Title: Great performance and recording but why such a poor transfer?
Product review: This is the remaster by RVG, 24 bit transfer reissue produced by Michael Cuscuna I have been comparing to my friend's 1987 transfer by Ron McMaster also produced by Michael Cuscuna.Apart from the fact that the remaster is much louder and compressed, I was staggered at the difference. Stanley Turrentine's sax is so important to many tracks and drives the rhythm as much as the rhythm section itself but it has lost much of its exquisite contrasting soft/hard expressive qualities, almost like it's been added on top in the new version. Everyone seems to be playing in isolation and the drums are so much louder in the mix I can't believe this was all done with only a 2 track master, that is quite an achievement. Even the organ has lost much of it's "watery" quality. There's just no space left, most of the exquisite pauses are missing, dynamics and much of the texture are all gone. To make everything worse the noise floor even sounds way higher.
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