Legend Series From Saregama

[thekinge]

Hi Guys (from Chennai / TN),

I was in Landmark @ Spencers Plaza yesterday looking for some good audio CDs including Vatsalyam, Diana Krall et al and I chanced upon some good collection of songs in The Legendseries by Saregama. I saw a good collection of MGR, P B Srinivas, A M Raja and Seerkazhi Govindharajan songs. The Legend series is a box set of 5 re-mastered audio CDs containing select songs of the title artist. So for example, the P B Srinivas box set contains 5 CDs full of select songs sung by him and each CD contains approximately 20 songs. They are audio CDs and not MP3s.

I quite like the songs of MGR, P B Srinivas & Seerkazhi Govindharajan (no I am not that old!) as does my mother. Each box set costs Rs. 1000. While the song selection for each artist is good and I was most tempted to buy them, but then I was not sure about the quality of these CDs. I am not even sure if they are fully remastered.

Do any of you guys own any Legends box set from Saregama? Hows the quality? Are they good stereo quality CDs with good channel separation?

Appreciate your early response since I am here only till this Friday and would like to buy them before I leave if they are of decent quality.

Thanks,
thekinge

 

[srikarkav]

Hi,

Though i have not heard the saregama CDs i can tell you this.All the songs in the times on MGR,PBS and Seerkazhi are mono recorded.Even remastered you can't expect stereo quality and separation in the CDs.But it does not mean the Saregama CDs you mentioned may be bad.In those days the instruments were kept to a minimum and the singer's voice and the lyrics are a delight to hear.So if any of our forum friends can vouch that these CDs are of decent quality you can still go for them.

cheers,
sri

 

[bergkamp]

I recently bought the Legends series for RD Burman and Kishore Kumar.

- Song selection is very good and well sorted among the CDs
- Nicely packaged with a booklet containing interesting info about the artist
- Few of the CD sleeves inside were broken


Now for the sound quality:
- Unfortunately its terrible. I have heard better mp3 recording of some of the songs in those CDs. Even youtube is better....
- Some songs dont even finish when the next track cuts in.
- Some tracks have static sound..that isnt present in some other recordings of same song that I have.

So basically Saregama spent all their effort in packaging this collection and nothing on the actual recording quality. They probably used some mp3 to burn these CDs. Left in hands of this company....the quality of recordings of our great artists will just deteriorate with time. Every new version they release appears to be worse. I wonder if future generations will even get to hear what our legends really sounded like......

Please stay away from these collections. You are better off with the mp3s that you already have.

 

[thekinge]

Thanks for the post bergkamp but it was a bit late. I had already bought the Kishore Kumar collection as a gift for my wife but I bought it because the box specifically mentioned that it was re-mastered. I forgot to bring it to Dubai hence it is still shrink wrapped and is sleeping well in my home in Chennai . Will be able to play it in my setup hopefully by first week of August.

Thankfully I did not buy the Tamil song series in my original post because I was not too sure about their quality - bought similar songs in MP3 instead.

 

[gobble]

I made hopefully my last purchase of saregama label last month. SQ is absolutely pathetic. They are made for people with cheap CDP 3-in-1s who will not detect the bad recording.

Good recordings from this label are an exception not the rule.

 

[cooltoad]

Sometime back bought a SPB collection for songs like andhi mazhai and ilaiya nila,etc and i feel listening to these songs on the radio is better. So terrible is the quality that I'll never bother to buy any 70s/80s CDs anymore. People born in the 90s or later will miss listening to these recordings as they'll be put off by the quality.

 

[thevortex]

thekinge - I have the PB Sreenivos 5 cd set you are speaking of. And the sound quality is definitely decent. It helps that the song recordings in those days had mid range and little else .

Unfortunately it is very difficult to get a hold of good recordings for Kishore Kumar songs. I also have the AM Raja Legends set and I can tell you that his voice simply flows out from the CD. Mellifluous is the only way to put it.

Thing is - with music this old, chances are you will connect with it more often than not. Music like this does not need extreme detail retrieval or other snazzy things to draw you in. I am sure you will like it if you get them. Especially if you like this sort of music.

 

[shailenderb]

thekinge - I have the PB Sreenivos 5 cd set you are speaking of. And the sound quality is definitely decent. It helps that the song recordings in those days had mid range and little else .

Unfortunately it is very difficult to get a hold of good recordings for Kishore Kumar songs. I also have the AM Raja Legends set and I can tell you that his voice simply flows out from the CD. Mellifluous is the only way to put it.

Thing is - with music this old, chances are you will connect with it more often than not. Music like this does not need extreme detail retrieval or other snazzy things to draw you in. I am sure you will like it if you get them. Especially if you like this sort of music.

Thevortex: Try ordering Kishore nos from Hamaracd. Quality is tolerable, definitely better than their regular releases. When I say tolerable, it is only by HMV's standards.

