[ServinginEcuador]

Anybody else find the recording of this thing king of wierd thru a set of cans?? I ask as there are tracks where the instruments only come from one channel, so you'll have a double bass in one ear, piano in them both, cymbals in the other. It's kind of weird listening to it as the instruments are so pushed into one channel or te other that it's giving my ears fits!!!

I absolutely love this album, and really love the music in it, its just the channel separation of instruments is kinda weird on the brain!! Maybe that's why crossfeed is so popular???

 

[millerdog]

I think I got all of Guaraldi's Peanuts cds. I really like em except for the excessive tape hiss and such. My favorite Christmas cd.
Sorry, though I don't know if remix is available. I like to play them though speakers so everyone can enjoy

md

 

[bubbaj]

I listened to it the other day at work and didn't really notice anything troubling.

 

[grinch]

Quote:

Originally posted by ServinginEcuador Anybody else find the recording of this thing king of wierd thru a set of cans?? I ask as there are tracks where the instruments only come from one channel, so you'll have a double bass in one ear, piano in them both, cymbals in the other. It's kind of weird listening to it as the instruments are so pushed into one channel or te other that it's giving my ears fits!!! I absolutely love this album, and really love the music in it, its just the channel separation of instruments is kinda weird on the brain!! Maybe that's why crossfeed is so popular???

i just bought this album recently and i swear i was having a simliar problem. i was listening to it on the plane back from florida with etys and i swear i was hearing some mastering errors. definitely has that old-mono-beatles type sound though.

i also picked up a new recording of the peanuts christmas, done by cyrus chestnut, but i haven't listened to it yet. maybe i will now..

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Thanks for the replies guys!! I realize that this is a recording from the early 60's or so, but it just makes my brain go a little nuts when everything is so one channel oriented. I listened to it several times and every time it is just a little hard to really enjoy. Maybe I should stick to lilstening to it from some speakers instead of my cans!!!

I personally love this album and listen to it throughout the year. The weird thing is it just showed up in the mail the other day from someon in Florida I've never heard of. I thought it was kinda weird and no one has taken credit for sending it. Oh well, I'm just enjoying the music and not worrying about who it was who sent it!!

 

[M.Sensation]

Try Cyrus Chestnut's version. It's still a Charlie Brown Christmas but Chestnut has made little changes here and there to add his own influence to it. The overall feel is still the same and it's recorded much better.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by M.Sensation Try Cyrus Chestnut's version. It's still a Charlie Brown Christmas but Chestnut has made little changes here and there to add his own influence to it. The overall feel is still the same and it's recorded much better.

Does it still have the wonderful piano work that sounds nearly as good as Vince's???? The quality aside, I just love is piano work on this album, so a newer recordning wit hless involving piano work would lose it for me!!!!

 

[grinch]

Quote:

Originally posted by ServinginEcuador Does it still have the wonderful piano work that sounds nearly as good as Vince's???? The quality aside, I just love is piano work on this album, so a newer recordning wit hless involving piano work would lose it for me!!!!

i just tried listening to it, and i am quite pissed that i bought it now. it sounds like elevator music, complete with pathetically stupid synthesized instruments. ugh. want to buy it?

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by grinch i just tried listening to it, and i am quite pissed that i bought it now. it sounds like elevator music, complete with pathetically stupid synthesized instruments. ugh. want to buy it?

I think I'll pass after your wonderful, yet insighful review!!!

I had hoped there would be a better version out there, but I'll take the really poor quality and tape hiss any day of the week!!! Vince Gauraldi rules on those soundtrakcs to Peanuts!!!

 

[zowie]

For whomever likes Charlie Brown Christmas but isn't familiar with Guaraldi outside of that, I highly recommend his Greatest Hits album and Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus (a.k.a. Cast Your Fate to the Wind). Actually, I highly recommend those albums to anyone who will listen. His stuff with Bola Sete is also interesting.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by zowie For whomever likes Charlie Brown Christmas but isn't familiar with Guaraldi outside of that, I highly recommend his Greatest Hits album and Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus (a.k.a. Cast Your Fate to the Wind). Actually, I highly recommend those albums to anyone who will listen. His stuff with Bola Sete is also interesting.

Thanks for the reco zowie!! I'll have to take a look around for that cd as I really love Gauraldi's music!!

 

[ooheadsoo]

I've noticed that many jazz recordings are like this. It's much more apparent on headphones than off of speakers though. The most recent one I noticed exhibiting these characteristics is Count Basie and the Kansas City 8 (not 7, I don't remember 7 sounding like this.)

 

[BenG]

Well, the wide-discrete stereo effect was par for the course for alot of 60s popular music, not just jazz. This recording is no wild exception. The hiss isn't particularily bad either.

The best tracks on the Charlie Brown are still 'Christmas Time' (instrumental) & 'Greensleeves' for the piano solos, I think (once you get past the other more catchy Guaraldi melodies). But I wouldn't try playing the Coltrane or Jimmy Smith versions of 'Greensleeves' afterwards - wouldn't be fair.

 

[archosman]

You beat me to it BenG. I grew up in a house in the 60's where alot of jazz was played. God you people make me feel old.

Quote:

Originally posted by BenG Well, the wide-discrete stereo effect was par for the course for alot of 60s popular music, not just jazz. This recording is no wild exception. The hiss isn't particularily bad either. The best tracks on the Charlie Brown are still 'Christmas Time' (instrumental) & 'Greensleeves' for the piano solos, I think (once you get past the other more catchy Guaraldi melodies). But I wouldn't try playing the Coltrane or Jimmy Smith versions of 'Greensleeves' afterwards - wouldn't be fair.

 

[zowie]

While its tempting to shake our heads today about poor engineering taste of the early stereo era, the super-wide effect was actually right for the playback equipment people were using then.

What most people owned from the the late 50s to early 70s were either semi-portable table top record players or furniture type consols, both of which placed the speakers fairly close together -- too close for today's stereo recording techniques to provide much of a sound stage, but appropriately matched with the early hard-panned stereo recordings. That is, if the instruments are panned hard to left and right on the recording and the speakers are fairly near each other in the center of the room, you get a reasonable stereo perspective.

For the minority who did own high quality systems, many preamps offered channel blend settings to cure the problem.

In addition, early stereo phono cartidges had much higher cross-talk, so the effect would not be so pronounced in any event.