While creating a new tango music library on itunes, my computer busy importing my D’Arienzo CDs, I had a look at those CD covers again. I listen to my CDs from time to time, but it’s true I never paid attention to the covers. That’s why only until today, I notice this funny “error” of a CD I bought only for the song “Este Es El Rey”. The cover has a typical picture of Avenida Corrientes, but wait, something is wrong…… Read EVERYTHING on the picture and you will find it out!

So, this track I found among my collection is indeed the other version of La Tupungatina, just that unfortunately there are defects at the beginning. It is shorter than the one we usually hear from the Reliquias series, so here let’s call it the short version. Besides the sound quality matter, here are some obvious differences I recognized of the two versions, all the time indication below is of the Reliquias version:

• At the very beginning, the introduction is shorter. The first few bars of the Reliquias version goes like this: A, A, A1, A1; while in the shorter version, it goes like this: A, A1.
• The bass and piano interval at around 0:45 is shorten in the short version.
• The interval between 1:47 to 1:54 is missing in the short version.
• The violin variation between 2:27 to 2:41 is missing in the short version.
• In between the 2:58 to 3:26 piano solo, there’re whistling sound imitated by the violin in the short version.

And if you listen carefully, even though the arrangements are pretty much the same, interpretation of the violin and piano are different in two versions. These are subtle, the more you listen and compare the two versions, the more you will figure them out.

Ok ok…… I know I’m talking too much. Here’s the song. Enjoy!

• The comparison is made between samples from Japanese CDs (CTA or Epoca de Oro) and samples from Coleccion 78 RPM or BMG Homenaje a Juan D’Arienzo “El Rey del Compás”, because one is known to have the best transfer and the other is the biggest D’Arienzo collection on the commercial CD market.

• All the samples are transformed from CD to mp3 at 160kbps, 44.100KHz. Unfortunately while I used editing software to shorten some of the clips, the sound quality suffered a little, but it should affect the matter of discussion.

• The order of samples does not represent my preferences. Feel free to listen to them at your preferred order.

• CTA discs are reproduction from SPs without sound restoration. Background noise (needle noise) is expected.

• Please use headphone while listening.

• All of us listen to music yet our sensitivity to music is different from person to person. Some people can detect small differences while some cannot. While I chose the samples, I listened to them as the way they are presented here (as mp3 files). With my ears I can hear the differences between them (some are very obvious, some are not), if you can’t hear the differences, I can’t help.

Speed and Pitch

An important achievement of the Japanese labels is transforming music from SP to CD with correct speed. This issue has been discussed long time ago by Keith, so I won’t go into detail here. Put it simply, the faster the SP turns, the higher the pitch goes; when the disc is played faster than its original recording speed, the music is distorted. An experienced sound engineer could probably tell right away if the tempo and pitch is correct. While ordinary people like me could also tell if one has an experience of listening to original SPs and change of playing speed. For those who are not among these 2 types of people, then what you can do is to rely on the recording companies (trust their way of handling the music), or your own listening experience and sensitivity. The speed and pitch of a transfer are not subjective matter, they are objective. If the disc turns too fast, the music is faster than it is supposed to be. We might be used to a speed-up version for long time or some might even prefer a speed-up version, but one cannot say the speed-up version is the correct version of an SP transfer, and definitely a speed-up version is not the original intent of the musician.

Here are some examples:

- No Mientas (1938) Singer: Alberto Echagüe
Juan D’Arienzo Epoca de Oro Vol. 2
Homage A El Rey del Compás: El Esquinazo – 1937 / 38

Chique (1942)
CTA 310 – Juan D’Arienzo Vol. 10 (1942-1943)
Coleccion 78 RPM – Juan D’Arienzo 1941/1944
Juan D’Arienzo Epoca de Oro Vol. 4
- 78RPM overall does a very good job, I must say this track is pretty exceptional and surprised me.

Francia (1935)
CTA 301 – Juan D’Arienzo Vol. 1 (1935-1936)
Homage A El Rey del Compás: De Pura Cepa 1935-1936

Don Pacifico (1954)
Juan D’Arienzo Epoca de Oro Vol. 9
Homage A El Rey del Compás: Viento Sur 1954-1955

- Pensalo Bien (1938) Singer: Alberto Echagüe
El Bandoneon – El Rey Del Compas
Juan D’Arienzo Epoca de Oro Vol. 1
Originally I’m not intended to use El Bandoneon to compare, but I think it’s important show how fast a piece of music can be speeded up

What I’m trying to show here is speed-up problem exists in the labels/series mentioned above. But one should note that not all the tracks from these labels/series have this problem.

