Hope I'm not polluting the forum too much with these ;-) Sounds like for Genesis, Selling England by The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, & Foxtrot are the best albums to check out. Got a bit of conflict on Selling England -- a couple of forum members seemed to like the currently available US remaster, while one thought it had noise reduction that detracted from the quality. And I'm not sure about the other two.
Foxtrot I can tell you about: I would avoid the "Definitive Edition Remaster" of Foxtrot. There's some sort of noise reduction problem with it. Sounds like Dolby not being decoded properly - for example, some of the quiet hi-hat taps in Watcher Of The Skies are muted, while others come through at random. Of the three different masterings I've heard, the remaster is the only one with any such problems. To confuse things, in the UK at least, there was more than one mastering of the previous CD issue, i.e. the one with the "chopped up" cover. This is true of most of the titles. Foxtrot discs pressed at Nimbus have a brighter mastering than ones pressed at P.D.O UK, or EMI Swindon, for example. Overall I tend to prefer the Nimbus.
Oh ... and Nursery Cryme is well worth having, otherwise you would be missing out on Musical Box for starters. It might not be the greatest recording in the world, but it's certainly not lacking in grit. Again, mine's a Nimbus pressed disc. It does the job.
I was the one who did not like the noise reduction on Selling England By The Pound (Definitve Edition Remaster). The older Virgin/Charisma CD has audible hiss, but it sounds more realistic and open. Generally, people seem to like the remasters. I don't. Nursery Cryme is also more listenable in its older version.
There's been an ongoing debate here about this subject. The Genesis remasters aren't perfect, but IMHO are still very listenable and are an improvement from the U.S. vinyl. Evidently the original masters for the first two or three albums could not be found. And since they weren't produced all that well to begin with, remasters only improve things so much. Some people don't like the way they are NRed and compressed. But the exciting news is The Lamb is being readied for release in 5.1 high-rez format!
NRed and compressed doesn't sound too good to me, if that's the case in what sense do they improve on the older CDs? As for the 5.1, not so exciting to me really, unfortunately I don't have the equipment for it.
The Virgin/Charisma CD for Selling England by the Pound is very nice, from what I could tell - unfortunately, mine suffered from the bronzing problem (an early PDO UK pressing). I've just sent it back to the factory for replacement - hope I get it back!
The address is PDO Helpline Philips Road Blackburn Lancs England BB1 5RZ Send 'em back there with a cover letter including your address and they will supposedly send you replacements that don't have the problem.
I am a huge Genesis fan. Not as much with Phil Collins. I still have not purchased Tresspass. However, I have Nursery Crymes, Foxtrot, Selling England..., The lamb lies down... I would say Foxtrot, Sellin and Lamb are the best cds. I love these 3 the whole way through. The sound is vastly superior to earlier pressed cds. Good luck finding the old cds or the uk/virgin cds. I haven't seen the old cds in a long time, and I've seen the Uk once in my life (I have not checked for them on the internet). The new foxtrot is the correct speed for Supper's ready. It was pressed slower on previous editions. As for Phil Collins stuff, Trick of the Tail is good. Never liked Withering or and then....(Follow you, Follow Me is great however) And then its the beginning of the Phil Collins pop era. Some good songs. Its just a different band.
The sound of all the remastered cds is superior to the previous editions. Foxtrot and the Lambs being the standout.
I own several of the Genesis "Definitive Edition Remaster" CDs from 1994, and I must say that I am satisfied with all of them. Even Foxtrot sounds OK to my ears, although I do not have another version of the recording to compare it to, and IMO the album wasn't well recorded to begin with. I consider Selling England by the Pound flawless, both musically and in terms of sound quality.
Let me point out that the Old CD version of The Lamb has a nasty hum all the way through and has a rather flat sounding EQ. The remaster is wonderful by comparison. Wind And Wuthering is also improved in its remastered form. The original CD lacked bass and warmth. Bob.
I made the mistake of buying most of my music on cassette originally. The track order of Peter Gabriel I, Selling england, are different. It still takes getting use to. The beatles was the same thing.
I'm with Phil on this one. I was able to snag one of the Nimbus versions on his advice and he was spot on. Definitely worth seeking out.
Yeah, the first incarnations of the Lamb on both sides of the Atlantic were crap. I'm with the remaster on this one as well as the remaster of Wind And Wuthering. However, the original UK Wind and Wuthering runs circles over the original US CD which was dull, extremely quiet, and had absolutely no bass. The remaster does improve on this though and matches the vinyl rather closely.
Opti, you have to check out for yourself what you prefer. The Definitive Edition Remasters of Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound all have some noise reduction. I don't know about TLLDOB, I will check this out and compare to the unremastered CD. If you look for unremastered CDs, look for the Virgin/Charisma CDs (catalog numbers begin with CASCD ....) from the UK and make sure it says "master by nimbus" on the inner ring of the CD.
My original Virgin/Charisma CDs of the early Genesis releases were pressed in West Germany by SonoPress, and I would certainly recommend them also. I'm not sure if the mastering of the West German CDs is different from the UK Virgin/Charisma CDs, but they sure sound fine to me. Ed Hurdle HeavyDistortion
I was not even aware of Genesis CDs pressed in West Germany. For some reason, mine all say "manufactured in The UK" and "MASTERED BY NIMBUS". I'd bet that yours and mine are identical.
I can't understand how people can listen to that crappy remasters - bright, lacking in bass and no-noised. Original CDs blow them away in every aspect except for detail.
Gah, massive confusion. In many cases it's hard enough to find a single version of these albums, so I'd really prefer to have a target in mind, then when I find it I don't have to constantly second-guess the sound quality as I'm listening. Anyway, I went shopping and results of my search are posted in a new thread .
