October 29, 2019

TR Mahalingam: Carnatic Instrumental [HTC 8090] a cassette recorded in 1971 and manufactured in 1990 in India

TR "Mali" Mahalingam is no stranger to this blog. This will be the fourth album which I have shared so far by this fantastic carnatic flutist.




Transfer: Nakamichi ZX-9 cassette deck, refurbished to "better than new" state by Willi Hermann
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity and xAct.
Monitoring: Focal Spirit One headphones


downloads:


24bit, 96kHz FLAC files (903 MB)
highest resolution files I am capable of producing
after decoding to WAV files, these can be burned to CDR
highest quality mp3 files possible 



video of a concert by "mali" in Chennai in 1971 (audio only):


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October 28, 2019

Lalgudi Jayaraman, N Ramani, and R Venkatraman: Violin - Venu - Veena [HTCS 03B 8080] a cassette originally recorded in 1967 and manufactured in 1990 in India

Here is an interesting carnatic violin, flute (venu) and veena album which was very popular in its day. It has been reissued in multiple iterations and many people have very warm feelings about this album.

 About 8 years ago it appeared as a vinyl transfer here.  It is mentioned in this article which is a brief introduction to carnatic music.




Violin: Lalgudi Jayaraman
Venu: N Ramani
Veena: R Venkatraman


Transfer: Nakamichi ZX-9 cassette deck, refurbished to "better than new" state by Willi Hermann
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity and xAct.
Monitoring: Focal Spirit One headphones


downloads:


highest resolution files I am capable of producing - large file!


after decoding to WAV files, these can be burned to CDR


highest quality mp3 files possible 



Here is a concert by N Ramani:


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October 26, 2019

Lalith Rao: A Never Ending Journey [Rhythm House 240 366] a cassette recorded and released in India in 1987

Here we have another post featuring the delightful vocals of Lalith Rao, a prominent female exponent of the Agra gharana.

Click here to see past uploads of Rao.




The titles and performers can clearly be seen on the scans below, so I thought repeating this information would be unnecessary.

One interesting feature about those cassettes from Rhythm House which I have seen are that they have been manufactured using a process where the cassette tape master is played in real time (sometimes cassettes are sped up 8x or more to speed up the process -- adjustments in EQ have to be made for this and the quality is almost never as good as a "real time duplicated" cassette).







Transfer: Nakamichi ZX-9 cassette deck, refurbished to "better than new" state by Willi Hermann
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity and xAct.
Monitoring: Focal Spirit One headphones



downloads:

highest resolution files I am capable of producing - large file!

after decoding to WAV files, these can be burned to CDR

highest quality mp3 files possible 



Click here for a good explanation of what FLAC files are and why you should be listening to them if you can.





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Chitti Babu: Carnatic Veena [HTC 8155] a cassette originally recorded in 1968 and manufactured in 1990 in India

Here is a very nice cassette of music by Chitti Babu, the well-known veena performer. I decided to transfer this cassette after the previous upload purely because they share the same Ghatam player.



Chitti Babu was the disciple of ES Shastry, whose work has appeared on this blog in the past.

I was at a veena festival in the US once and met Chitti Babu's eldest son, who was very kind to talk to me briefly. He was cheerful and friendly and I was a little sad that I couldn't spend more time chatting with him.




Tracklist
A1 Chalamela (Varnam)
Composed By – Kuppuswami Iyer
Raga: Natakuranji
Tala: Adi

A2 Sudhamayi
Composed By – Muthayya Bhagavathar
Raga: Amritavarshini
Tala: Rupakam

A3 Kshierasagara Sayana
Composed By – Thyagaraja* 
Raga: Devagandhari
Tala: Adi

B1 Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi 
Raga: Charukesi

B2 Apadooraku (Javali)
Composed By – Pattabhiramayya* 
Raga: Khamas
Tala: Madhyadi

B3 Nallanivada-Misra 

B4 Mangalam (A Hymn from Vedas)


Veena – Chitti Babu
Ghatam – Alangudi Ramachandran
Mridangam – Vellore Ramabadhran 

Notes
Original printed catalog number on the cover spine is STC038 56884. A small piece of paper has been pasted over it with catalog number HTC 8155.


Transfer: Nakamichi ZX-9 cassette deck, refurbished to "better than new" state by Willi Hermann
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity and xAct.
Monitoring: Focal Spirit One headphones


downloads:


24bit, 96kHz FLAC files (935 MB)
highest resolution files I am capable of producing
after decoding to WAV files, these can be burned to CDR
highest quality mp3 files possible 



Posted by at 1 comment:

October 25, 2019

Lalgudi Jayaraman & G Srimathi: Carnatic Violin [HTC 8086] a cassette recorded in 1970 and manufactured in 1990 in India

Fast on the heels of the recent upload of a bansuri LP is a transfer of one of many cassettes I have purchased from the good people at Shrimati's in Berkeley, California. There were requests for bansuri and violin releases, so I thought I would do these first. Plenty of plucked strings and vocals on the way.

 This one features Lalgudi Jayaraman and the slightly mysterious G Srimathi, who I believe was Lalgudi's sister. I could not find terribly much information about Srimathi -- no doubt I was looking in the wrong places. Anyone with interesting information, especially of recordings -- please supply in the comments. I thank you in advance.


This cassette was recorded in 1970 and manufactured in 1990. I don't have a lot of information about all of the various iterations of HMV/EMi recordings in the Cassette Years, but this appears to be a reissue of this LP (photo courtesy of an Indian website selling LPs):





I certainly think the original LP is much more attractive than the reissue cassette. 

 Transfer: Nakamichi ZX-9 cassette deck, refurbished to "better than new" state by Willi Hermann
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity and xAct.
Monitoring: Focal Spirit One headphones




downloads:

24bit, 96kHz FLAC files (972 MB)
highest resolution files I am capable of producing


16bit, 44.kHz FLAC files (270 MB)
after decoding to WAV files, these can be burned to CDR


320 kbps mp3 files (103 MB)
highest quality mp3 files possible 





(the above is an audio recording -- the sound quality dramatically improves pretty quickly into the performance. Check it out and give it a chance, for two hours or so)
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October 21, 2019

GS Sachdev: Two Moods [CP 102] an LP recorded and released in the United States in 1981

Here we have a lovely bansuri recital by the great GS Sachdev. I am always enchanted with his playing as I feel that he conveys a sincerity that is both touching and refreshing.

This is a live recording with some various very low frequency artifacts which may have been a result of movement on the stage or near the microphones. You have to listen closely on side two with good speakers to hear most of this. If I were you, I would not let this stop from you from downloading. It's a great performance.






Equipment used in transfer:

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in pure clean water
Turntable: Audio-technica AT-LP-1240
Cartridge: Audio-technica Shure M97xE
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity, ClickRepair, and xAct.

 
downloads:



24bit, 96kHz FLAC files (959 MB)
highest resolution files I am capable of producing


after decoding to WAV files, these can be burned to CDR

320 kbps mp3 files (123 MB)
highest quality mp3 files possible 



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