Clean or Clear

After transfer the music from its original source, be it SP or LP, many record companies do some clean-up before they put the music into a CD. Usually what is removed or filtered is the noise of crackles and the continues background noise (the sound of the needle playing on the SP). Depends on the condition of the original source (SP or LP), sometimes the file needs a big clean-up before it reaches an acceptable condition to the CD consumer. But there’s also drawback of this clean-up process, the subtle sound of the music is removed together with the noise or crackles, as a result the complexity of the sound is reduced. Thus the restoration is an art – if this process has to be carried out, it has to be done with great care. Overdoing it will destroy the flavour and texture of the music.

I picked samples which have the same speed and pitch, then you can focus on listening to the quality of the sound. I will suggest downloading the files and listening to them one by one carefully. If you can’t hear much differences from the first listening, then focus on a particular part and make your comparison, that would be easier. While listening, first pay attention to the bass, without too much clean-up, the bass sounds powerful and full of energy. Then the vocal and piano also show the differences – piano sounds crystal clear and the vocal part has a strong presence from original SP. Generally speaking, the cleaner version sounds like being filtered, though there’s no noise, but the instruments sound a little blur.

Pobre Mascaritas (1942) Singer: Juan Carlos Lamas
CTA 310 – Juan D’Arienzo Vol. 10 (1942-1943)
Coleccion 78 RPM – Juan D’Arienzo 1941/1944
Juan D’Arienzo Epoca de Oro Vol. 4

Pregonera (1945) Singer: Armando Laborde
CTA 313 – Juan D’Arienzo Vol. 13 (1944-1945)
Coleccion 78 RPM – Juan D’Arienzo 1944/1949
Juan D’Arienzo Epoca de Oro Vol. 5

Mandria (1939) Singer: Alberto Echagüe
CTA 306 – Juan D’Arienzo (1939-1940)
Juan D’Arienzo Epoca de Oro Vol. 2
Homage A El Rey Del Compás: Meta Fierro – Yunta Brava 1939/1940

La Cumparsita (1951)
CTA 319 – Juan D’Arienzo Vol. 19 (1950-1951)
Juan D’Arienzo Epoca de Oro Vol. 8
Homage A El Rey del Compás: Bien Pulenta 1950-1952

The first time I listened to a SP of D’Arienzo, I was moved and I had a drop of tear in my eyes. But I never had the same experience when I listen to my usual D’Arienzo CDs. With my Japanese D’Arienzo CDs, my listening experience gets very close to listening to SP. Yet, I am only touched, but not moved by the music. Few friends who have experienced that would understand what I said.

AMP's LP.

From what I could see on the market 2 years ago (2007), AMP collection is particularly strong at 1920s to 1930s recordings. The big orchestras in this period like Canaro, Lomuto, Fresedo, Firpo and Donato play an important part in its collection. Just Canaro’s music from the 30s has at least 8 albums, while Lomuto has at least 10. I’m not sure how many overlapping songs there are between the CTA and AMP Canaro series, but by luck or by accident, out of my 7 CTA albums and 3 AMP albums, there is not even 1 overlapping track! AMP is also one of the best source to obtain some Firpo’s orchestra recording (not his quartet). There are more than 8 CDs of Firpo, unfortunately I only managed to get 2. But from these 2 CDs, there’s only 1 song available on Reliquias’s Firpo CD. Reliquias has lots of CDs of Firpo’s quartet, but its collection of Firpo’s orchestra recordings is weak. Besides those big names, you can also find CDs of less famous orchestra in the AMP collection like Cuarteto Típica “Los Ases”, Rafael Canaro and Ricardo Luis Brignolo etc.

Back sleeve of AMP Firpo CD.

Disco Latina is also one of the early attempts to reissue tango music. Again it started with LP and moved to CD format in the 90s. Michael already wrote a special page to talk about this label. In his page, you can find cover art, listing of songs of the full series. A lot of work and very informative! Unfortunately, this label was deleted long time ago. It’s rare you can find its CD even in the second hand CD stores in Japan.

Disco Latino's LP.

Cover art of Disco Latina.

Back sleeve of Disco Latina CD.