RCA Living Stereo on Reel-to-Reel Tape!

[MylesBAstor]

[Dre_J]

Nice work, Myles.

Thanks for the write-up. As you mentioned, the tapes are very good.

Dre

[astrotoy]

Myles, thanks for the great write-up. You have included some great detail about the recordings that was new to me. (One small point that you can edit - in the description of the Fountains of Rome - you mention the Trevi Fountain in the second piece about the Triton fountain.) I have originals of both 2436 Pines and 2445 Scheherazade (1S and 3S respectively). I agree that the tapes are a great step up from both of them. The price of an original Pines 1S goes these days for well over the cost of the tape version. Of course you will still need to get the machine to play them.

We were in Rome last summer for the wedding of my wife's niece. The wedding was held in a villa on the old Appian Way, just south of Rome (remember "All roads lead to Rome"). I looked for the pines, but there weren't all that many on the road.

Larry

[MylesBAstor]

Thanks will correct. Had triple checked everything to prevent just that sort of thing from happening.

[rockitman]

I can't wait for these two...

[MylesBAstor]

I can't wait for these two...

Yes ordered the Power of the Orchestra! Should be a blockbuster!

Going to hold off on the other tape until money permits.

[rockitman]

I have both of these coming. I ordered all of the RCA's...lol

[RoadDawgWest]

Can't wait as well. Tape has definitely put a dent into my vinyl purchasing budget.

[Joe Pittman]

Anybody get their copies yet? I should get mine soon. So this leaves four more tapes in the first series to follow:

Leopold Stokowski - Rhapsodies (RRAP 0009)

Fritz Reiner - Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kije/ Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale (RRAP 0010)

David Abel/Julie Steinberg - Beethoven: Violin Sonata Op.96 & Enescu: Op. 25 (RRAP 0011)

Lowell Graham - Winds Of War and Peace (RRAP 0012)

I assume Rhapsodies and Lieutenant Kije would be next. I can also imagine Chad is working on the next series after this. Someone (Myles) needs to create a thread asking for requests for this second series. I would like to see a mechanism where we "users" could send feedback/comments to Chad before-the-fact (but I know this will never happen).

[Dre_J]

Anybody get their copies yet? I should get mine soon. So this leaves four more tapes in the first series to follow:

Leopold Stokowski - Rhapsodies (RRAP 0009)

Fritz Reiner - Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kije/ Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale (RRAP 0010)

David Abel/Julie Steinberg - Beethoven: Violin Sonata Op.96 & Enescu: Op. 25 (RRAP 0011)

Lowell Graham - Winds Of War and Peace (RRAP 0012)

I assume Rhapsodies and Lieutenant Kije would be next. I can also imagine Chad is working on the next series after this. Someone (Myles) needs to create a thread asking for requests for this second series. I would like to see a mechanism where we "users" could send feedback/comments to Chad before-the-fact (but I know this will never happen).

The Stokowski Rhapsodies is a must get for me. I didn't order the next two -at least not yet.

[MylesBAstor]

My Power of the Orchestra shipped today and is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.

I am looking forward to The Winds of War and Peace based on the new LP.

[astrotoy]

My copies are being shipping on Monday! Looking forward to both tapes. Larry

[Joe Pittman]

Received both tapes today. Played Power of the Orchestra first. Wow!

[MylesBAstor]

[MylesBAstor]

Received both tapes today. Played Power of the Orchestra first. Wow!

Meters are flying .

[MylesBAstor]

Original LPs always weird. Found two copies on my shelves. (Think a 3rd one lurks somewhere.)

copy 1: 7S A2/5S B1
copy 2: 5S A2/5S A1 (side one goes in closer to label)

Tape wins but the original LPs are darn good. Especially when comparing Pictures.

[astrotoy]

Got my copies yesterday. I played Power of the Orchestra last night. Great tape. A couple of comments.

First, the Night on Bare Mountain is not the standard version which was orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakoff from Mussorgsky's original. It is one created by the conductor, Rene Leibowitz, so it has lots of extra percussive effects, including wind machines and other sounds which make the piece more sonic spectacular.

Second, like the record, Acoustic Sounds divides Pictures at an Exhibition into two parts. The first 40% is on the first tape and the last 60% is on the second tape. This balances the length of music on both tapes, but it means one has to reel to the end of tape one (with lots of extra tape at the end of reel one), take off reel one, and then reel to the head of tape two (2500 feet or so) to continue the rest of Pictures. It interrupts the music by several minutes, not good. This division is not necessary on the tape, since the entire Pictures is less than 32 minutes long and fits comfortably on one tape. It is necessary for the vinyl, since there would be an overly long side, but vinyl can just be flipped over in a few seconds, not a few minutes to change reels. There is a simple solution, with a razor blade and splicing tape!

PS. Anyone know what kind of recordng tape Acoustic Sounds is using?

Larry

[Joe Pittman]

This a massive error by Acoustic Sounds!

[astrotoy]

I checked the tape, looks like SM468. Larry

[rockitman]

I'm not bothered too much by it and there will be no knives near any of these tapes in my possession...thank you very much...lol

Edit: I'm just happy and thankful we have access to dubs from these great recordings/performances.

[astrotoy]

Listened to the Rach Symphonic Dances tape today. Even more dynamic than the Power of the Orchestra. The bass drums shake the room. This is a great piece, one of my favorites. Interestingly, Chad chose the first cover of the record (mostly black) rather than the second cover (green) which he used in his 45rpm reissue of the vinyl. Athena, which did the first (very fine) reissue of the album, used the cover art from the second cover. I have four copies of the album, the original black cover, the second green cover, the Athena and Chad's 45RPM reissue. The original and Athena were both HP's TAS Super discs.

The Rach Symphonic Dances take almost 34 minutes, which means it doesn't fit on one tape. There are three dances, so two fit on the first tape and the third is on the second tape. The filler (which is also on the album) is the beautiful Vocalise also by Rachmaninoff, just a few minutes long. It was originally written for a soprano (I think with piano) and is wordless. The orchestral version is normally without singer, just the violins playing the vocal line. It is pretty quiet, no great dynamics, but gorgeous.

There is also a fine digital version done of the Dances by Reference Recordings in hirez and remastered on vinyl by Paul Stubblebine. Paul cut a lacquer for me to use back in 2010 when we were testing different hardware and software combos for my ripping project.

Chad has two winners (making it 100% IMHO for the eight issues so far released).

Larry