Bob Lind's Message Board

Just got my hands on RPM's "Since There Were Circles". I never had the good fortune to get a copy in Australia back in the 1970's; so it's a feast of "new stuff" for me and I am digesting with obsessive vigour.

Like most Lind compositions it takes several hearings of any track to fully appreciate the brillance.

I suppose most will have grabbed a copy by now, but if any fans "Down Under" are looking for it, here is a tip - I just bought my copy, over the counter, at Red Eye Records they are at 66 King St. Sydney.
It saved the hassles of ordering from overseas.

Loved the liner notes, too. The story in there answered a few questions I had about Bob's life.

Okay, guess the Verve stuff is for private consumption and appreciating owners will have to go underground. However, I can’t agree more that the Circles CD re-mastering job is superb and the bonus tracks are a blast, words can’t describe only the ears appreciate. So, one off-the-wall question, does Bob own his Capitol masters??

Don't even get Bob started on the Verve/Folkways album again! I think he said before that he hopes the tapes are at the bottom of an ocean.

As far as the CIRCLES CD, yes there may occasionally be some slight vinyl surface noise on a couple of the album tracks, but the songs sound more alive than ever. And the bonus tracks are nothing short of essential for Lind-ophiles!

Hi Bob,
Thanks for the insight on the "tape noise". Anyway, it's a great job and wonderful to have this essential recording finally on CD. I applaud you on this effort and hope for more to come. I'm new to this message board and am curious to know the whereabouts of your Verve/Folkways master tapes; any chance of them being transfered to CD? I know they maybe a little dated, but there's a lot of good material you recorded way-back-when.

Hi listeners,
I'm late to this thread. I see it's been running for a while. Just want to quell some of the speculation here.
This is the story:
I gave RPM all the master tapes I had. Some of them were usable and some weren't. So they did indeed lift some of the tracks from the vinyl. I'm not sure which ones were vinylized and which were taken from tapes.
But they have devices and implements I know not of that are great at removing that hiss. So I agree with Susanne, the sound is probably the best it can be.
Nonetheless, piedmontpaul, your ears are not deceiving you.
After I gave them the tapes, I stayed the hell out of it. I don't understand the mechancs of sound recording. My job, as I see it, is to write, sing and play with as much heart as I can draw out of me. I do that and I let the engineeers do what they do.

The important exceptions in this tapes/vinyl issue are the bonus tracks. None of them even existed on vinyl.
Tom Hartman painstakingly and skillfully mixed and mastered all but "I Found You" (The only available version of that one was a premixed quarter-inch tape.)
It was a labor of love for Tom. RPM paid him a set amount for his time, and he went well over what he was paid for out of sheer passion for the songs. When I heard the rough, unmixed version of "Colorado Line" I told him not to even bother. I told him I didn't think there was any hope for it.
He urged me to let him take a stab at it.
Sure enough he amazed me by putting it together like new.
I think he did a masterful job on all four of the tunes. And he has my deepest gratitude.
So there you pretty much have it.

Before I got my new cd, I was listening to a cd that I burned from the original vinyl recording. Beleive me, the new cd is an improvement over a copy of a well-played album!! I'm happy. (And there are the bonus tracks to enjoy as well.)

I believe what we are hearing is tape noise. The original masters were probably reel-to-reel and some tape noise always existed in that format. Also, techniques and methods of removing same were not as good as they are today. Another possibility, if it is a clicking or scratching sound, is some actual damage or detereoration to those original masters that has occurred over the last 35 years or so.

Just a pondering question - on my CD I think I hear a slight vinyl scratching noise. Has anybody else heard the same and was this CD mastered from the original tapes?