks.
 
So I finally got some time.

First off, the tune itself should be instantly recognizable. I never put title to tune until now. It has quite the history (one fanatic has written an entire book on this song) and as I found from searching just my own collection, it's been covered dozens and dozens of times.

I found two other recordings of it that Louis did: one from 1928 and a live version from 1959. Rammis, is this from a full album, and if so can you provide the album title / year? I'd love to track down a copy on CD.

I say this because, after repeated listening in my main HT and off my computer with headphones on, what I can say is that the download sounds terrific; in fact indistinguishable, to my ears, from any great recordings from this era that I have on CD. Free from the usual (obvious) vinyl limitations, it sounds truly CD-like to me.

No I don't get any "organic" experience from it; at least nothing that I don't get from listening to a CD. And I mean that as a complete compliment to/of the recording.

And by the by, I have many recordings of Louis from the late '50s - a bunch that I've just sampled. It's obvious that Audio Fidelity did a great job with this recording - in comparison to the songs I sampled. All the more reason for me wanting to get a copy. I have Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington's Together for the First Time / The Great Reunion on CD - which is a Mobil Fidelity recording from that era (1961). It's a tremendous recording (to my ears) and your file sounds just like it (as I switch between the two while I'm typing this post).

Jeff
 
Rammis, is this from a full album, and if so can you provide the album title / year? I'd love to track down a copy on CD.

I'm glad you like it - its a really special recording both musically and sonically; in fact it is my go-to demo material as it sounds spooky-good on my system. There's just so much detail in everything.

The recording was released in 1960, and here is a link to what I can find about the original release:

https://www.discogs.com/Louis-Armstrong-His-Orch-Satchmo-Plays-King-Oliver/release/2084061

You will get a few hits when you Google the album, but I can't be certain that any of them are this particular recording. Good luck!
 
I'm glad you like it - its a really special recording both musically and sonically; in fact it is my go-to demo material as it sounds spooky-good on my system. There's just so much detail in everything.

The recording was released in 1960, and here is a link to what I can find about the original release:

https://www.discogs.com/Louis-Armstrong-His-Orch-Satchmo-Plays-King-Oliver/release/2084061

You will get a few hits when you Google the album, but I can't be certain that any of them are this particular recording. Good luck!
Excellent! Thanks!
 
I'm still looking for a copy of the full CD, however funny enough I came across another downloadable file that contained 32/192 AIFF tracks of both "St. James Infirmary" and "I Ain't Got Nobody," the A and B side tracks from the 45rpm EP as well. That rip was made in 2011. The file size for "St. James Infirmary" is about three times what you posted. However the adage "garbage in = garbage out" really applies here as the other (larger) rip has very noticeable snap and crackle that seriously detracts from the listening experience. A bit too much "organics" for my taste. :)

On "I Ain't Got Nobody" there's some noticeable hum (as well as snap and crackle) on the lead in grooves. (Pitty, because it's also a great song.) I wonder if that was part of the original 45, or was from whoever did the rip's gear. Can you hear that on yours rammis? Just curious.

I also wonder if this other rip was from an actual original 45 - rather than a more recent high-quality pressing.

Jeff
 
I'm still looking for a copy of the full CD, however funny enough I came across another downloadable file that contained 32/192 AIFF tracks of both "St. James Infirmary" and "I Ain't Got Nobody," the A and B side tracks from the 45rpm EP as well. That rip was made in 2011. The file size for "St. James Infirmary" is about three times what you posted. However the adage "garbage in = garbage out" really applies here as the other (larger) rip has very noticeable snap and crackle that seriously detracts from the listening experience. A bit too much "organics" for my taste. :)

On "I Ain't Got Nobody" there's some noticeable hum (as well as snap and crackle) on the lead in grooves. (Pitty, because it's also a great song.) I wonder if that was part of the original 45, or was from whoever did the rip's gear. Can you hear that on yours rammis? Just curious.

I also wonder if this other rip was from an actual original 45 - rather than a more recent high-quality pressing.

Jeff

The "B" side of my 45 RPM disc also has "I Ain't Got Nobody". I guess its always possible the guy ripped from the original 33 1/3 RPM album, but it would be quite a coincidence he choose those same two songs. At any rate, my copy is clean as a whistle; I did not perform any processing at all on the 24/96 file I posted - I just keep my records clean and use a well maintained turntable and cartridge of high quality. That does make a huge difference as I hear very little to no crackle and pop on the high quality new vinyl I have. Of course some of the original albums I bought in the 70s run the gamut from pretty quiet to utter garbage. Despite the higher bit and sampling rate of that guy's file, he either didn't use care in the transfer or doesn't take very good care of his gear / records.

