Re: of Koffee and Tapes

[Ulrich Grepel <uli@zoodle.robin.de>]

Hi!

Ok, I've done some analyses of some songs and their recording quality.

Conclusion:


    DOES ANYONE HAVE THE FIRST THREE 7" CATHY DEMOS FOR SALE???? ;-)
           (reasonable [i.e. affordable] prices only please!)

If anyone's making a reasonable offer, I'd give a CD recording of
the singles back in return as well - I've access to a CD writer...


Here's what I found out:

I listened to Kashka, Coming Up, and Goodnight Baby. The first and the
last one also on vinyl, namely Cathy's Album (both) and Cathy Demos
Volume Four (Goodnight Baby only). Conclusion:

- Cathy Demos Volume Four:
  This recording is - compared to all others - really good. As close to
  studio quality as you can get in a living room with amateur equipment
  in the 70s. That is, there's almost no tape hiss, almost no surface
  noise, equal recording level with no automatic adjustment, almost no
  distortion. Very nice. There's one click on the *left* channel after
  the first couple of seconds of Goodnight Baby. There's more clicks
  and pops, but generally they're not too disturbing, *and* they're
  on all other recordings as well.
- Cathy's Album:
  Already a lot worse, and the click on Goodnight Baby is on *both*
  channels. This record also has the screech - screech - screech...
  on the beginning of Kashka.
- If You Could See Me Fly, Cathy's Home Demos, Home Demos, Practice Makes
  Perfect (Piano Demos No. 1): These four inferior CDs (Practice... doesn't
  contain Goodnight Baby, but does contain Kashka) all are copies of
  the Cathy's Album series, for: the click at the beginning of Goodnight
  Baby is on *both* channels, and the screech... is there as well.
- Alone At My Piano: The click is on the *left* channel, the screech is
  not there. So it's not a copy of Cathy's Album. On the other hand,
  the sound is far worse than on Cathy Demos Volume Four. Especially the
  high frequencies seem to be missing quite a lot.
- Shrubberies: The click is on the *right* channel. Strange but true.
  This therefore is also not a copy of Cathy's Album. The sound quality
  seems to be better than the sound quality of Alone At My Piano, but
  that's basically because there's much more high frequencies. Unfortunately
  higher frequencies also bring in more tape hiss.


To summarise this with also giving some numerical estimations:

Let's say a modern studio recording on CD is 100 points and static noise is
0 points. Then I'd put the four CD copies of Cathy's Album (and Cathy's Album
Too) at about 40. These albums themselves would be at 43-45. Alone.. would
be at 50, Shrubberies at 55 (for the first 22 tracks, the rest is worse),
and the 7" boots at 75 at least (as much as I've heard of them which still
isn't much).

A side remark: Cathy Demos Volume Four's version of Goodnight Baby
is even still *MUCH* *MUCH* *MUCH* better than any of the others after
I've recorded it on far too low level (~ -6 db) on a good analog tape deck
with Dolby C) and by playing it (what a sacrilege!) on a good but old
and not-cared-for turntable. "Good" in both cases means just "good",
definitely not "very good".


Recordings missing in my collection:

Fiddle: I do not own this tape copy of the demos. Anyone dare to comment?

Cathy's Album + Cathy's Album Too are also available as Cathy Complete
in a 2 LP set. I've not seen this anywhere, but have seen it listed.
Anyone able to comment on the sound quality?

The Sensual Woman: I've got a track listing of this LP, but unfortunately
that's all I know: Kashka, Coming Up, oh to be in love, Playing Canasta,
Snow, Ferry Me Over, Lionhearts, Violin, Craft Of Love, Queen Eddie, In My
Garden, Frightened Eyes, Never The Less, Goodnight Baby, So Soft, I Don't
See Why I Shouldn't.

Too Much Bush For You: This LP was also only listed somewhere, the only
thing I know that it's supposed to exist in 133 copies and is US made.

The original masters: sigh... EMI!!! KATE!!! Pleasepleasepleaseplease... ;-)

Bye,

Uli


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