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

[davdieh at aol.com]

 Reissues are hardly a good guide to what lurks in the vaults. Mosaic and Bear Family go the expense of tracking down the best available sources but that certainly was not the rule at CBS or RCA in the 1960's and '70's.

I recall a trip to the BMG archives a few years ago when a gaggle of interns arrived to fill a shopping list from some producer. They began to vent frustration at not being able to complete their task so I asked if I could help. Turned out they hadn't been told that issue numbers prefixed CAL were Camdens and not Victors. So much for in-house research. Most reissue projects didn't have the budget to order up fresh test pressings and had to utilize whatever was at hand; usually 78's from collectors or "the Altschuler Collection."

Columbia's numerology often had a bookkeeping function with mxs being renumbered as they were passed among Okeh, Odeon, Harmony, etc. "Twould be interesting to know if these 19's had the "W" prefix.
David Diehl 


Royal Pemberton wrote:


]> 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.
>> (big edit)
>> dl
>>
>> Royal Pemberton wrote:

>>> 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.