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I also prefer "live" recordings. However, I do most of

Posted by BarneyT (A) on April 11, 2007 at 18:24:31

In Reply to: "are you still buying new recordings of standard works?" Me, no. I've learned my lesson. posted by clarkjohnsen on April 11, 2007 at 10:37:34:

the recordings myself, either from local FM stations that broadcast live concerts, or from classical internet stations that transmit at 128 or higher kbps. Internet stations can be recorded on your computer in lossless WAV or WMA files and burned on to CDs

Local FM stations, like WQXR and WNYC here in NYC, are generally the best source of high quality live broadcasts with little or no compression. The ambient soundstage, the clarity and definition of instruments and the the lack of fatiguing "edginess" or shrillness so prevalent in some CDs are some of the benefits of recording live broadcasts. I use a very sensitive and selective FM tuner with a good quality CD recorder that assures me an excellent recording of the original broadcasts. I am sure that WGBH in Boston also features live concerts of the BSO and other symphony orchestras.

For several years, I worked in a recording studio restoring and remastering old 78rpm records and transcribing them on to 16ips tape for radio stations, and I know first hand how painstaking a process that can be. Due to fluctuations in current and other variations in the motors of the old transcription lathes, the recording speed was not always 78rpm, and minute corrections had to be constantly made. Records had to be scrupulously cleaned, noise and static filtered, and the sound eaualized to compensate for microphones that emphasized/de-emphasized the bass and other frequencies.

There are some sound engineers like the legendary John R.T. Davies who excelled in restoring and remastering old 78rpm jazz recordings from the 1920's and 30's, but many of the restorations of classical 78rpm recordings I have heard do not impress me.

I've been greatly pleased with the remastered CDs of many of the audiophile classical LPs from 40 or 50 years ago, those from the Mercury "Living Presence" and RCA "Living Stereo" labels especially. Listening to Charles Munch with the BSO, Antal Dorati with the Minneapolis and London Symphony orchestras, to name but a few, have been a pleasant surprise.

Barney

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