FTD Viva Las Vegas 3 cd box set confirmed!!!!.

[Domino]

Finally got my set yesterday but now I might have to wait even longer.My girlfriend is threatening to take it and make it a Christmas gift from her.I just have all the bad luck .

If she paid for it, that's her call ... if not, you may have a bit of trouble on your hands.

She didn't pay for it so basically she wants to buy it.I'm thinking it over.I think it's too much.We might have to arm wrestle for it.

[stevelecher]

So sorry to read this. I hope both of you see your copies arrive soon. It is really something special.

Seems like a bit of change in your attitude about this set from the early pages of this thread. I agree but did just the sheer quality of the sound and presentation bring you around on the merits of this 3CD set?

[drjohncarpenter]

So sorry to read this. I hope both of you see your copies arrive soon. It is really something special.

Seems like a bit of change in your attitude about this set from the early pages of this thread. I agree but did just the sheer quality of the sound and presentation bring you around on the merits of this 3CD set?

No change, really. As I wrote, in general, a "kitchen sink" approach to Elvis sessions does not benefit the legacy. And FTD has never crafted releases in that fashion. The "classic album" series from the label has delivered a superb and satisfying focus to each and every title under that banner.

However, the team did a fantastic job on the packaging and the audio of The Viva Las Vegas Sessions, and anyone who adores Elvis' finest, funnest and most successful 1960s movie will find a lot to love about this release. There are a few aspects to the set that no one has commented on, and I recently made one new discovery regarding the film. So I may make a topic in the near future addressing all of it.

[Darrell]

Well, I'm johnny-come-lately, the OP is two months old now, and it seems the subject matter has been exhausted - but I just got mine. Oh well, no matter, I just got home from a three week business trip and I find this beauty at the post office waiting for me. And I must say, my expectations were underestimated. It's a beauty and I hope we get more packages like this - great job FTD. Haven't given it a listen yet but from what I've read I'm in for a real treat. Never got the first outing of this ten years ago so I'm looking forward to the whole shootin' match.

[MaestroDavros]

Well, I'm johnny-come-lately, it seems no one is talking about this set anymore but I just got mine. The topic's already slipped to the boards second page. Oh well, no matter, I just got home from a three week business trip and I find this beauty at the post office waiting for me. And I must say, my expectations were underestimated. It's a beauty and I hope we get more packages like this - great job FTD. Haven't given it a listen yet but from what I've read I'm in for a real treat. Never got the first outing of this ten years ago so I'm looking forward to the whole shootin' match.

It's because by now there's legitimately little left to discuss. This set was first mooted by Ernst late last year, and confirmed to be in the works early this year. In the meantime, topics such as the viability of 3-disc sets, the quality of the Viva Las Vegas soundtrack, the track order, the amount of completeness, the sound quality, the packaging and the presentation have all been hotly debated and talked to death. Much before the set even came out. Now that I think about it though I have a few more things I would like to say about this set.


Just a recommendation/review to FTD if anyone over there reads my comment. After letting it sink in for a month and coming back to it fresh, I have generally enjoyed this set, especially in the sound quality department. But it is not as perfect as it has the potential to be, and I would like to leave some constructive feedback and suggestions for future releases if I may:

1. I still would prefer future sets in chronological order, but if it is felt that a sequenced order is the way to go so be it. That said, if I may suggest, don't cut up takes and move them around. It should be designed so that if the set (hypothetically) has takes 1-3 on disc 1 and 4-6 on disc 2, someone can quickly and easily reassemble the takes back into chronological order if they so desire. As it stands, some of the tracks have false starts moved about and that is a no-no, and makes it far more time consuming to rearrange the takes back to a chronological order. Better to leave them as is.

2. Going off point 1, I must strongly recommend not including a masters only section on disc 1. This is because of that outtake issue. Including the masters as part of the session with preceding session chatter, as was done with several of the songs such as "Viva Las Vegas", "If You Think I Don't Need You", "Do The Vega" & "Yellow Rose Of Texas / The Eyes Of Texas". Instead, assuming a non-chronological approach, start the set with a first takes section, and make sure not to separate the earliest complete take with preceding false starts which was also done. If a first complete take has 7-8 preceding false starts, then that's how it should be presented. Again, makes the lives and efforts of people who want chronological order a whole lot easier.

3. If you absolutely must edit material, take care not to edit material (like dialogue) previously released. Otherwise people will notice far more easily what's been cut, and because FTD is first and foremost a label for hardcore collectors, many of us will take notice if something previously released is missing. Ideally though edits should be done sparingly, if at all. The much lauded 1950's FTD's mastered and assembled by Kevan Budd presented sessions virtually unedited, and that should be the golden standard for any session presentation, regardless of the quality of the material itself.

