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Reviews: Nat King Cole - The Nat King Cole Story

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Reviews: 4

Review by Discspinner June 18, 2011 (11 of 11 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Breathtaking is about the only word that describes this. Most of the songs were recorded in 1961 and intended to be updated versions of the hits throughout Cole's career. Most were recorded on 3 tracks and the multi-channel maintains the vocals in the center track. My review is based on a stereo listen.

Mid ranges are exceptional, and the few "big band" portions of the generally understated arrangements explode with life and realism. Recording limitations of the time would cause an expectation that the bass will be lacking and the high end absent however, I didn't notice this to be the case.

I had complained twice to Acoustic Sounds via email about the long time it took to deliver this, since I ordered it over a year ago. Acoustic Sounds was quite apologetic about this each time and I gather that it took a lot of time for this cd to be sent by the manufacturer in Austria. In retrospect, it was so worth the wait.

One other thought. Sometimes I have noticed on exceptional remasters in sacd that they approach restoration in breathing new life into the recording without altering the original artists intent. That is absolutely the case here. What an incredible preservation of pop music history.

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Review by Bobo June 23, 2011 (6 of 6 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
This set gives me the "heebie-jeebies". I keep thinking that Nat is in my living room. I don't mind paying $70+ when the finished product sounds like this. I will only play the 3 ch. mix.

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Review by pontiac May 5, 2012 (4 of 4 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
I had been reading so many great things about this 2 disc set i just had to track down a copy. I am so pleased i did. Brilliant sound quality! I never get fed up of playing this set. The 3 channel sound really opens up the sound stage i feel. Playing the disc in 2 channel is also a real treat. An expensive set for sure, but one that will give a lot of joy. This set made me a nat king cole fan and i bought the other sacds too! Here is hoping there are more to follow.

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Review by pvcmusiclover January 16, 2013 (3 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
When engineer Steve Hoffman was preparing for the Nat King Cole remaster series, he make a pretty cool discovery. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Capital recorded most of their content in both mono and stereo ...in parallel. There were two control rooms - one downstairs for the mono mix and a smaller one upstairs for the stereo mix. The mono guys had a dozen or two microphones to mic the orchestra in order to get an up-close sound and tight control over instrument balance. Meanwhile, the stereo guys upstairs had two mics hanging above the orchestra and a feed from Nat's vocal mic. They'd record each mic to one track on a three track tape. These three track tapes were mixed down to stereo and released on 7.5ips open reel tape for audiophiles.

Hoffman and Gray chose master this album from those stereo 3-tracks. Hence the multi-channel 3.0 mix. The sound is a bit different than the compressed and reverb-saturated Nat "King" Cole you may have grown up with. It's very raw and dynamic. As such, I kind of have a love/hate relationship with it. It's certainly an interesting listen and very clean sounding. However, it's doesn't possess the kind of energy or togetherness of something that's a little bit more closely miced, compressed and reverb'd.

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