April 23, 2018

Kishori Amonkar: Mharo Pranam - Meera Bhajans [STCS 850699] a cassette released in India in 1984

Here is a nice collection of Bhajans (devotional songs) sung by the great Kishori Amonkar. These sorts of collections (this one released almost 35 years ago and featuring Meera Bhajans) can sometimes have less than tasteful musical arrangements, but this one is serious and devotional without being over the top or overly prettified.

Upon listening to the beginning of the second side of the tape, I was very surprised to hear what sounded like Kishori ji underwater, whether singing or drowning I wasn't entirely sure. I picked up a small screwdriver I have in place for such circumstances and hoped I could adjust the azimuth to make the cassette sound as it should. It was close, but after I tightened the screw for the second (playback) head so that it was as far to the left as it could be, suddenly the sounds above 4000Hz sprang to life, and i was no longer worried about the safety of Kishori ji.

Anytime I hear someone complain about how bad a particular cassette sounds, I have to wonder if they have learned about azimuth adjustment and practiced it. I know that as for myself I have sold or thrown out several cassette decks in my long life which may have only had to have their azimuth adjusted. I will spare you a long post detailing every cassette deck I have ever owned.

Eventually I am going to do a YouTube video about azimuth adjustment (since YT reaches a much larger audience that this small blog). It might seem like I am always mentioning this, but in terms of cassette transfers the correct tape-head alignment (azimuth) is a much more important factor than the quality of the deck or the audio tape used.

Please note: unavoidable travel and work issues will keep me from posting to any of my blogs for at least a week. Please do not worry about me! I will just be away from home and will come back very much motivated to transfer a stack of vinyl for your listening pleasure. In the meantime, please take the opportunity to deeply listen to my uploads as well as those of my blogging comrades listed at the right. Some of them upload their delightful posts so quickly that I personally don't have the time to appreciate the music they are sharing with me. That is a shame and I will do my best to keep up with my listening. In real life if I purchase a stack of records but don't get around to enjoying them, there is a visual reminder. However, it should be obvious that with digital files there is no stack of cardboard or plastic to remind you to get back to serious listening.







Equipment used in this transfer:
Cassette Deck: Teac W890R (azimuth was carefully adjusted for each side)
Preamp: Parasound PHP 850
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24/96 resolution
Software: Audacity and xAct




6 comments:

  1. Thanks a lot Richard for this Kishoritai cassette, I love her.

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  2. Hey Richard - Sorry I feel I need to be direct here. A lot of your posts don't have valid download links and most of these posts are several years old. Have you thought about deleting them since people cant have access to the music? Whats the point in all this carrot dangling? Sorry I don't mean to be rude but once a blogger publishes a post, then they should be committed enough to maintain valid links. If one can't maintain these commitments, then those posts are better off deleted. Having simply posts with just beautiful covers and no music is not fair either to the musician that you are promoting or to the audiences who come to your blog to enjoy their music. I suggest you delete all the posts that don't have valid links, and save people the frustration of waiting for them to reappear. Keep it simple and real, what do you think?

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  3. A pretty good reply, Richard. This blog is wonderful. Thanks a lot. Please go on: you do enlighten my days. Thank you one more time.

    : )

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  4. Thank U very much. This is awesome,majestic. I love it. Please keep it up.

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  5. Thank you. I listened to this LP while growing up. While I have been able to find the bits and pieces, have not able to find the entire collection in one piece. Now I can revive the memories of my childhood ! This means a lot. Take care.

    Anirban

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  6. Wonderful album, I managed to find the LP - does anyone have any information about the slide guitarist featured on the album? Could be Pt Brij Bhushan Kabra maybe?
    Wonderful blog, thank you for your works

    ReplyDelete