4. To the audio department (Sebastian & Vic); while you two did phenomenal mixing, mastering and restoration work on this set (not to mention the fact that Vic is one of my favorite engineers out there and Sebastian's review/analysis of Kevan's work on "Elvis At Sun" was greatly responsible for my love and appreciation for audio restoration and mastering), I do think some of the restoration on this set went a little overboard. This is more of a personal nitpick than a real complaint, but as an example there's one point on the "C'mon Everybody" session where Dave Weichman is trying to get the musicians' attention during a rehearsal through turning the PA on and off, and while previous releases had his PA cut ins intact, the new release has them digitally removed (Elvis' dialogue is still intact). To me this is unnecessary and revisionist, and in just a microscopic way re-contextualizes the events in an inaccurate fashion, and if I may say, removes a small bit of humanity from the sessions (some will fervently disagree with this notion, but I stand by it wholeheartedly). Plus it takes a lot of extra, unnecessary work to remove that kind of stuff. I highly recommend keeping it in, and let the events of the day speak for themselves.

Those are my suggestions. Again, the set is great for a starting point, but I hope that some of this feedback is at least seriously considered.

[drjohncarpenter]

4. To the audio department (Sebastian & Vic); while you two did phenomenal mixing, mastering and restoration work on this set (not to mention the fact that Vic is one of my favorite engineers out there and Sebastian's review/analysis of Kevan's work on "Elvis At Sun" was greatly responsible for my love and appreciation for audio restoration and mastering), I do think some of the restoration on this set went a little overboard. This is more of a personal nitpick than a real complaint, but as an example there's one point on the "C'mon Everybody" session where Dave Weichman is trying to get the musicians' attention during a rehearsal through turning the PA on and off, and while previous releases had his PA cut ins intact, the new release has them digitally removed (Elvis' dialogue is still intact). To me this is unnecessary and revisionist, and in just a microscopic way re-contextualizes the events in an inaccurate fashion, and if I may say, removes a small bit of humanity from the sessions (some will fervently disagree with this notion, but I stand by it wholeheartedly). Plus it takes a lot of extra, unnecessary work to remove that kind of stuff. I highly recommend keeping it in, and let the events of the day speak for themselves.

Is this a wind-up?

[fn2drive]

4. To the audio department (Sebastian & Vic); while you two did phenomenal mixing, mastering and restoration work on this set (not to mention the fact that Vic is one of my favorite engineers out there and Sebastian's review/analysis of Kevan's work on "Elvis At Sun" was greatly responsible for my love and appreciation for audio restoration and mastering), I do think some of the restoration on this set went a little overboard. This is more of a personal nitpick than a real complaint, but as an example there's one point on the "C'mon Everybody" session where Dave Weichman is trying to get the musicians' attention during a rehearsal through turning the PA on and off, and while previous releases had his PA cut ins intact, the new release has them digitally removed (Elvis' dialogue is still intact). To me this is unnecessary and revisionist, and in just a microscopic way re-contextualizes the events in an inaccurate fashion, and if I may say, removes a small bit of humanity from the sessions (some will fervently disagree with this notion, but I stand by it wholeheartedly). Plus it takes a lot of extra, unnecessary work to remove that kind of stuff. I highly recommend keeping it in, and let the events of the day speak for themselves.

Is this a wind-up?

Meanwhile in other news, FTD plans to release a 4cd VLV set that includes an entire disc dedicated to PA toggling digitally remixed and remastered for the first time.

[MaestroDavros]

4. To the audio department (Sebastian & Vic); while you two did phenomenal mixing, mastering and restoration work on this set (not to mention the fact that Vic is one of my favorite engineers out there and Sebastian's review/analysis of Kevan's work on "Elvis At Sun" was greatly responsible for my love and appreciation for audio restoration and mastering), I do think some of the restoration on this set went a little overboard. This is more of a personal nitpick than a real complaint, but as an example there's one point on the "C'mon Everybody" session where Dave Weichman is trying to get the musicians' attention during a rehearsal through turning the PA on and off, and while previous releases had his PA cut ins intact, the new release has them digitally removed (Elvis' dialogue is still intact). To me this is unnecessary and revisionist, and in just a microscopic way re-contextualizes the events in an inaccurate fashion, and if I may say, removes a small bit of humanity from the sessions (some will fervently disagree with this notion, but I stand by it wholeheartedly). Plus it takes a lot of extra, unnecessary work to remove that kind of stuff. I highly recommend keeping it in, and let the events of the day speak for themselves.

