New Who Remasters: Including Mono Sell Out

I'll have to check on "Call Me Lightning", but I can easily answer the one about "I'm A Boy". The original single, complete with overdubs, can be found in one original mono as well as one fairly "unbalanced" stereo mix (very little right channel information). The one on 'Direct Hits' is the most well-mastered version of the mono, since 'The Singles' cd. It is not "brickwalled", but it is loud (I've previously posted a waveform of it, in this thread). So, if you are sensitive to such things, you may prefer the "80's"-style "flat" mastering from 'The Singles' (which is not a distant second). The 'Who's Missing' cd, mastered by our host, contains the mono version as well. Unfortunately, Steve was not provided a high quality tape of the song for that release, and it should be avoided...

 

Sell Out is definitely maximized, just looking at the results from EAC and looking at the waves in Goldwave. However, it's not all brickwalled the way that the end of Rael is. In fact, as someone else said, there are plenty of dynamics left. It wouldn't surprise me if compression was added, nor would it surprise me if NR was used. But I purchased this because they only thing I have is the bootleg needledrop (which is NRed to death) and its far better than that. I'm not excusing any mastering issues, there just aren't many options for this version of the album other than vinyl.

If folks are going to sell their copies I'd suggest waiting a little bit because the latest batch of mini-LPs are selling fast and are way limited. I've purchased others in the series based on this thread and I'm really happy with them. I went into it expecting typical bombastic Japanese mastering and I'd say they're a bit better than normal.

 

All through the ages of recorded history, the Japanese have released what they wanted to, when they wanted to, and "to blazes" with the rest of the world. They have even coaxed countless bonus tracks <some of them available nowhere else!> from the "labels that be". There is a thread discussing this somewhere in the archives, but, at the end of the day, nobody had any convincing answers so here we be again. The Japanese were silent, as they tend to be when things get "personal". Cultural thing, as I understand it. Destined to go down in the annals of modern recording history as an unsolved mystery to rival that of creation itself, it seems...
Heck, even my "Magic 8-Ball" gets hopelessly stuck when I spring this one on it. Hmmm.. it always seems to know the answers to those infernal Beatle's reissue questions that plague us....

 

That's good to hear - mine should be arriving in the mail tomorrow!

 

"Bombastic Mastering"... I love it!!!! Can I quote you in future rants?

 

It's all yours.

 

Sweet. Bombastic and bamboozled are two of my favorite words, and criminally underused I might add. Wonder why? They just might apply to the very releases of which we speak...

 

Look, if you are sceptic about my findings, you don't have to believe me...
The waveform picture above should be enough to prove that there is some serious limiting goin on, abeit not every track is as damaged as Rael.
If I had posted the whole waveform, someone would have been complaining that you can't see how severly the maximizing per track is.
And the NR. Maybe you'll hear it if you listen to Sunrise on headphones and jack up the hi-end a bit ?

 

Astley must have mstered these.

 

I actually doubt that - if Astley had been involved, presumably they would have used his remixes throughout.

 

Only if he now lives in Japan...

 

Sell Out Mono is not that bad. It sounds better than a needledrop of the Classic Records Mono that I have which sounds pretty thin compared to other Classic Releases. It is compressed, and possibly maximized, but it isn't brickwalled like McCartney's Memory Almost Full or anything. Actually not even close! As for the bass, I like it bassy. I'm a bass player, and John Entwistle deserves to be heard.

 

I gave Sell Out and Direct Hits a good listening over the weekend. Direct Hits is a winner, mono mixes I've never heard before, and a total gas. Sell Out is less of a success. I still have an old copy of the Decca (U.S.) mono, and the remaster doesn't sound like the same album. The mixes are the same, but the sound is uncomfortably close to being brickwalled. I haven't looked at the waveforms yet, but my ears tell me we still need a quality reproduction of the Sell Out monos.

 

Hmm.. I must have that backwards then. I guess the vocal of "Someone's Coming" is double-tracked on the flip-side of US "Magic Bus" single. Anyone know?

 

But are the UK mono single and US mono single the same mix? It was mentioned on another thread that they are two different mono mixes but it wasn't said what the differences were.

 

Are there any differences between UK and US single mixes of The Who besides Substitute?

 

If you could point me to that, I'd appreciate it, because I've never heard anything about any difference between the two...

 

Has anyone ever tried to compile a comprehensive "variations" list for the Who? Good lord, I'd love to see something like that.

I've been a fan for quite awhile, but it's only within the past couple years (since I joined this site, basically!) that I've started to get vaguely obsessive about trying to track down stuff like alternate mixes, etc. And so far, the only knowledge I've been able to pick up is stuff like what I see in this thread, where someone casually mentions, "Oh, this mix happens to be different than the one found on this album," etc. It's driving me crazy, trying to keep everything straight!

I'd love to see something along the lines of the Joseph Brennan's famous Beatles Variations guide. Though I'd imagine one for the Who would be infinitely more complicated and lengthy.

 

I'd like to see something more user friendly and easy to look up, David. That's for sure.

But there's White Fang's site (which is tough to find anything in) and there's Brian Cady's 'liner notes' which frequently discuss version variations. Both can be found at the hypertext Who site www.thewho.net
Brian and Fang are both quite knowledgeable, tho neither has a site that's really quite what you envision (which I would like to have online, too).

 

There are four different mixes of Someone's Coming that have been released:
1) stereo mix on MCA Sellout reissue CD
2) US Decca 'Magic Bus' 45 single mix (double tracked vocals as you point out)
3) UK Track 'Miles' 45 and general European 45 mix: single tracked vocal, remixed backing track with reverb
4) UK Track 'Miles' 45 - different mono mix appears on certain pressings(!) No one I know of knows about this rare variation.....you read it here first

 

Other than the slightly higher level of echo on the US "I Can See For Miles", it's hard to know. Do we know where the alternate take (heard most easily by the completely different drum track...found on the box set, among other places) of the UK "Happy Jack" single mix comes from? Was it the US single version? Also, which of the two "Pictures of Lily" mixes is the original UK? I believe it is the one with the louder vocals than instrumentation (most easily heard during the "she's been dead since 1929" line, where the backing track practically disappears in favor of the vocals...as well as the much louder background Pete vocals on the outro - starting with "for me and Lily are together now in my dreams", where his "ooo"-ing is much louder over Roger's lead...the other mix has this "ooo"-ing almost completely buried/inaudible). Is the other one the US?

I can post clips if nobody knows what I'm talking about...

 

I am not at all convinced that these are different mixes.

The mix on the box set is not the UK single mix. I think it first appeared on the Direct Hits LP.

Again, UK and US single mix are identical, namely the one on the Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy CD.

Those alternate mixes are well-known, but those differences were not on the UK versus US singles.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

I would love to see one as well. The new CD's have gotten me interested in this again. The information on this and some of the past threads would make a pretty good start at a list.

 

Is this CD any good?

http://www.amazon.com/Singles-Who/dp/B0000568ND/ref=sr_1_94/102-3216806-9110510?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1190222122&sr=1-94

Which version of "I Can See For Miles" is on here?