Regds / Shailender

 

[thekinge]

thekinge - I have the PB Sreenivos 5 cd set you are speaking of. And the sound quality is definitely decent. It helps that the song recordings in those days had mid range and little else .

Unfortunately it is very difficult to get a hold of good recordings for Kishore Kumar songs. I also have the AM Raja Legends set and I can tell you that his voice simply flows out from the CD. Mellifluous is the only way to put it.

Thing is - with music this old, chances are you will connect with it more often than not. Music like this does not need extreme detail retrieval or other snazzy things to draw you in. I am sure you will like it if you get them. Especially if you like this sort of music.

Thanks thevortex! As you rightly said, I am certainly not looking for extreme details or separation in those songs. Since most of the music those days centered on the vocals and the ability of the singer to bring out the emotions, all I need is good clean midrange without any noticeable distortion. The next time around when I am in Chennai, I would be happy if you can allow me an audition of those CDs in your setup

And yes I am a big fan of the music from the generation of P B Sreenivas, TMS, Seerkazhi, A M Raja etc - each song had a context, a meaningful lyric, and a very powerful and emotional rendering of the lyrics by the singers. To an extent you could find the same in songs composed by Ilaiyaraja and sung by the likes of SPB. But songs these days with the exception of few gems from ARR, Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja et al, the less said the better!

 

[thevortex]

Thanks thevortex! As you rightly said, I am certainly not looking for extreme details or separation in those songs. Since most of the music those days centered on the vocals and the ability of the singer to bring out the emotions, all I need is good clean midrange without any noticeable distortion. The next time around when I am in Chennai, I would be happy if you can allow me an audition of those CDs in your setup

And yes I am a big fan of the music from the generation of P B Sreenivas, TMS, Seerkazhi, A M Raja etc - each song had a context, a meaningful lyric, and a very powerful and emotional rendering of the lyrics by the singers. To an extent you could find the same in songs composed by Ilaiyaraja and sung by the likes of SPB. But songs these days with the exception of few gems from ARR, Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja et al, the less said the better!

You are welcome to drop in.

Fact is these old numbers dont get played at all unless my wife is in the mood to listen to these. I do enjoy them. But somehow my heart is smitten with Kishore Kumar for the most part.

 

[srramanujam]

The Legends is good for Song Selection.

It is not different on audio quality. Certainly the Kishore Kumar collection is not remastered. I have it with me. It has commentaries added to the song. Nothing else.

It is very bad CD case quality and actual CD quality (not SQ). Within days you will find the CD case (thin version) cracking.

An alteranative for old hindi songs is the digitally remastered version of saregama called Classic Revival. Using old instruments, they have recorded the score live and have overlaid theh vocals on it. I have bought a few. It provides good quality, authentic, but a little digital sounding experience.

All said and done, as thevortex said, the song will get to you. Forget the recording quality.

In any case, saregama has done the biggest disservice to Indian music with poor recording quality. Our and the next generation has to pay for it.

 

[shailenderb]

I think Polydor-turned-MIL-turned Universal has somewhat better quality recordings. May be its because, they started operations in India in 1970 and hence have better equipment for recording (compared to HMV). Also, they have some real good albums in their repertoire (where Hindi film music is concerned), but are too lazy to market or even release them.

Some of HMV CDs with ADD classification are slightly better than their old AAD releases. Their Revival series is classified as DDD, which I think is a fraud since the original voice was never recorded Digitally.

Regds / Shailender

 

[bergkamp]

I was just doing a comparison.
Have this older collection of Kishore songs "Lamhe - Kuch pal Kishore ke sang". This collection is also by Saregama. Now if I compare a song "Mere mehboob qayamat hogi" from this CD with version in Legends collection, the difference is clear. Legends version has bits of static as if I am listening to a LP.
Another song. "Kiska rasta dekhe" is pretty much the same cut on both collections.

Obviously Saregama botched up this Legends collection and did a very shoddy job on recording end. Deserve a refund..

 

[kksunil]

I spent about Rs3500 2 weeks ago on Saregama CDs including 3 Legend series...

So from where can one get good quality CDs of old recordings?

 

[gobble]

I am totally fed up with saregama recording SQ, still thinking it was only mp3s, I purchased Asha Bhosle+OPNayyar collection - even mp3s are bad .. granted, the recordings are old ... but still

 

[COOLDUDE7808]

saregama is well know for bad quality recording ....whether its Hindi or Tamil .....buy mp3's instead or download ....those cd's are simply not worth buying .........

if u get some old HMV CD ...or a Old HMV Cassette and play that along with this new CD .....you will amazed at the difference .....

i got pirated Kishore Kumar Anmol Rattan mp3 - vol 1 to 10 for Rs 30 ....i generally dont prefer buying pirated cd's ....but since its saregama i just picked it up

 

[COOLDUDE7808]

@gobble

Sare gama Mp3 Cd's are mostly recorded in 128kbps bit rate .....i purchased two of them and then realised this ........... i was expecting 320 kbps ....