Is this a wind-up?

Not at all. Nowhere in the part you highlighted do I attack anybody, nor was I attempting to cause undue drama with that statement. As I said, point 4 is more of a nitpick than the other 3. It is something that bothers me, and I am perfectly aware that someone else could come in and say "but now we can hear Elvis talking more clearly without interruptions". It's a statement of personal preference, nothing more. And like I said, I wholeheartedly feel that way, at least from a preservationist perspective which I hold dear.

[JamieAKelley]

Well, I'm johnny-come-lately, it seems no one is talking about this set anymore but I just got mine. The topic's already slipped to the boards second page. Oh well, no matter, I just got home from a three week business trip and I find this beauty at the post office waiting for me. And I must say, my expectations were underestimated. It's a beauty and I hope we get more packages like this - great job FTD. Haven't given it a listen yet but from what I've read I'm in for a real treat. Never got the first outing of this ten years ago so I'm looking forward to the whole shootin' match.

It's because by now there's legitimately little left to discuss. This set was first mooted by Ernst late last year, and confirmed to be in the works early this year. In the meantime, topics such as the viability of 3-disc sets, the quality of the Viva Las Vegas soundtrack, the track order, the amount of completeness, the sound quality, the packaging and the presentation have all been hotly debated and talked to death. Much before the set even came out. Now that I think about it though I have a few more things I would like to say about this set.


Just a recommendation/review to FTD if anyone over there reads my comment. After letting it sink in for a month and coming back to it fresh, I have generally enjoyed this set, especially in the sound quality department. But it is not as perfect as it has the potential to be, and I would like to leave some constructive feedback and suggestions for future releases if I may:

1. I still would prefer future sets in chronological order, but if it is felt that a sequenced order is the way to go so be it. That said, if I may suggest, don't cut up takes and move them around. It should be designed so that if the set (hypothetically) has takes 1-3 on disc 1 and 4-6 on disc 2, someone can quickly and easily reassemble the takes back into chronological order if they so desire. As it stands, some of the tracks have false starts moved about and that is a no-no, and makes it far more time consuming to rearrange the takes back to a chronological order. Better to leave them as is.

2. Going off point 1, I must strongly recommend not including a masters only section on disc 1. This is because of that outtake issue. Including the masters as part of the session with preceding session chatter, as was done with several of the songs such as "Viva Las Vegas", "If You Think I Don't Need You", "Do The Vega" & "Yellow Rose Of Texas / The Eyes Of Texas". Instead, assuming a non-chronological approach, start the set with a first takes section, and make sure not to separate the earliest complete take with preceding false starts which was also done. If a first complete take has 7-8 preceding false starts, then that's how it should be presented. Again, makes the lives and efforts of people who want chronological order a whole lot easier.

3. If you absolutely must edit material, take care not to edit material (like dialogue) previously released. Otherwise people will notice far more easily what's been cut, and because FTD is first and foremost a label for hardcore collectors, many of us will take notice if something previously released is missing. Ideally though edits should be done sparingly, if at all. The much lauded 1950's FTD's mastered and assembled by Kevan Budd presented sessions virtually unedited, and that should be the golden standard for any session presentation, regardless of the quality of the material itself.

4. To the audio department (Sebastian & Vic); while you two did phenomenal mixing, mastering and restoration work on this set (not to mention the fact that Vic is one of my favorite engineers out there and Sebastian's review/analysis of Kevan's work on "Elvis At Sun" was greatly responsible for my love and appreciation for audio restoration and mastering), I do think some of the restoration on this set went a little overboard. This is more of a personal nitpick than a real complaint, but as an example there's one point on the "C'mon Everybody" session where Dave Weichman is trying to get the musicians' attention during a rehearsal through turning the PA on and off, and while previous releases had his PA cut ins intact, the new release has them digitally removed (Elvis' dialogue is still intact). To me this is unnecessary and revisionist, and in just a microscopic way re-contextualizes the events in an inaccurate fashion, and if I may say, removes a small bit of humanity from the sessions (some will fervently disagree with this notion, but I stand by it wholeheartedly). Plus it takes a lot of extra, unnecessary work to remove that kind of stuff. I highly recommend keeping it in, and let the events of the day speak for themselves.

Those are my suggestions. Again, the set is great for a starting point, but I hope that some of this feedback is at least seriously considered.

