Original CD Pressings to Avoid

In fact, all Bowies' original RCA CDs sound very nice.

I also noticed that most of original Capitol CDs i've heard sound pretty dull and sterile.

But it's not a factory produced CD, isn't it?

 

Also, isn't vinyl 'pre-echo' distinguishable from print-through because it tends to come from the left channel, i.e. from the inner groove wall?

I think I've even heard 'post-echo' from the right channel a few times, although I believe it's less 'psycho-acoustically' conspicuous.

 

Only Tarkus which was very nice, still prefered slightly Tarkus On Atlantic Years.

 

An early CD that sounds veiled is the Arista issue of Al Stewart Year of the Cat. Actually, Arista carried this mastering over the years, so later U.S. pressings also sound veiled. Anyway, the MFSL and original European RCA discs sound much better.

 

The original release of the first 3 Ultravox (John Foxx) CD were horrible, muted and flat, sounded like someone was muffling the mike with a rag.

 

Bad Company's 10 from 6. One of the worst sounding CDs ever manufactured.

The only version that sounds halfway decent is the AMCY Japan pressing from the early 90s.

 

BTW, this was mastered by Barry Diament from whatever sources he had access to at the time.

 

The original cd sounded incredibly muffled as if there was a very thick and heavy curtain hung right in front of the speakers. I remember reading in ICE before the 94 remasters came out that they assumed that the problem was with the original tapes and couldnt be rectified but that they luckily found a better source (lower gen?) tape for the remaster.

 

Barry did a very good job with whatever sources he had. If he can make less than first generation sources (or whatever sources he actually used) sound good, then he must be damn good at his job.

I'll say ths much, I'd rather listen to 10 from 6 with Barry's mastering than a CD-R of all the tracks taken from the mid-90s remasters or even the tracks from the late 90's 2 disc collection. Barry's disc sounds far more natural, regardless of sources.

 

Is 'pre-echo' what we hear at the beginning of Eleanor Rigby.?

 

On which record?

 

I've heard it on a couple different vinyl pressings of Revolver.

It starts with a quiet "Ahhh".

I don't mean to stray away from cd discussion, just trying to understand what pre-echo is.

 

Agreed-
Bowie's RCA discs are nice.

 

A little on the dull side, but totally unmessed with digitally and no NR. Give this one a try gang, later versions have all be mucked with. Nice analogue quality to this CD, later efforts including the Manticore Box, and the DVD-Audio have a harsher Digitally processed sound to me. Although the DVD-Audio is a 5.1 remix which is a different type of listen.

 

One album I rememeber that was so low in volume was Carlos Santana- Havana Moon. First time I heard it I thought I had gone deaf.

 

I only consider low volume a problem on systems in which access to the volume knob / remote is restricted or I guess on a underpowered player like the $15 alarm clock radio on my night table In general I feel these are usually the masterings to seek out.

 

The 1989 Columbia Billy Joe Royal greatest hits CD is also not highly regarded with the Taragon being the most highly regarded but for the original mixes on CD for many of the songs, you need the Collectables disc as well.

 

Overlow peaks can lead to loss of dynamics and low volume detail. Someone else can explain this better than me - I can't remember the correct term at the moment...

 

Every 6 dB down from maximum is a loss a bit's worth of resolution. Some of these older CDs are almost like 14 bit recordings(!). Couple that with the lower quality converters they used and there should be a pretty significant loss of detail. The only thing saving them is the hands off mastering approach.

 

I personally much more like Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers mastered by Bob Ludwig over early not-remastered pressings.
Also many old pressings to avoid comes from unknown & small labels.One time I've got Beach Boys Surfin Safari from such label,it has sound as it was digitized using 8 bit sound card.
But in general many of early cd's have nice sound.,even super sound.Especially Jazz!

 

The original CD release of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's WTTPD sounds dull... the Japan pressing and the remaster are better!

 

Don't think the Atlantic Years transfer was mucked with much. If you compare the other songs on it with the original Atlantic CDs (i.e. Tarkus), there's very little difference IMO. But with Karn Evil 9, it's night and day. Hell maybe I just got a bad pressing of Karn Evil 9 but that album sounds like AM radio (slight exaggeration). Joe Gastwirt mastered The Atlantic Years and it's his favorite work of mine (along with his Social Distortion work on Epic CDs).

 

Thanks Jamie!

I visited Metropolis Mastering in Chiswick, London in the late 90s and I remember being told that early digital masters after noise shaping were effectively 14 bit. As nice as early CDs can sound, some can sound quite "digital."

 

The more I read, the more vinyl I buy ...

 

Joe Walsh's "Barnstorm" (not the Mo-Fi) from Hip-O used the wrong mastertapes (I believe they were prepared from the cassette or 8 track version of the album). It has horrible tape hiss and one of the songs doesn't segue but fades out.

The corrected reissue by Hip-O sounds really good.