Flim, Ruff & George
28/05/08 20:10
Like many people I have been waiting for high res
music downloads for quite some time and finally it
is starting to happen with sites like HD Tracks,
but the content available is limited to say the
least but it is a great start. If I was honest with
myself, the reason I want high res download is not
only the convenience but the price, as it is
cheaper to buy download than it is the CD in most
cases and this is certainly true here in Australia.
In recent weeks I have discovered a genius named George Massenburg, although I have known of him for years I was not aware of his genius until recently. George is the man credited for inventing the parametric equaliser, in fact he presented the idea to his University teacher who told him it would never work, so he quit Uni there and then.
Over the years, the parametric equaliser has been used on every recording in both the recording stages and the mastering stage. it is the main way in which audio is manipulated in the recording process. And they told him it would never work!
In that time George has also been responsible for some of the finest recordings ever made, as he is also a superb engineer, having recorded, mixed and produced albums for some major league stars such as Linda Ronstadt, as well as some lesser known artists, and that is how I discovered him.
I recall years ago a customer coming into our store and demoing some speakers using a Sheffield Labs recording that sounded superb. So I went searching for a good Sheffield Labs CD to use for my own personal use, and discovered their 'My Disc' CD containing the usual test tracks and a small selection of recordings the company has done over the years.
This disc contains a track called 'Wishing Well' by Micheal Ruff, and this particular track was recorded live in the studio to two track by George Massenburg. This is without a doubt the best recording I have ever heard, and when you listen to the performance by Michael Ruff and his extraordinary band it amazes me that this is a live recording as most popular releases fail to capture this level of quality with multiple overdubs!
So at one time I discovered Michael Ruff and the genius of George Massenburg, which then led me on a chase to find other recordings by George. In reading his web site I discovered his involvement with another favourite of mine, Flim and the BB's. George recorded two of their later recordings, 'This is a recording' and 'New Pants'.
So I went to Amazon to look for the two Flim CD's and the Michael Ruff CD called 'Speaking in Melodies' which is the album where 'Wishing Well' was taken from. What I discovered however was that all of these CD's are no longer in production so my only choice was to seek them out in Amazon's second hand dealers sections. I found the two Flim and the BB's CD's and sourced the Michael Ruff CD on eBay from a guy in Manila of all places.
The Michael Ruff CD is a sought after CD so it was not cheap ($50) but the two Flim CD's were relatively cheap at about $5 each. I then looked for the Linda Ronstadt CD's that George was involved with only to discover that I could buy them from as little as .01 cent! I had just discovered the benefit of buying used CD's!
Since then I have bought about 25 used CD's with a total cost including shipping of around $225, and every one of them is in as new condition. The bonus is I can rip them into what ever format I like, which for me is Apple Lossless, plus I have the printed booklet to read and my backup on CD. All I miss out on is the immediacy of the purchase but I think I can live with that for the benefits it provides.
But just getting back to the fact that these CD's are now out of print, why on earth are they not offering these great recordings for download? What is the cost of offering music as a download compared to pressing thousands of copies? Nothing! With some luck these great recordings will eventually be available for download in uncompressed format soon, if the recording companies wake up that is.
Back to George, there is a list of his recording credits available on his web site and many of them are worth checking out, particularly the Flim and the BB's recordings and without a doubt the Michael Ruff 'Speaking in Melodies' CD if you can find it.
In recent weeks I have discovered a genius named George Massenburg, although I have known of him for years I was not aware of his genius until recently. George is the man credited for inventing the parametric equaliser, in fact he presented the idea to his University teacher who told him it would never work, so he quit Uni there and then.
Over the years, the parametric equaliser has been used on every recording in both the recording stages and the mastering stage. it is the main way in which audio is manipulated in the recording process. And they told him it would never work!
In that time George has also been responsible for some of the finest recordings ever made, as he is also a superb engineer, having recorded, mixed and produced albums for some major league stars such as Linda Ronstadt, as well as some lesser known artists, and that is how I discovered him.
I recall years ago a customer coming into our store and demoing some speakers using a Sheffield Labs recording that sounded superb. So I went searching for a good Sheffield Labs CD to use for my own personal use, and discovered their 'My Disc' CD containing the usual test tracks and a small selection of recordings the company has done over the years.
This disc contains a track called 'Wishing Well' by Micheal Ruff, and this particular track was recorded live in the studio to two track by George Massenburg. This is without a doubt the best recording I have ever heard, and when you listen to the performance by Michael Ruff and his extraordinary band it amazes me that this is a live recording as most popular releases fail to capture this level of quality with multiple overdubs!
So at one time I discovered Michael Ruff and the genius of George Massenburg, which then led me on a chase to find other recordings by George. In reading his web site I discovered his involvement with another favourite of mine, Flim and the BB's. George recorded two of their later recordings, 'This is a recording' and 'New Pants'.
So I went to Amazon to look for the two Flim CD's and the Michael Ruff CD called 'Speaking in Melodies' which is the album where 'Wishing Well' was taken from. What I discovered however was that all of these CD's are no longer in production so my only choice was to seek them out in Amazon's second hand dealers sections. I found the two Flim and the BB's CD's and sourced the Michael Ruff CD on eBay from a guy in Manila of all places.
The Michael Ruff CD is a sought after CD so it was not cheap ($50) but the two Flim CD's were relatively cheap at about $5 each. I then looked for the Linda Ronstadt CD's that George was involved with only to discover that I could buy them from as little as .01 cent! I had just discovered the benefit of buying used CD's!
Since then I have bought about 25 used CD's with a total cost including shipping of around $225, and every one of them is in as new condition. The bonus is I can rip them into what ever format I like, which for me is Apple Lossless, plus I have the printed booklet to read and my backup on CD. All I miss out on is the immediacy of the purchase but I think I can live with that for the benefits it provides.
But just getting back to the fact that these CD's are now out of print, why on earth are they not offering these great recordings for download? What is the cost of offering music as a download compared to pressing thousands of copies? Nothing! With some luck these great recordings will eventually be available for download in uncompressed format soon, if the recording companies wake up that is.
Back to George, there is a list of his recording credits available on his web site and many of them are worth checking out, particularly the Flim and the BB's recordings and without a doubt the Michael Ruff 'Speaking in Melodies' CD if you can find it.
|