[78-L] War of the Worlds on LP

[Michael Biel]

I finally had a chance to check out my tape (7 1/2 IPS half track mono)
which I got a year before the Evolution LP set came out.  Not checking
very closely in the past, I had thought that it was the same transfer as
used on the LP.  It turns out that it was a different playing of the
same discs, and is no more than a second generation copy of the discs. 
The overlap error of the first into the second disc is not on my tape. 
It is perfectly done on mine.  The same is true of several other places
where lines or words are missing, such as the professor looking down at
his blackened hands, worn shoes and tattered clothing, and later looking
over the spires of his university buildings.  My tape is complete at
these points.  This is checked in comparison with the two sets of 78 RPM
discs.  The only thing missing from my tape is the first half sentence
at the start of disc side 3 at 30 minutes, right after the announcer
says "One moment, please." There was a lot of groove scratch and about
10 words were not transferred.  I can get them from other sources.   

I should have checked this tape -- and digitized it -- years ago.  I
thought I had digitized it last year but do not find it on any CD or
hard drive. When I do it, and when I fix that start of side three and
use a cleaner version of the opening sentence from a 78 set, it will be
THE best version of WOW.  


Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [78-L] War of the Worlds on LP
From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
Date: Tue, October 29, 2013 10:31 pm
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>

Forgot to mention that the Longines version is complete on one disc. The
Radio 
Spirits CD is a disaster, horribly overprocessed, and I got rid of it as

quickly as possible. I think it has the same overlap as the Evolution
and 
Longines transfers.

On 10/29/2013 8:55 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> The Longines Symphonette version is identical to the Evolution except that it
> IS mono. It also has the overlapping dialogue at the 15 minute point (original
> transcription discs sides 1& 2) and about a 1-second blank spot somewhere
> (don't ask me where, I transferred that thing to open reel decades ago and
> spliced out the gap). Obviously a bit of leader someone neglected to remove, or
> something similar.
>
> The Audio Rarities was the first version issued, in the 50s, from pretty bad
> sources, missing the opening, sounding as if the last few minutes were from bad
> 78 lacquers.
>
> dl
>
> On 10/29/2013 8:29 PM, Sammy Jones wrote:
>> It dawned on me tonight (as I await the airing of the new PBS doc on the
>> show) that I don't own a copy of the famous Evolution double-LP set of the
>> War of the Worlds. I checked eBay, and all copies of Evolution 4001 appear
>> to be *gasp* simulated stereo.
>>
>> Did Evolution ever issue this version in mono? If not, are the CD copies in
>> circulation (Metacom, Radio Spirits) really sourced from this pseudo-stereo
>> record? Of the several CD restorations I've heard, the Metacom disc from
>> the mid-90s seems to be the least objectionable.
>>
>> I've got the Audio Rarities release, which I believe is cut. Any other
>> notable versions worth owning on LP?
>>
>> Sammy Jones