{"product_id":"rollialter_2509_11_1_3x__","title":"Rollins, Sonny - Alternate Takes - White Hot Stamper (Quiet Vinyl)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a small bubble in the vinyl that plays as 3 light thuds near the start of track 2 on side 1, \"Come, Gone.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album is made up of alternate takes from the Way Out West and Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders sessions, and as such there is a bit of sonic variation between these tracks and the ones on the actual albums.  The best sounding songs here, particularly the material from Way Out West, can sound amazing!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAll Tube in 58\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe better copies are rich and tubey; many pressings were thin and modern sounding, and for that they would lose a lot of points. We want this record to sound like something Roy DuNann recorded with an All Tube chain in 1958, and the best copies give you that sound, without the surface noise and groove damage the originals doubtless suffer from.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome copies have much more space; some are more present, putting the musicians right in the room with you; some are more transparent, resolving the musical information much better than others, letting you \"see\" everyone in the studio clearly. Some have more rhythmic drive than others. On some the musicians seem more involved and energetic than they do on the average pressing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is one of the best copies we have ever played. We think you will enjoy it immensely.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Alternate Takes Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in  \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221958%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1958\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's  more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAnalogue Productions Heavy Vinyl\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConsidering their dismal track record -- an unbroken string of failures, with not one success of which I am aware -- I'm guessing the Hot Stamper copy we are offering here will blow the doors off anything they will ever do on vinyl.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHey, here’s a question for you: when was the last time you read a word about those Heavy Vinyl pressings, so badly mastered by Doug Sax? With no real presence and bloated bass, they're pure audiophile \"smile curve\" trash of the worst kind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey’ve rather fallen from favor, have they not? I wonder why. Could it be that they were as ridiculously bad as I said they were back in 1995, and it just took the rest of the world a little longer to recognize that fact? Perhaps audiophiles \u003ci\u003eare\u003c\/i\u003e making progress. It’s just taking them a long, long time. Hey, it took me a long, long time, so who am I to talk?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Alternate Takes\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks for the horns and drums, not the smear and thickness so common to most LPs.\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight, note-like bass with clear fingering\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, as well as the issue of frequency extension further down.\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the players.\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen: \u003cstrong\u003epresence and immediacy\u003c\/strong\u003e.  The musicians aren't \"back there\" somewhere, way behind the speakers. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt -- \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22roy-dunann%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRoy DuNann\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e in this case, see below -- would have put them.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eRoy DuNann\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe love the recordings made at the legendary Contemporary Records in the 50s and 60s -- it's our favorite jazz label for sonics by a long shot. Roy DuNann, their principal engineer, always seems to get the sound of \u003ci\u003ereal\u003c\/i\u003e instruments out of the sessions he recorded -- amazingly realistic drums in a big room; full-bodied, breathy horns; Tubey Magical guitar tone; deep, note-like bass; weighty pianos; vocal immediacy, and on and on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the better pressings such as this one there's just nothing between you and the music. You will have a very hard time finding a much better sounding jazz record than this very copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Players\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBass – \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22leroy-vinnegar%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLeroy Vinnegar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22ray-brown%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRay Brown\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrums – \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22shelly-manne%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShelly Manne\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGuitar – \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22barney-kessel%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBarney Kessel\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e \n\u003cli\u003ePiano – \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22hampton-hawes%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHampton Hawes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e \n\u003cli\u003eTenor Saxophone – Sonny Rollins\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVibraphone – \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22victor-feldman%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVictor Feldman\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus and maybe a bit better is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of later pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Rollins, Sonny","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51386937508136,"sku":"rollialter","price":299.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/rollialter.jpg?v=1756916358","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/rollialter_2509_11_1_3x__","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}