A Night at Studio 54 album

[totoman]

I remember seeing this album (on Casablanca) many years ago and saw it on ebay recently. I always thought the tracklisting, though pretty commercial, was a fun collection.

I understood it was mixed. Can anyone tell me what the mixing was like. Is it worth tracking it down?

toto

[Bernie]

See
http://www.discomusic.com/records?id=C0_50_2
for my dead honest opinion.

[Fiorenzo]

In my humble opinion the mixing leaves a lot to be desired and that's a pity because the track listing is excellent. The album includes lots of disco hits played at the club: "Instant Replay" (Dan Hartman), "(Push, push) In the bush" (Musique) and "Disco Nights (GQ), "Le Freak" (Chic), "I love the nightlife (Disco round)" (Alicia Bridges), "Let's all chant" (Michael Zager Band), "Y.M.C.A" (Village People), "Last dance" (Donna Summer), "I love America" (Patrick Juvet) and many more.
Unfortunately the album was not mixed by resident DJ Richie Kaczor. Richie had a special way of blending music and he could mix for hours without missing a beat.
For some unknown reason Roy Thode & Marc Paul Simon were hired to do it.
Maybe you might want to check out the 5 Italian volumes called Studio 54 on Derby and dedicated to the Milan-based club named after the NY venue and mixed by infamous DJ's like Tony Carrasco, Jonathan Tedesco, etc.

[QUINNY]

Hold yer horses a mo'. I've been lead to believe that every N.Y. jock was perfect by this late in the Disco era and people like Roy Thode have a good enough reputation.

So is the perfect mixing thing a load of bull and were the jocks not as good as they've been made out to be?

[Fiorenzo]

I do not mean to disrespect anybody, but oftentimes some DJ's were not as good as legend had it. Those of you who understand Italian can have a look at this article:
http://www.djsportal.com/en/pioneer/...se/press/3.jpg

To cut a long story short. While spinning in Italy Tom Savarese disappointed some top local DJ's. In this article DJ legend Micky, who was resident at Bologna's Ciak, said that he knew several Italian DJ's whose mixing skills were better than Savarese's. Of course, there's more to deejaying than mixing, but the fact is that reputation and real life are two completely different things.

[NickNack]

Originally Posted by QUINNY

Hold yer horses a mo'. I've been lead to believe that every N.Y. jock was perfect by this late in the Disco era and people like Roy Thode have a good enough reputation.

So is the perfect mixing thing a load of bull and were the jocks not as good as they've been made out to be?

You really like stirring it up, don't you? :roll: Perhaps the "mixing" is not great because those involved with the music rights didn't permit it. Just a thought. Richie Rivera's effort for Polydor (album escapes me again) is very similar. What blends there are are extremely short or the songs are 'bumped' together to give that "non-stop" club feel for people who had no idea what the clubs were about. There are other compilations in the same vein. The intros are not stepped on in these so-called 'mixed' albums from that time.

BTW: Which one of us said "every N.Y. jock was perfect"? :-?

[nrgbeat]

I've noticed on a lot of my tapes that the mixing by certain well known NY jocks isn't perfect, but that's okay as my mixing isn't perfect either.

When you start mixing you develop an ear for any errors that I probably wouldn't have noticed years ago.

[djsonic]

Richie Kaczor did record a mix for polydor records called
Steppin Out Disco. i only have the promo lp, it says mixed by
studio 54's Richie Kaczor on the cover. i dont know if this was a comcercial lp, the 2 lp set had a shoe on the cover,my promo has a female silouett on the cover,looks like donna summer,but is not. the mixing on the lp is hot! better then the casablanca 54 lp.
sonic.

[QUINNY]

Nicky: I agree that there may have been extraneous influences that could have made the product turn out the way it did, but as there are sooo many examples of iffy mixing, even this may be a red herring, unless they had to use two reel to reel decks instead of record decks (which is highly likely). Even so, if I eneded up with dodgy sounding mixes, I think I would have had to say "let's get the razor blades out" and do it that way. After all is said and done, given time (which they may not have had either) and patience, some decent sounding mixes should have been possible. It would have been a matter of editing either side of them with razor blade and continually doing the actual mixes until they were right. Join the perfect mix in between the in and out points, et voila, cheated perfection. That way, a seamless mix could have been acheived and that technique was hardly rocket science. Sooooo, the jury's out.

I'm not trying to 'stir things up' as such, just that I was told in no uncertain terms by various people here that NY jocks and US jocks in particular were so damned good and to loosely quote yourself on one occasion, words to the effect "this is New York we're talking about. You'd better know how to mix or they'd have your ass fired outta there."

I've always maintained that the mixing probably wasn't so special BITD. Otherwise, surely even lil' old me would have known something about it. Surely a few patterns would have been belted out on the Disco jungle dums?

[DJ Jimmy M]

Unless you've either experienced these DJ's goin live or actualy heard live footage from the clubs back when..ya cant judge a mixed LP for comercial release as their skills. Every mixed LP ive heard from the era (including the 54 LP) is not great mixing honestly. Bout the best I heard on a comercial LP from the era is the TK "Disco Party" set. From what I understand, most of these LPs were not mixed live and were slapped together in the recording studio (kinda like what happens today but no PC software and special gadgets to make it go perfect). Figure also, if it was live mixing..the quality on the vinyl would be god awful quality as well. Also, it says "sequenced by.." on the 54 LP credits, which also is a clue that it was not live mixing...just something to concider

[Fiorenzo]

Since we're focusing on mix albums: check out "Winners" (1979/1980) mixed by Raul Rodriguez and including "Shake Your Body" (Jacksons), "The Second Time Around" (Shalamar), "And the Beat Goes On" (Whispers), "Don't Let Go" (Isaac Hayes), etc. The A side features some live mixing by Raul.

[DJ Jimmy M]

I thought Frankie Crocker mixed that LP?? Or is it just him who selected the tracks? I'll have to pull my copy :lol:

[Fiorenzo]

I thought Frankie Crocker mixed that LP?? Or is it just him who selected the tracks? I'll have to pull my copy

I've just had a look at the record: it was produced by Frankie Crocker and sequenced by Raul Rodriguez and Michael Farrow. So we're both right. :)

[DJ Jimmy M]

Ok that saves me the trouble of having to pull my copy :lol:

[billywho]

Originally Posted by Bernie

See
http://www.discomusic.com/records?id=C0_50_2
for my dead honest opinion.

Interestingly, this album was played in its entirety on Dance Groove Radio (gone but not forgotten) for the week ending 25th November 2001. I was recording all the DGR shows at that time, and came upon the mp3 of that week's show by chance this evening while sorting out some of my collection.