The late 1950's...a golden age for music recording?

[Gang-Twanger]

I've often wondered, is part of the allure of the Blue Note RVG's just simply the consistency in production. You know, people get accustomed to a certain setup and that then is the de facto gold standard?

I'm not knocking any of this, I enjoy the 50's recordings (including the RVG's-but I like his 60's Impulse stuff too) - it's really just a thought.

I've taken a chance on a few records from that era that had what appeared to be heavy paper scuffs and they play through with very little to no background or surface noise, that's what amazes me most about that era of records.

I think part of it was also the quality of vinyl that they used back in those days, but I guess the main point is that there was a MUCH-higher standard of excellence back then. There was some crappy vinyl too, but as a whole, vinyl releases were held to a much-higher standard than they were in, say, the late '70's and later (I've come across so many '80's pressings with badly-off-center holes... You can't even listen to the thing because of this, even if it DIDN'T have totally-noisy vinyl).

 

[frankxbe]

Surprising to some I'm sure is just how good recording was then even more surprising to some would be how good some Mono records are especially the classical music.
Some of the 50's and 60's recordings and pressings were terrific. Even the 70's stuff was good . Not to say it can't be
done today but back then you could just get it good of the shelf. OTOH you could just as easily get bad stuff off the shelf . Seems like the major labels usually had decent stuff though.

 

[pdxr13]

AMPEX 300 recorders, transformer/tube console, German large capacitor microphones, no Dolby A, Scotch 111 tape , plenty of tube compression/limiting by WECo/Fairchild/RCA (but operated by adults) and high-quality monitors cost plenty (more than a nice house!), but what was really important were the large performance spaces to get the great sounds.

No matter how fancy the DSP, it never will be a big theater room. The microphones know, and you can hear it.

The cheap gear in small rooms make good-enough demo's, that no one can afford to properly record in a good/big studio, so they release them as "product". Go figure.

As far as playback, TG for digital. 24-bit sounds great and it doesn't wear out the analog masters. 12" records have nice sleeves, but give me that studio-master-tape sound every time.

Cheers.