06/2/2011 2:01 pm  #1


Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

This album has appeared on i-tunes and also on Spotify. Good sound but beware, it runs slow! It needs speeding up by about 4% if you should decide to download it.

 

07/2/2011 3:57 pm  #2


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

Did you know that this album entered the UK album chart in August 1960 and peaked at No. 7 during its 11 weeks in the chart? Spotify are looking into the matter of its slowness.

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12/2/2011 8:11 am  #3


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

The album is now coming out on CD on the Hallmark label. See see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Join-Bing-Sing-Along-Crosby/dp/B004MLXR62/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297456219&sr=1-1

I have written to Hallmark about the speed issue and hope it can be corrected.

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13/2/2011 1:10 pm  #4


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

Malcolm Macfarlane wrote:

The album is now coming out on CD on the Hallmark label. See see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Join-Bing-Sing-Along-Crosby/dp/B004MLXR62/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297456219&sr=1-1

I have written to Hallmark about the speed issue and hope it can be corrected.

An interesting development. Hallmark are a super-budget label, part of the Pickwick group.  At some time in the past they seem to have been an official budget - reissue outlet for RCA and also had some links with Columbia, but what the position now might be with the 'consolidations' in the recording industry it is difficult to say. This is a long way round to observing that it is difficult to know whether Hallmark might have access to the master tapes and are producing a licensed reissue, or are relying on dubbings from LPs. The speed problem could indicate the latter. A further indicator is that I believe all the Project licenses probably now vest in Bing Crosby Enterprises and the absence of any publicity from Bing's Facebook tends to confirm this is an unofficial issue.   

So if you are after super fidelity I doubt this is it.

Bing's own label 'Project' produced the series of which this was one, and originally leased to Warner, but Capitol reissued them in 1977.

Has anyone ever noticed an oddity about Bing's cover photos on the original Warner LPs? Compare the versions on 'Join Bing and Sing Along - 33 Great Songs' and 'Join Bing And Sing Along - 101 Gang Songs'.  They are mirror images  - but in the days before digital image manipulation, the colour of the jacket has changed from light and dark blue checker pattern to red and black checker.

 

15/3/2011 6:55 am  #5


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

Ken Crossland has now got the CD. He says the speed is OK but the sound is mono and obviously not from master tapes.

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16/3/2011 5:11 pm  #6


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

Ken has compared the timings on his original LP with the timings on Spotify and the new CD and they are the same. So clearly the CD I have (burnt from the LP some years ago) must run fast! How embarassing! Trouble is I now prefer it to the "correct" speed.

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16/3/2011 8:53 pm  #7


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

Noticed it listed on Amazon-USA today.

 

17/3/2011 1:04 pm  #8


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

The "Join Bing & Sing Along" saga continues.  I have now heard the new CD and the timings are the same as the versions I had. It's Spotify that's wrong. For instance, 'Alice Blue Gown' is 3.29 on Spotify  and 3.16 on the new CD. 'Aura Lee' is 3:03 on Spotify and 2.51 on the CD. The difference in speed is very noticeable I feel. So that's a relief. The versions I have been listening to were correct and my ears did not let me down when listening to the slow Spotify tracks.

     Thread Starter
 

17/3/2011 2:19 pm  #9


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

The mystery deepens. Ken Crossland's Spotify shows the correct timings. My version does not. How can this be? Can anyone explain?

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17/3/2011 5:33 pm  #10


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

Malcolm Macfarlane wrote:

The mystery deepens. Ken Crossland's Spotify shows the correct timings. My version does not. How can this be? Can anyone explain?

My Spotify version is certainly wrong. I have inadequate technical knowledge to provide any rational answer. Might the quality of connection have any impact?

I suspect our US (and other) friends might be puzzled about the Spotify reference. (Think Napster).

Spotify is an online streaming and download service based in Sweden and currently operating in eight western European countries.   It is legitimate and is licensed by many of the record companies but as yet does not seem to have managed to get agreements running in the US. It offers paid for streaming and downloads or 'free' streaming interrupted by advertising.  A fair amount of Bing there but nothing of the recent releases from Mosaic/ Collector's Choice. It claims over 10 million tracks growing at 10,000 per day and has several million subscribers.

 

30/4/2011 2:12 pm  #11


Re: Join Bing And Sing Along 33 Great Songs

As an appendix to all this I will add that, as a result of the joint findings of Malcolm and myself, we can be pretty positive that:-

1 The CD issue from Hallmark runs at a speed which sounds correct and compares well with the original LP played on properly adjusted equipment, but is in mono.
2 The short samples purportedly of the CD, carried by Amazon are NOT taken from the CD, as they are in stereo.
3 The downloads available from Amazon are also in stereo, but definitely run slow. On some tracks the effect on the sound is very bad, both in terms of speed and pitch.  Malcolm has previously suggested it runs slow by 4% but on my maths it is necessary to speed up the downloads by nearly twice that to  match the Hallmark CD quite closely in track playing times.
4 To be fair to Amazon they are not claiming equivalence between the CD and the Download, They say nothing but the cover illustrations are different.

To be precise the playing times are (in seconds) -

CD           2282
Download 2475
Difference  193

Therefore the download is slow by 7.798% overall.

In fact different tracks produce slight variations, caused by rounding errors and fractions of a second, but 8% is good enough for these purposes.

4 To my ears the downloads played at the adjusted speed sound right both in speed and pitch.  The stereo effect is more subdued than the original LP played on reasonable equipment and the treble range is not as bright.  Overall it is not bad but I prefer the LP.

Note that some software adjusts the speed of play but not the pitch. Both pitch and speed need to be adjusted.  I use 'Audacity' which is available as a free download and is quite easy to learn to use if you already have a reasonable grounding in usage of computer software beyond the mere basics. If you merely browse the net and use 'Word' you might struggle.  http://www.download-audacity.com/ 

It is very good also at 'cleaning up' and editing audio. In fact it's usage is quite wide ranging.

There have been other instances of Amazon downloads running slow. When it comes to 'Bing'  tracks  'Hey Jude' was a recent example.  I can only conclude that whatever system they use (or is used by others for them) to transcribe material onto their hard disc store has a fault in some component.

There remains the mystery of 'Spotify', I have tested it out again and it was certainly slow, when played as a real time stream. It might just be that it is inconsistent. This service is only offered in Europe.  We have three examples of incorrect and one of correct timings on the same material.  It is very interesting however that the incorrect timings seem to be the same as the incorrect Amazon timings.

Last edited by Richard Baker (30/4/2011 5:43 pm)

 

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