I definitely agree with this, as you know. I would give one small caveat: if they insist on the masters being first, make sure they're complete with chat/etc that exists after the take, with no fade-outs. Then, either leave the pre-master chat before said master, or at the end of the track on the take before.

For a session release, fade-outs in general should be a pretty big no-go, as well. I'm fine if it's not chronological, but there's no sense in wasting an opportunity by leaving things out.

[drjohncarpenter]

Is this a wind-up?

Not at all. Nowhere in the part you highlighted do I attack anybody, nor was I attempting to cause undue drama with that statement. As I said, point 4 is more of a nitpick than the other 3. It is something that bothers me, and I am perfectly aware that someone else could come in and say "but now we can hear Elvis talking more clearly without interruptions". It's a statement of personal preference, nothing more. And like I said, I wholeheartedly feel that way, at least from a preservationist perspective which I hold dear.

No, you call it "unnecessary and revisionist." If not a wind-up, you are seriously losing the plot.

[Keith]

[Snip]
OK that's probably me banned from here now - but i'm only telling the truth!

Keith

FECC Team Note: No. But we must remind you again to stay on topic. You are making everything about him on multiple topics with off topic replies about him. That is why they get removed. To everyone: please stay on topic. Thank you. Thankyouverymuch.

[Mike C]

So,I opened my set last night and was quite impressed. Anybody find a few of the booklet pages were stuck. I had to carefully remove pages 4 and 5 which were stuck together. Slight scuff on the nice pic of Elvis on the left side of page 4.

[skabillyrebels]

[Snip]
OK that's probably me banned from here now - but i'm only telling the truth!

Keith

FECC Team Note: No. But we must remind you again to stay on topic. You are making everything about him on multiple topics with off topic replies about him. That is why they get removed. To everyone: please stay on topic. Thank you. Thankyouverymuch.

I hope not but if you are i know where to find you

[Mike C]

Just curious - what did the original release of ABFT cost on FTD when it was released?

I suspect the price point will be similar for this release.

As I recall, I paid about $100 for that release with the Elvis Insiders Discount.

[javilu]

All that remains from "Elvis Is Back!" is likely not even one full CD of material. With over 2.5 hours of previously released masters and outtakes in excellent sound quality, I think it would be a big middle-finger to the fans who have supported nearly every FTD release for the past 19 years and who have spent thousands of pounds, euros, and dollars on FTD project to make the remaining "EIB" outtakes exclusive to a "complete sessions" package, forcing them to repurchase the majority of the material all over again at a premium price simply for a few remaining scraps (most consisting of the lesser quality material from the sessions). This is not a sensible strategy for FTD to follow moving forward -- recycling most of its previously released content in "complete session" configurations where the remaining session scraps are made exclusive to the pricey sessions sets. The fact that a handful of Elvis enthusiasts are actively campaigning for these releases is a bit baffling. Perhaps FTD should include a tube of lube with each purchase?

I've just finished reading all 40 pages of this thread.
Can you clarify if Elvis is Back finally included the tube of lube with the set?
Mine came only with a glitch.

[luckyjackson1]

All that remains from "Elvis Is Back!" is likely not even one full CD of material. With over 2.5 hours of previously released masters and outtakes in excellent sound quality, I think it would be a big middle-finger to the fans who have supported nearly every FTD release for the past 19 years and who have spent thousands of pounds, euros, and dollars on FTD project to make the remaining "EIB" outtakes exclusive to a "complete sessions" package, forcing them to repurchase the majority of the material all over again at a premium price simply for a few remaining scraps (most consisting of the lesser quality material from the sessions). This is not a sensible strategy for FTD to follow moving forward -- recycling most of its previously released content in "complete session" configurations where the remaining session scraps are made exclusive to the pricey sessions sets. The fact that a handful of Elvis enthusiasts are actively campaigning for these releases is a bit baffling. Perhaps FTD should include a tube of lube with each purchase?

I've just finished reading all 40 pages of this thread.
Can you clarify if Elvis is Back finally included the tube of lube with the set?
Mine came only with a glitch.

Good to see you back, buddy

Sorry, can't say about Elvis Is Back. But I still have two sealed copies of the Viva Las Vegas Sessions set

[javilu]

Good to see you back, buddy

Sorry, can't say about Elvis Is Back. But I still have two sealed copies of the Viva Las Vegas Sessions set

Hey good to be back!
You can send one of your copies to me as yesterday I accidentally dropped mine and the cardboard on the side is a bit damaged.
Damn flimsy thing.