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Archive for November 4th, 2009

Classic ISKCON Vinyl – Hare Krsna Festival 7″ (HKR-2002)

Two records in three days! Maybe I’ll throw Hare Krsna Records’s third 7″ up tomorrow. Maybe…. maybe Friday….

hkr1002



Hare Krsna Festival
Hare Krsna Records
HKR-2002

The second 7″ released by Hare Krsna Records features two songs, both by male devotees.

“Vande Ham” kicks off the record. A devotee named Avinas Chandra sings this slow and stirring rendition of a classic. There’s a mrdanga in the left channel as kartals and a harmonium fill both. The vocals are mostly on the right. This is a really a very beautiful version.

Hansadutta dasa (who was largely responsible for the vast majority of the 70s ISKCON records) sings at us on the b-side. “Hare Krsna Kirtana” is, to me, a little off-putting. Hansadutta’s voice is nice, but he’s loud and when the assembled devotees are responding, he’s often singing “Haribol!” and “Chant the Holy Name!” over them. He does this throughout.

HKR-1002 Side A HKR-1002 Side B

Side A
Vande Ham

Side B
Hare Krsna Kirtana

The copy that I own is in pretty OK shape. Side B took a while to clean up and a lot of the pops were very bassy, so it was hard to get rid of them without damaging the music. Most are completely gone, but a few remain. Again, the source recordings for both sides leave a bit to be desired. But also like the last Hare Krsna Records 7″, this one is very listenable. Especially Side A.

This 7″ is available as high quality mp3s and as “lossless” FLAC files. For most of you, the MP3 at 320kbps will be more than sufficient.

Samples of the songs are available in the comments.

Click here to download the 7″ in one zip file! (23 MB)

Download the FLAC files here.




Technical Information:
Media Used:
Vinyl 7″ from my personal collection.

Hardware Used:
Turntable: Audio Technica PL-120A
Cartridge: ATP-2XN (Stock)
TCC TC-750LC Audiophile Phono Preamp
Soundcard: Roland Edirol UA-1EX USB external soundcard

Software Used:
Audacity 1.3.7 on Linux Mint 7
-Digital recording from soundcard
-Editing and splitting of tracks

Gnome Wave Cleaner 0.21-10
-Manual and automatic click/pop removal

SoundConverter 1.4.1
-Converted WAV to 320kbps MP3 and FLAC

Artwork Scanned from Original @ 300 dpi with XSane .996
Edited and Restored Using GIMP Image Editor 2.6.6

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