[78-L] Dubbed contemporary matrix questions (Columbia related).

[Royal Pemberton]

True, that  CL 2830 isn't exactly a sonic masterwork (ahem).  The
three titles it has in common with the earlier volume three of THE BIX
BEIDERBECKE STORY (GL 519 or CL 846) sound better on the older album.

And thanks for the info!

On 12/28/08, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> The files (i.e. the Columbia Books) explain WHAT was done but not why.
> Quote:
>
> NOTE:- Matrix 149158 was rejected as such on all three takes [there were 3],
> but each was dubbed onto a new master, numbered 194379 in sequence (so
> 149158-1
> became 194379-1, 149158-2 became 194379-2, 149158-3 became 194379-3). No
> explanation was given.
>
> End quote. I don't know if this was done with other masters. I do know that
> there were other instances of Columbia dubbing foreign masters, for no
> apparent
> reason..some sides in the set of Glazunov conducting "The Seasons" are dubs,
> and very poor ones, but an Italian pressing I picked up a few years ago is
> all
> master pressings and the sides in question sound great, don't run onto the
> label or start outside the normal perimeter or display any physical reasons
> for
> needing to be rerecorded. One possible explanation is that the masters
> didn't
> pass the "wear test", i.e. survive 20 playings without displaying unusual
> wear.
> Some over-recorded or over-bassy discs had to be transferred with the bass
> rolled off. Some recordings have been transferred because of physical
> problems
> (grooves starting too near the edge), others because the turntable was
> varying
> in speed and they hoped to correct this. In any case, because issues were
> pressed from the dub, Columbia probably didn't retain the original takes.
>
> That "unique piece of filtering equipment developed in the Columbia
> laboratories" makde the old recordings sound worse than they ever did
> before,
> as anyone with ears noticed.
>
> RCA also reissued from a dub in one infuriating instance, and presumably the
> original should have existed (maybe not)..the version of "You Took Advantage
> of
> Me" by Paul Whiteman with Bix 'n' Bing in the Bix Memorial Album is a dub,
> and
> that's what was used for LP reissues in the 60s.
>
> dl
>
> Royal Pemberton wrote:
>> I'm not asking here about instances where Columbia (whether or not in
>> the ARC period) dubbed an items either from a foreign source (such as
>> in the case of 3114-D I asked about recently; they may have not
>> received metal parts and had to dub from pressings) or when a dub made
>> in, say, 1937, is of an item recorded in 1928, where the motives can
>> include giving the record lead in grooves, or an eccentric stop
>> groove, or perhaps just preservation of the metal originals.
>>
>> It looks to me, beginning around mid-1929, that Columbia occasionally
>> began dubbing from one contemporary master to another, giving the dubs
>> either 'control numbers' (those 100XXX series etc.) or those 'dubbed
>> series' 194XXX numbers.  This practice seemed to be indulged in much
>> more frequently with the Diva/Harmony/Velvet Tone/Clarion items, and
>> began to be much more frequent after the start of 1930.
>>
>> Do the master files give the reasons for this practice, where done?
>>
>> Here's a case in point, that sparked me to ask about this.  I just got
>> a copy of the 1968 LP PAUL WHITEMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA FEATURING BING
>> CROSBY [Columbia CL 2830] and the title 'A bunch of old love letters'
>> is shown as being recorded 18 October 1929, matrix W 149158-3 but
>> 'remastered and released as W 194379-3' on 2047-D.   (Why this was
>> done at the time is not explained.)
>>
>> The sound quality of this track is definitely poorer than any other
>> track (much more wow), leading me to believe they used a disc pressed
>> from 194379-3 rather than 149158-3 as their source.  I can appreciate
>> the use of 194379-3 in the LP for historical accuracy, but I have to
>> wonder why was 149158-3 both not used originally for the 78, nor used
>> as the dubbing source for the LP.
>>
>> I would think, if 149158-3 still existed in 1968 in such a condition
>> that a good vinyl pressing could have been made from it, they should
>> have used it instead, with an explanation of this being the take, but
>> not strictly speaking the actual originally issued master, being at
>> last made available on this album,  particularly since they did have
>> some blurb on the LP regarding use of a 'unique piece of filtering
>> equipment developed in the Columbia laboratories' to make the old
>> recordings sound better than they ever could have before.
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