Beyond 33 1/3
Over the last couple of years, I’ve enjoyed the increasing discussion of other recorded formats like 78s and 45s. The improvements in digital recovery and remastering from 78s lately have been astounding. The 4-CD box set Excavated Shellac collects music from around the globe recorded on 78s even though some were recorded and released as late as the 1960s.1
Listening to a bunch of 78s lately, I noticed an uncanny quality to some 1950s recordings. The frequency extremes are still rolled off, but a steel guitar or electric organ can float over the rest of a track in a way I’ve never heard in another
