532  Altering the music

Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 21:33:39 -0500
From: Keith Elshaw <keith@TOTANGO.NET>
Subject: Altering the music

Many of you dropped by the ToTANGO website after my post about the Di Sarli
Cronologica restoration project nearly a month ago.

After receiving requests to provide more MP3 examples of the differences
between what is commercially available now as opposed to what was originally
recorded, I have done so. Hence, the reason for this post.

They are on the front page: https://ToTANGO.net/ttindex.html

Please take this at face value: I am not driving myself crazy with the
restoration project for money. This is not a commercial venture.

At first, I thought I was just transferring the sound of the original analog
78's, everything recorded by the artist in chronological order, to digital -
cleaning them up in the process. (My friend Paul Montpetit at La Tangéria in
Montréal started this ball rolling, Bless him).

Then, I discovered, with a shock, that many of the commercial recordings of
Di Sarli's music have been altered in several ways to the detriment of the
original intention.

I can only speak about Di Sarli at this stage. (Except, I found no
discrepancies in the Biagi catalogue between commercial CD's and the
original recordings - the only other one I have done so far. The Pampa Biagi
CD's are excellent in relation to the originals. This summer, I will be
doing the D'Arienzo catalogue).

You may call me "anal-retentive," but I don't agree that Di Sarli's music
should be sped-up (pitch and temp change), have reverb added, be made to
sound nasal and harsh, just because a sound engineer somewhere thinks he can
"improve" the old recordings.

There are no clean Masters to duplicate from, because RCA Victor burned it's
Buenos Aires warehouse and the Masters stored in them in 1950. (That's also
why Troilo's, D'Arienzo's and others' recordings sound so bad today).

Anything you hear has been taken from some tango-lover's collection of 78's.
The quality is often terrible. So, some nice fellow recording engineer
decades later is asked to "make this sound better." He twists a few dials,
says this is the best we can do, goes home to watch TV, drink beer and fart.
Well, that's what the sound we are left with suggests.

I feel personally the injustice to Di Sarli's incredible talents. This man
had a troubled life, one gathers, but he neither deserves nor should suffer
the indignities posterity is inflicting on his brilliant legacy through lack
of caring and knowledge.

There is "no" (read: not worth it) market for tango music. The people who
"own" the rights to this music - the Masters of which they destroyed to cut
costs (!) in 1950 (did the savings go to the bottom line?) - will never make
the smallest effort to make amends nor let us hear "their" music the way it
was intended to be heard.

I just think people should know about what has been going on.

I mean, what is more important than the music?

In rough figures, perhaps 50% of Di Sarli's recordings are not generally
available commercially today. Is it not an injustice that a large portion of
what IS available has been altered in major ways from the original?

I think the world should wake up and smell the tempo. The one the maestro
gave.


And I'll say another thing to those who love to cry "copyrights" (which I
agree with as any law-abiding citizen should) and such.

Don't burn your Masters (then steal records from consumers who put their
fingers all over them and let the dog pee on them at an asado), play stupid
audio tricks to try to recover, and sell them at inflated prices for decades
to unsuspecting fanatics who are your only market, and cloak yourselves in
"rights".

Every one of you who is an "authorized" distributor should realise your
product can be NOT what you think it is, or what it is purported to be.

Alice in Tangoland.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Akihito Baba, who transferred from 78¹s
every recording ever made by the Argentine Orchestras of note. He didn¹t
touch them ... just put them in order and made them available in all their
noisy, distorted glory. It's these I am working from. (He didn't have the
"rights" - god bless his balls).

Of course, he was then ripped-off by Argentino merchants who sold them
without paying royalties, either.

Alice!!! Those IMF people are making stupid demands again!!


Well, I'm going back to listen to the originals to calm my nerves. I like
what Carlos did - not what the pirates (legit and otherwise) have done.


Best,

Keith


https://ToTANGO.net

Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 18:28:47 -0500
From: Keith Elshaw <keith@TOTANGO.NET>
Subject: Altering the Music 2

Um ...

It's not my intention to keep posting messages about the Di Sarli recordings
we have, but this should be said for the record ...


You can buy CD's of Di Sarli from the 50's that are of excellent quality -
big, clear sound and with no noise or scratches.

The ones you have (or buy) could have been sped-up, too. I specifically
refer to TANGOS INSTRUMENTALES SELLO VICTOR (1954-1958).

A-440 (hz) is the reference.

Carlos Di Sarli made nearly 400 recordings. How utterly absurd it is that so
many of the ones available have been altered and messed with over the years.
This drives the musician crazy. His entire output, beginning to end, has
been distorted in more ways than one.

I'd love to interview him right now ... ask him what he would like us to
know based on our perceptions of him from today's vantage point as opposed
to his reality and perspective (now over 40 years departed).

I believe he would start off with quite a bit of invective about the record
business, then and now.

Speaking as the person making these discoveries at this point in time, I can
say I feel disgust that this state of affairs has come to be. But it has.

We've all been sold a bill of goods. And will continue to be for some time.

Maybe we can convene an International Di Sarli Convention in which all
distributors of all lands would agree to only release Di Sarli recordings at
the CORRECT pitch, correct tempo.

News Item: "The world recording industry today announced the re-call of all
Carlos Di Sarli CD's. Admitting to selling defective products, the industry
is exchanging old CD's for ones that work properly."