The Knack Remasters

[notnow]

Anyone heard the new Knack remastered CDs? How do they sound compared to the previous releases?

[Chris Desjardin]

I like 'em! The Get The Knack album is one of the better pop/rock albums I know. There are a lot of really good tunes on there. The sound is a little bright, as is most of Capital's 24 bit remasters, but I like the sound of it better than the original CD release, which used the canadian master for the song She's so Selfish (took out the word *****). This one uses the correct masters.

[vinylrec]

this is from the KnackFans Group on Yahoo.......


From: "Lee Lodyga"
Date: Fri May 10, 2002 11:01 am
Subject: Re: Get The Knack New Remaster vs. 1st C


Get The Knack sounds incredible. I think you'll be pleased. The original mix of that record is so strong that Doug & Ron didn't have to do too much tweaking. They bumped the EQ on a few tracks and made some volume corrections. On the original LP, "My Sharona" was mixed hotter than the rest of Side Two because it was - well, "My Sharona." (The vinyl was also cut to allow the song to absorb more space, so it would not only be louder, but cleaner.) Well, that problem's been eliminated. You should notice that "Heartbeat" seems to have a bit more punch now. That's basically due to the fact that there's no volume drop after "Sharona." It was very important to Doug that these reissues did not stray musically from the original releases. Even the breaks between tracks are the exact length they were (are) on the LP. After the 24 bit bump and Ron's touch, we just cleaned up as many pops and dropouts as we could and let it roll. One thing of note is that while the original master of "Don't Look Back" was used, the rest of the bonus stuff came from Doug's cassettes. He & Ron worked on those together - and the result is great.

The last US issue of GTK was pretty much just a flat transfer of the masters. The major problem was that someone used the Canadian Radio master for Side One. Written on that box in huge, red block letters is DO NOT USE - FOR CANADIAN RADIO ONLY. Guess the engineer didn't see that... (A bit of trivia - a copy of Robert Hilburn's LA Times lambaste of the first record (and band) is taped to the box for the master of the real Side One.)

JJ asked about the multi's. They're all in the Capitol Vaults for the first three. There are tapes and tapes and tapes. And tapes. Especially from Round Trip. I actually had a hard time locating the Serious Fun masters. Virgin had those. (Virgin/Charisma was distributed by Atlantic Records at the time of SF's release - which made me really nervous that they may be lost. With the help of a few people, we found them. In fact, once we did, we discovered that the master for Side One was in LA and Side Two was in NY. That's another story...) But, there are multi's for that record, too. The problem with going back to the multi's is that you jeopardize the integrity of the original recording. It's virtually impossible to recreate the same mix, and - it's really expensive to try. (I don't need to go into the money end of putting records like this out. It's ridiculous and frustrating.) In fact, there are a few "flaws" we left in on a couple of the discs because, well - they were part of the original mix. Again, part of the effort of staying faithful to the original releases.

On that note, I was wondering what everyone thought of the "seaming" of the ...BTLGU inner sleeve under the tray. And, if anyone was wondering why we used the photo from the back of the book from the original Serious Fun as the inlay for the new one - Doug said that if there would have been a domestic vinyl release for Serious Fun, that would have been the shot on the inner sleeve.


Lee

[Kevin Sypolt]

I just wanted to say "thanks" for this tip... I picked up the remastered version of "Get The Knack" and I must say that it is very good. I have listened to it non-stop for the last couple of days! Not quite as good as the original vinyl, but miles above the original CD. If you are a Knack fan, then "Get The Knack"! :)

[notnow]

If you can find it, get the UK BGO 2-fer disc with Get the Knack and But the Little Girls. The sound is better than the vinyl or the current remasters to my ears. I think it's a flat transfer, and has the correct tape of "she's so selfish."

[Kevin Sypolt]

Cool, I'll be sure to look for it. Thanks! Do you know where I can order it from?

[notnow]

Kevin; unfortunately it's long out of print, so it's unorderable through retail channels. You might find one on ebay if you look hard. Good luck!