Pink Floyd's Oh By the Way - box question

The dot com site now loads and has an email address in the 1/15/08 news item. There is no mention of the Ummagumma issue, though.

 

Hmmm. Still not loading for me on either Safari or Firefox. Anyway, I sent an email to the address shown in the screencap above. We'll see if I get my corrected sleeve liner.

If I do, does anybody want the misprinted one? I will have no use for it but I am sure some of you collectors out there might want it.

 

As a point of reference for this box set here is Vernon's peak level summary from another thread:

Also, here is Vernon's clarification on the above (from the same thread):

 

Early Meddle masterings were all done by EMI. There was no unique early Japan/US version. Japan CP32-5032 and WG/USA CDP-7-46034-2 were the same. In 1994 Capitol in the US went to CDP-0777-7-46034-2-3 mastered by Doug Sax. The same year EMI went to 7243-8-29749-2-5.

For whatever reason EMI took the original 1985 mastering and level shifted it. My spectral analysis shows it's the same EQ, just higher level. It is not the same EQ as the Sax.

EMI did this on several releases at the time. (Animals was simply left alone.) The credits don't necessarily reflect this, which is why it's confusing.

 

Now, Animals did have two early masterings. Japan CBS 32DP 360 and US Columbia CK-34474 both use the Sony mastering. Eu Harvest CDP-7-46128-2 used a different EMI mastering.

In general the more popular Floyd titles that came out first had separate EMI and Sony masterings. Later titles used an EMI mastering for all markets.

For Animals Japan stuck with the Sony mastering until 2000 when they switched to Toshiba and the early EMI mastering.

USA stuck with the Sony Animals until 1997 when Columbia switched to a version of the Sax mastering. They retained this when switching to Capitol in 2000.

Eu stuck with the original Harvest Animals mastering throughout, including the OBTW set. (They did not level shift it like several other titles.) Except for the Shine On set, where they did use a modified Sax mastering.

So, no, your Holland CD is a different mastering then your early US one.

Clear as mud now?

 

I had done the same thing a few days ago, I hope I get a response.

 

As a point of reference, I started with Vernon's peak values. I took the assumption that if the peaks are the same, chances are good the mastering is the same. I have tested some, but no means all, of these cases and my assumption bears out.

Where peaks values are different I have done a spectral analysis to determine which are truly unique masterings, and which are level shifted versions of old masterings. Then sorted this all out based on what we now of Floyd release history.

So, my list is what Vernon refers to as "Sound Mastering" and not "Glass Mastering".

 

Aye Captain, all clear. I think

Here's one more for you....what mastering is on my Shine On box?

 

If you have a Columbia box you have a Sax

 

Yes, my box is USA/Columbia. But, I know for certain it is from 1996. Isn't that too old for a Sax version?

 

Peak values on the Eu Shine On, the US Shine On, and the remastered (post-1994) US albums are all different. I believe these are all Sax masterings, just slightly level-shifted. I have not analyzed them all, however.

 

My set came the exact same way.

 

That should be the same as any other US market Shine On set.

 

Wow..I just double checked Vernon's site out of curiosity and on the U.S. discog he lists 3 editions of the Shine on Box...on the third one EAC levels of Animals are different from the first two

 

That's what I'm saying. None of the Eu market Shine On sets match the US ones, nor do they match the individual remastered Us albums. It's like this for all the Shine on titles.

Again, I haven't tested them all, but I assume they will sound pretty much alike.

 

You're right, I just find odd that the 3rd U.S.A. release of "Shine On" differs from the first two.

BTW, thank you for your great input

 

Oh, sorry, I missed that!

Sam, please disregard what I said in post #288.

They probably all sound the same, but I wonder why they felt the need to futz with those so much?

 

Okay, I have two copies of Animals on cd. The one from the OBtW box, and the Sax remaster from 1992. Which do forum members prefer, and why?

 

Some recent Animals discussion here:

http://stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=169599

 

So The current Animals from Amazon.UK is identical to the OBTW Animals(same old EMI Harvest mastering unfuzzeled)
And The Wall from OBTW is a unique mastering not found anyplace else(a tweaked Sax mastering)
Please forgive me,this is slowly beginning to seep into my cranium!

 

Both are the same as the currently available Eu market albums. With the exception of A Momentary Lapse of Reason this will be the case for the entire OBTW set.

The OBTW Animals is the same mastering the Eu market has always had; early West German, UK Swindon, Holland, etc. It's never been tweaked at all. This is a different mastering from the early Japan/US releases, and the Sax remaster.

The OBTW Wall is the same mastering the EU market has had since 1994. The EQ does not match the early Japan/US, nor the early EMI, nor the Sax remaster. I think I'm right in saying that it is a slightly tweaked version of the Sax.

 

Thanks for your patience!

 

Just double-checked my Wall analysis notes.

Yes, the Eu mastering introduced in 1994 (the one on OBTW) has a very similar EQ curve to the US Sax mastering. Both are very different from the early Eu EMI, and from the early Japan/US masterings. That led me to the conclusion that the Eu version is a tweaked Sax remastering. However, it could be an early EMI mastering tweaked to sound like the Sax, or a new mastering altogether.

It is not a simple level shift though. When I compare the early West German to the late 1980's UK pressing I get a straight line, just at a different level. Comparing the 1994 Eu and the US Sax I get a slightly varying line, but not much more then 1 dB across the spectrum.

 

Indeed! The mysteries of Floyd's CD masterings go on!
Now I'd really like to know when the 2nd and 3rd edition of Shine On were released.
My USA copy of that box has all Columbia discs (even the ones originally released on Capitol) so it's the early 1992 edition.
Later pressings, according to Vernon's description have slight differences...who knows if our Gort SamS can check matrix numbers of his Shine On discs and tell us ...just to know if in 1996 the second or third edition was released..really curious now..

 

I can check mine, but what exactly am I looking for besides matrix numbers? Which disc(s) should I check?