Moody Blues "Days of Future Passed" CD question

sorry I think you (Non Remaster) guys are nuts!! The sacd double are the best so far.

 

You should fill out your profile, what are you listening on?

 

If you've got a SACD player, perhaps so. This is a CD thread.

 

I haven't heard the SACD (no player), but the Redbook layer is brickwalled to death. No love from me.

 

That's ok, we feel the same about you.

 

Offhand I want to say that a few songs have shown up in their original mix on CD, namely Tuesday Afternoon and Nights In White Satin, on the box set and/or Greatest Hits.

I believe Bill Levenson indicated he wasn't aware of issues with the original mix tapes.

 

Does the This Is the Moody Blues compilation from 1974 have the original mixes for the DOFP tracks? Also, does the West German CD have the same mastering as the unremastered US CD?

Anthony

 

I just ordered the remaster from Yourmusic.com simply because I want the b-sides and other bonus tracks. To be honest though having heard the remaster it has little of the wide dynamic range of the original album.

 

Are you sure he has said that he prefers the MSFL of Lost Chord? I know for sure he's said he only prefers the MSFL of Days, with which I agree. But perhaps he updated his recommendations later and I missed it?

For what it's worth:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=2801403&postcount=9

 

Why the two different covers?

 

I read it here for certain. It will be a pain to track it down, but if I must....

Dave knows, I'm sure....

 

I'm pretty sure everything on 'This Is The Moody Blues' is remixed. Also, all of the songs are cross-faded. The end of "Melancholy Man" is still fading out quite a ways through the introduction of "Nights In White Satin", which by the way does not have the gong at the end.

I also believe you're correct regarding the WG and the unremastered US CD. AFAIK 'Octave' is the only one of the initial US CD releases that differed from the WG pressings. The song "Survival" on the US CD goes on quite a bit longer than on any other CD or LP.

 

The bottom one is similar to the original US cover, so I assume that's the original UK cover. The top one with the enlarged/cropped painting was done for reissues, probably updated to give a more contemporary look. Listing all the songs on an album cover was common in the 60s but looked a little dated by the late 70s. Also, when the album first came out it was intended as a tool to help sell "Deramic Sound System" stereo equipment, a gimmick that was also gone by the 70s, so the big DSS logo wasn't appropriate anymore.

 

Perhaps this answers the question?

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=2534673&postcount=4

 

Damn. I was sure I read differently. I stand corrected.

 

Here it is - I was wrong.

Not that you care, but to me the best sounding version, most true to the master tape sound is the original CD issue. Same for all MB except DAZE OF FUTURE PAST..

Very quickly. IN SEARCH has a certain sound. The MoFi has too much top end info added either in mastering or tweaking the playback machine during alignment or whatever. Don't like it, don't want it. Once I hear that insect killing top that does not exist in that form on the original tape, the rest of the sound spectrum on the disc no matter how wonderful has no relevance for me at all. It goes in the "donate to a friend" stack.

DISCLAIMER: I am very sensitive to even a small 1/2 db increase in top end during mastering. YOU on the other hand might not care at all.

DAYS doesn't have the boost at all, no. It is from that earlier MoFi CD era that I like.

DAYS of course is also a remix but I guess I'm so used to it that it doesn't bother me.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

The unremastered 'In Search Of The Lost Chord' is different as well between the W. German and its US counterpart in terms of being digitally identical. At least the two pressings that I owned. I ran the numbers in EAC years ago. Though, as I recall, they pretty much sounded the same (i.e. I don't remember if the differences were simply digitally "linear"). I can't recall, offhand, if there were any crossfade issue differences between the two.

I ran numbers for "Days" and "Question," as well as null inversions. Those were bit identical.

 

In looking through some of those posts, I think I see where you got confused--it was actually Dave who said that both DAYS and IN SEARCH were exceptions to the "boosted treble" rule of MOFI Moodies issues (although now Dave has come to prefer the original W. German CD in all cases, including DAYS). Although I normally agree with Dave's sonic judgments, in this case I agree with Steve that the MOFI IN SEARCH has the treble boost, and the MOFI DAYS does not.

Of course, that does not automatically mean that the MOFI DAYS is therefore better than the W. German CD--the two are both very good, and which one you prefer may depend on your system. In my case, the MOFI DAYS has increased clarity and tonal richness in the midrange, but perhaps on Dave's system that could sound like an artificially bloated midrange. In any event, the original poster's W. German CD (which is the exact same CD version I first got back in high school) is certainly a keeper!

 

This cracks me up--imagine getting a new stereo just to hear this album--in the murky original mix! I would have thought for sure that something was awry in my set-up, and would have been working endlessly to try to remove the "blanket" from the speakers!

 

For what it's worth, I also enjoy the first US CD pressing of DAYS. I actually sold my SACD set after I was finally able to find the first pressing. I compared them and picked one. I don't remember the actual differences, but one just spoke to me better if you know what I mean.

 

You're probably right. Memories play tricks on you - I swear I read somewhere SH preferred both, guess I was wrong. That being said, I have all the "7" WG MB cds, and the MFSL's of DOFP, ISOTLC, TOCCC, and OTTOAD. Wouldn't part with any of them, and I still need the MFSL of " A Question Of Balance". Don't care about the other two. They are expensive and I don't really like the last two that much - although I do have the sacd of "Seventh Sojourn"

The 1st five for me!

I do have the sacd remasters of ISOTLC, TOCCC, OTTOAD, AQOB. Not being sacd/multi-channel capable, though. The redbook layers of these suck.

 

Try comparing the 1st W. German CD pressing with the MFSL. The 1st pressing has a solid aluminum hub and no MCPS letters above the catalog number on the right hand side of the CD face. I found this one to beat all others including the USA 1st pressing imported from W. Germany.

 

Your mind isn't playing tricks on you. At some point Steve was in agreement with me on both, but it was a long long time ago. Perhaps he changed his mind like I did.

 

The various cd singles compilations have "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Nights in White Satin"
(the latter in stereo single and stereo lp mixes) from the '67 mixes.

I have the 1967 mix of NIWS sans orchestra on "Singles+"

- - -

Annoyingly, Bill Levensen prepared a cd of the original mix and that disc was
played around the Polygram office he worked out of and was compared to the remix -
the staff there (likely kids w/ no sense of history) all voted for the remix to be reissued.
This was in the late 90's.

- - - -

The remix that's on all the lp cds was executed at the same time as the quad mix.