As an aside, when I worked on restoring the music for the 2000 re-release of "The Exorcist", a few of the pieces of music I used were from the original vinyl albums Warner Brothers had in the vault as the original masters did not exist or were unavailable. The longest example is the string piece over the end credits (I have a credit as "music editor" in there somewhere). I manually cleaned up clicks and pops on all these tracks, but if you listen really carefully, you may hear a tick or two.
 
Just ordered a new copy of the CD from a seller in Germany. $15.50C all in. Should be here in a few weeks. Thanks for putting me on to this one!

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Wow, that's great. I actually would be interested in getting a copy of that CD too. Does that seller have more?
Sorry for the slow reply - left the house for a few hours.

I bought mine through an Amazon.ca seller. I also checked-out Amazon.com sellers. After conversion rates and shipping the Amazon.ca route was cheaper by a couple of bucks. Here's a link to the Amazon.com listing.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Sat...383&sr=8-1&keywords=satchmo+plays+king+oliver

Right now the lowest price for a new copy from a seller is $8.14 + $3.99 with a few others in the $9.00 region. So $13US delivered. (That's ~$17C). Of those latter ones, I have bought many times from both -importcds and MovieMars-CD and the product has always been exactly as expected and arrived sooner than the expected delivery date.

Jeff

ps. If you want, you could try ordering through Amazon.ca. Here's a link to the sellers https://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/B0198CGPYU/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new. The seller I bought from (dodax-online) is showing availability for $0.05C more than I paid. For the fun of it I added it to my cart and proceeded to the checkout - using a US address. In that case the shipping jumps to $7.49C bringing the total to $19.55C. So you're better off using Amazon.com.
 
The 2 CD set arrived today in the mail - sooner than expected.

I've got a pretty good bout of sinus congestion going on right now, but regardless, I listened to a few tracks with my AKG headphones on and it sounds like a terrific recording.

I'm looking forward to playing the whole thing through in my main HT once the decongestants have done their trick!

Jeff
 
The 2 CD set arrived today in the mail - sooner than expected.

I've got a pretty good bout of sinus congestion going on right now, but regardless, I listened to a few tracks with my AKG headphones on and it sounds like a terrific recording.

I'm looking forward to playing the whole thing through in my main HT once the decongestants have done their trick!

Jeff
I'd be interested in a comparison of the vinyl rip and the CD....
 
I'd be interested in a comparison of the vinyl rip and the CD....
Hmmm... Unfortunately I think I deleted the rip once I ordered the CD. If you can post it again (or find some other way for me to access it) I'd be glad to do a comparison - although I'd wait until the sinuses / ears have cleared.
 
Hmmm... Unfortunately I think I deleted the rip once I ordered the CD. If you can post it again (or find some other way for me to access it) I'd be glad to do a comparison - although I'd wait until the sinuses / ears have cleared.
YOU DELETED IT?? Yeah, yeah, now you're sounding like all those who gleefully sold off all their vinyl the minute CD was introduced because they believed the "perfect sound forever" bullshit. Now they're singing another tune as their ears turn to mush with the harsh pummeling of digital torture!

No sympathy for you, dude. :moon::devil:
 
YOU DELETED IT?? Yeah, yeah, now you're sounding like all those who gleefully sold off all their vinyl the minute CD was introduced because they believed the "perfect sound forever" bullshit. Now they're singing another tune as their ears turn to mush with the harsh pummeling of digital torture!

No sympathy for you, dude. :moon::devil:
But I own a DORO flip phone!
 
But I own a DORO flip phone!
OK, I just received the CD set of "Satchmo Plays King Oliver". I played "Saint James Infirmary" from the CD against the 45 RPM vinyl version. Although this won't probably come as a surprise, the vinyl definitely and very obviously had more body, depth and detail. The CD sounded almost treadbare by comparison, although without directly comparing it to the vinyl version, it is excellent. This is the typical result of this type of comparison when I have the digital and vinyl versions of the same material.

Interestingly, the overall volume level of the vinyl rip was way lower than the CD - maybe as much as 10dB. Now, when I copy vinyl to digital, I adjust the recording levels (with pro-level workstation software - Reaper in this case) so that the maximum peaks just touch maximum full scale digital (just at the edge of digital clipping). That the CD is overall at a much higher level tells me that the only explanation can be that the vinyl has a wider dynamic range than the CD, which I assume was made from the actual tape master. There is no explanation for this that I can think of; vinyl does not inherently have a wider dynamic range, and certainly does not against digital! Perhaps the vinyl cut was from a tape which was closer to "first generation"? Perhaps the CD was mastered with compression and/or limiting applied? That last possibility is really disturbing since there would be no reason to do so beyond a mastering engineer who usually does rock and is used to cramming everything to maximum level via compressor plug-ins. Ugh......
 
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