This is meant to be a guide for those people interested in the current crop of Sinatra's Capitol releases and their sound quality. I will slowly update this over time to make it as comprehensive as possible.


The rare Japanese CD’s:
The are nearly impossible to find today. They are easy to spot as the spine is all Japanese characters. Very little is known about these releases and their actual mastering. From the one copy I own, it sounds like a straight, flat transfer of the master tape.
Capitol 1^st Issues
Capitol finally decided to re-issue the Sinatra Catalog. These CD re-issues were all mastered by Larry Walsh and were done from the original master tapes and some were even remixed from the original multi-track session tapes.
Awesome? Not quite.  Larry Walsh made the mistake of following the notes on the boxes for the LP cutting masters and the LP cutting masters had notes for added echo. As a result, Mr. Walsh added echo to recordings which didn’t need it.
The Second Capitol Issues
The second re-issues were done by Bob Norberg. AVOID THEM! Every bad thing that can be done to a historic recording was done to the Sinatra Catalog by Bob “no-noise” Norberg. You can recognize these by the “Entertainer of the Century” branding on the spine. AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE!
The British Box (Alan Dell)
The best of a bad lot. This is the sure shot way to get almost the complete Capitol Catalog in one swift move with decent sound quality to boot!
All of these albums are sourced from the original master tapes except for one (Songs For Swingin’ Lovers) which is direct copy of the Walsh master (complete with added echo!). Another thing to note is that “Come Dance With Me” is missing the first 2 seconds of the second track.
Overall this set is great. The packaging might not be impressive but it seems EMI actually tried to do a decent job with this release.
The DCC Releases
The DCC releases are done as perfect as can be. Up until 2009, you could find these releases for $25 each. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
The MFSL LP Releases
MFSL released the Sinatra Box set in a silver colored box. This was meant to be a definitive re-release but fell fall short. Some of the recordings were pulled from the wrong tapes.
The MFSL CD Releases
The first MFSL Gold CD was Songs For Swingin’ Lovers. Unfortunately, this release was pulled from the wrong tapes and contains echo which should not be present on the recording. The EQ is also off.


Other Releases

The sad fact of it all…
The entire Frank Sinatra Capitol Records Catalog needs a re-working. They need to go back to the original session tapes and remix the stereo versions with NO echo and remaster and release the mono versions as well. Analogue Productions did an amazing job with some Nat "King" Cole SACD releases. They should do the same with Sinatra. It CAN be done but until someone (Chad Kassem....are you there?! You're our only hope!!!) takes the initiative, we'll all be left wishing we had something better.

THE DETAILS!!

1. Songs For Young Lovers (Reply #16)