Document Records (2)

I'm curious; does anyone know if CD releases from this label use any form of noise reduction (CEDAR, NoNoise, etc.) for the disc-based recordings? I recently found a copy of Bunk Johnson And His New Orleans Band - The Complete Deccas, Victors And V Discs Plus Alternate Takes November 1945 To January 1946 and was quite impressed with the quality of the audio.

Being from the mid-'40s, these recordings will definitely be disc-based, and sure enough, most of the tracks have audible noise (pops/crackles), but some sound quite clean. Not knowing much about the different sorts of discs from the period, I can't comment on whether some mediums were just inherently low in noise, but at the same time, I doubt these were noise reduced because of the clean-sounding highs.

I do know a bit about the history and use of DNR in the 1980s/1990s, and I know that around the mid-'90s DNR was becoming common-place on these sorts of labels due to a decrease in the cost needed to process the audio. Finding pre-tape recordings on CD without DNR has become a bit of a hobby of mine, as most big-label offerings since the late 1980s seem to treat noise as a disease (I'm looking at you, RCA). Hearing this Document CD has renewed my hopes in being able to listen to these pre-tape recordings without having to buy 78s or put up with a digital sonic mess!

It is so good to see that these recordings are still being made available in such quantity, whether CDR or not. The sound is excellent throughout. Thumbs up from me!

Yeah I Agree. I must have about half of the entire collection and even if some of them are CDR's, the musical content and the quality are really good - considering the age and rarity of some of these 78's. The notes are great too. Wonderfully done!

Hello , this is Gillian from Document Records . Just to clarify , Document has been producing CDRS since 2004 or thereabouts so that we could press low selling volumes in house . We have a catalogue of over 1,000 titles to maintain . Please understand that we are primarily a heritage label holding slow moving stock . In order for us to trade in this way we sometimes press to order and we press in batches of 25 or less for certain shops and certain customers We understand that this is an issue for a very small number of people but it is common practise in our industry to produce music on CDRs .
When we produced music on Silver Discs CDRs we never had one query .We had a phase of producing music on silver discs with a white label .. same disc different label : this prompted about 3 complaints . The complaints were not about the sound .Three people complained that they simply did not like CDRS so it was hard to know what to do about that ...
These days we have a mixture of productions . some very old stock may be on a CD , repressed stock is likely to be on CDR and new releases where we hope we may sell more than 200 copies will likely be on a CD . Sealed or used .the criteria I just indicated is applicable . Thanks so much .

A warning about Document: At some point they switched to issuing manufactured CDRs without labeling their products as such. So whether you buy anything on the label still sealed or used from any source, be sure to ask what you will be getting.