Steve_Graham@ub.cc.umich.edu (12/05/90)
I am reminded anew of my quarrel with Polygram by having just listened to what used to be a lovely record, Argo ZRG 5440 (lorries and all), Britten's Ceremony of Carols/Missa Brevis/Rejoice in the Lamb form 1966. This was the first inkling I had that something was amiss. I bought a copy of this record just as Polygram was taking over. It was a Decca pressing, and sounded just the way I remembered it, except that it was really terribly noisy to the point of real distraction. (Now I realize what I didn't then suspect, that it probably could have benefitted from a good cleaning.) I took it back and exchanged it for a new copy. The new one was a Philips. At first glance I though, "great! Philips makes nice, quiet pressings". Silly me. The person (expleteve deleted) who remastered it choose to up the level by at least 6 dB (!) with the result that all the climaxes are horribly distorted, where they had been clean ever since 1966. On side 1, that is. Side 2 isn't too bad. Most of (or at least much of) the original recording's appeal is still there, but the distortion is really awful. I could probably deal with it now that I have a V15 VMR, but it has been chewed by the lesser tracking cartridges I had previously. (And it's so hot that actually I'm not completely certain that the Shure would handle it, but suspect that it would.) Certainly it gave the radio station's Stanton 681 SE's fits, and those are sort of a standard. If a record doesn't track fairly cleanly on those there ought to be an awfully good reason for it. (Sibilances excepted.) I'm not talking about shhhhpitty sibilance here, I'm talking about hard clipping on both voice and organ, completely without reason. Certainly the pressing is good enough to avoid this level cranking. Arrrgh! I complained in a letter to Polygram and got back the typical "we try to be perfect but the odd defective pressing does get through...please return for inspection" form letter. Defective pressing my left foot. Defective sensibility of a mastering engineer more like. Why can't I do this and get paid for it? I'd love to, and would try not to inflict such senseless damage. End of tirade, thanks for listening.