Flat, Black, and Classical: Indian Classical Music on Vinyl and Cassette: September 2020

September 15, 2020

S Balachander: The Maestro and the Disciple part 1 [HTC 8143] a cassette recorded in India in 1979 and reissued in 1991

Here is a transfer of a cassette released in 1979 featuring the celebrated veena maestro S Balachander and his disciple Gayathri Narayanan, accompanied by UK Sivaraman on mridangam and TH Vinayakaram on Ghatam.

Transfer: Nakamichi ZX-9 cassette deck, extensively refurbished and rebuilt 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: Digital line out from a MacBook, Focal Spirit One headphones with Schitt Audio Asgard headphone preamp with 4490 DAC

downloads:

24bit, 44.1kHz FLAC files (490 MB)

highest resolution files I am capable of producing

16bit, 44.kHz FLAC files (276 MB)

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

320 kbps mp3 files (100 MB)

highest quality mp3 files possible

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

MS Gopalakrishnan: Carnatic Violin [HTC 8152] recorded in India in 1973 and issued on cassette in 1993

As a followup to a recent post of a French LP by the Carnatic violinist MS Gopalakrishnan, for this post we have a cassette released in 1993 by HMV. It was recorded in 1973.

Transfer: Nakamichi ZX-9 cassette deck, extensively refurbished and rebuilt to "better than new" state by Willi Hermann

downloads:

24bit, 96kHz FLAC files (940 MB)

highest resolution files I am capable of producing

16bit, 44.kHz FLAC files (251 MB)

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

320 kbps mp3 files (102 MB)

highest quality mp3 files possible

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

September 12, 2020

Aruna Sayeeram: radio broadcast performance recorded in 2007 in Paris

Here is a very well-recorded and enjoyable off-air broadcast recording from French radio of a performance by Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sayeeram (also spelled Aruna Sairam). At 42 minutes it's obviously not the entire concert, but what we have preserved by the radio wizards in Paris is really quite beautiful.