Second Genesis 2007 remasters (1983-1998 box): A Visible Touch

You're correct, "Invisible Touch" is without doubt more "skewed" than "Genesis". Not only it has been re-mixed much louder (see below), its EQ choices are also farther away from the originals.

Code:

"Genesis" (1983):

                              "Louder" on the Remaster
------------------------------------------------------
1. Mama                       +1.8 dB ******************
2. That's All                 +3.8 dB **************************************
3. Home By The Sea            +4.0 dB ****************************************
4. 2nd Home By The Sea        +4.2 dB ******************************************
5. Illegal Alien              +2.8 dB ****************************
6. Taking It All To Hard      +5.0 dB **************************************************
7. Just A Job To Do           +3.2 dB ********************************
8. Silver Rainbow             +3.2 dB ********************************
9. It's Gonna Get Better      +4.0 dB ****************************************

"Invisible Touch" (1986):
                            
                             "Louder" on the Remaster
-----------------------------------------------------
1. Invisible Touch            +5.2 dB ****************************************************
2. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight  +6.8 dB ********************************************************************
3. Land Of Confusion          +7.3 dB *************************************************************************
4. In Too Deep                +5.0 dB **************************************************
5. Anything She Does          +4.9 dB *************************************************
6. Domino                     +6.7 dB *******************************************************************
7. Throwing It All Away       +6.7 dB *******************************************************************
8. The Brasilian              +7.9 dB *******************************************************************************

Some tracks on "Invisible Touch" are so "loud" that one can easily hear the distortion that results from the overuse of "peak limiting"/compression.

But the stereo remixes of the albums "We Can't Dance" and "Calling All Stations" are not much better, IMO.
The only difference is that the original 1997 mix of "Calling All Stations" has already been terribly loud/peak limited. I've always felt that "Calling All Stations" sounded quite cheesy in the original already. Yet they surpassed themselves and made it even louder on the 2007 remasters. Definitely not one of my favorite "Genesis" albums.

 

There's no reason to look there for answers. That thread was started by one of two members who are very vocally opposed to the remixes for the same reasons some of us here are. (One of them argues his points rather well, I think.) Nick Davis just ignores them. The rest of the posts are on the order of "OH NICK TAHNK U 4 TIHS WONDEFUL REAMSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL"

And there's one member who makes fun of this forum. No one else seems to know what he's talking about, though.

 

That's funny!

 

Huh huh huh...he said "Reamster"!

 

Let me correct you regarding what I think those posts read like, "0H N1CK 7h4NK y0u f0r 7h15 W0ND3rFU| R3M4573R!!!!!!111!!11!!!!L0lz"

 

Well, that's somewhat good news since I like the S/T album about 1,000 times more than Invisible Touch.

 

I'll chime in here ... I just got the set and I could care less about the stereo mixes. I got these for the 5.1 and the bonus material. I'm through the S/T album and I like the 5.1 mix and the bonus stuff on the DVD disc is great. The Mama Tour Rehearsals are quite amazing. This one was done much better than the stuff on the 1st box IMHO

Now, I heard some of the stereo remixes on the new Turn It On Again Tour edition and I was put off by some of the IT tracks. I did glance through the other discs in 5.1 and the weirdness I heard in the stereo mixes was not in the 5.1s, so I don't know what happened in translation.

When I have more time I'll get through the rest of the box, but so far so good for me.

 

Is it really that hard to figure out? The delays in Gabriel approving the mixes, bonus material, etc., contributed so at one point they decided to do the 4 & 3 man lineup stuff first while all that other stuff got sorted out.

 

Methinks it will be released next summer.

After Gabriel sees how popular the recent concerts have been, he'll decide to do a summer tour reunion with Genesis, and the last Box will be touted at that time.

 

I'll agree with that yestiles - always said that the early box would be released to coincide with a short tour to do the Lamb live. Box set due for release March/April 2008, my money's on a tour thereafter, either Summer or early autumn.

 

I hope PG has had some input into the mixing and the recordings don't end up like the first box, (can't comment on the second, as I won't be buying it). I'm hoping for good surround mixes of the PG era stuff, and good sounding stereo as well, not the horrible sounding stereo of the first box.

 

It's hard to trust Peter after he overdubbed new vocals on that Genesis live box
about nine years ago. Supper's Ready was particularly appalling. I do like his remasters - same mastering engineer, Tony Cousins, as the Genesis boxes.

 

Yeah, let's hope he doesn't go in and re-record 80% of the vocals this time. I thought the "live" version of The Lamb on that box was a travesty. The 50-something Peter Gabriel's voice sticks out like a sore thumb. Basically him singing along with a 30-year old tape recording...what the hell was he thinking?? Listened to it once, never again... :thumbsdn:

 

I really doubt that there will be any re-recording for the third box, considering there was none for the first two, and Nick Davis specifically said on the Genesis board that there wouldn't be.

That said, I also doubt if the sound quality will be any different from the first two.

 

Read my post above. He had mucho input into the mixes and is part of the delay.

 

Yes, great performance, pity about the re-recorded bits. Silly thing to do, great pity too, there are better live performances out there, but not with the clarity. Shame.

 

I wonder..if Rhino gets around to reissueing the Gabriel Genesis CD's,will there be a glimmer that "Trespass" ever will get to see it's CD/DVD "Light Of Day?" Probably not,since it was the one (Of two) Genesis issues not released on Atlantic....but,one can hope,CAN ONE? (It was noted in the booklets of the 1994 Reissues.) Michael Boyce

 

"Trespass" is included as the first album in the 3rd box set. According to the earlier reports anyway.

 

Trespass should be released, although historically, I think mr_mjb's referring to the distribution rights for the album. In the USA, it went to the jazzy Dunhill ABC label, Canada had it on MCA; it's all sorted out now and will be in the next box release.

The one you definately WON'T see is FGTR which belongs to Jonjo and the rights are unlikely to shift given Jonathan King has reissued this virtually every year for ages now!

 

Right,just what I was thinking....The label was,indeed,Dunhill/ABC in the USA...overseas it was Charisma in the UK..the only way it would be on Atlantic is that Charisma's US distributor was/is Atlantic..hence,the picture in the CD Booklet (in 1994). Michael Boyce

 

Is that picture advertisement still in the DE booklets, even though it's 13 years later?

 

It's weird, but I listened to the 5.1 mix of Invisible Touch - Tonight, Tonight, Tonight in particular - on SACD and the "slappy" nature that the 2 channel redbook has is not as offensive. I think it has to do with the fact that the "slap" has been directed from the front to the rear, unlike the stereo. So that added slap sounds more like the original (relatively speaking) than the stereo mixes do.

 

Yes.

 

I'm in the midst of listening to the CD layer of the S/T album on my bedroom system (not cheap, but not super expensive), and to be honest, it sounds decent. The new stereo mixes are very faithful to the originals, and yes, I can hear some subtle differences between the original mixes (considering I lived with them since 1983) and these, but they are far from egregious.

Personally, I always felt the S/T was a bit muddy in spots, and I always kinda thought it may benefit from a remix. There are spots where the remix is not great, but is just OK. For example, I feel PC's vox should be pulled slightly forward in "Taking It All Too Hard" and the keys set back a little.

I always had fun playing bass along with this album, and this is one of the last times MR played a decent amount of bass to be honest (largely missing from IT and beyond, including all the Mechanics records).

Just my $.02 as everyone's mileage will vary on these sets.

 

Spent last evening with the S/T album, listening to the surround DTS. Loved it! The songs came alive with things I had not heard in the mixes previously. And no fatigue to my ears.