Roland, this is awesome. Maiden has a lot of "b-sides" from different sources and I was thinking that it would be great to have a favorite versions of individual songs sort of thing (at least trough around '96, '98). Thanks! This is sort of a sub-topic of the thread. Did you take into consideration compilations like Best Of The Beast? BOTB may not have a different mastering than the Castles and/or EMI's. By the way, I consider BOTB to be Maiden's ultimate best-of collection (the 2-CD or the 4-vinyl version).
I agree with you, and it's so great because it doesn't only contain singles/concert staples... You can't have a Best-Of-Maiden worthy of that name without stuff like Where Eagles Dare or The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, can you?
O.k., I fooled around with CoolEditPro a little bit to see whether I can EQ the "Piece of Mind" CD to match (sort of) the two tracks which can be found on "The First Ten Years - Vol. V" EP. Here's what I came up with. I have to burn a CD-R with that adjustment to see whether I like the result any better than the original mastering.
No, I have never heard "Best of the Beast". Isn't it a relatively new release? I would have expected it to have the remastered version of the songs, or at least some kind of modern mastering (compression etc.) applied. Is this not the case? Any wav-forms from any tracks from that compilation?
I recently bought an adequate copy of the U.S. vinyl just for listening (have wanted it for 20+ years) and even on my little system it blows away the U.S. Cap CD, it's not even funny.
Best Of The Beast is from 1996 (two years before the first batch of remasters) and is out of print. BOTB still came out on the Castle label and EMI in the UK of course. HERE'S what Wikipedia has to say about it. I suspect it has the same mastering as the Castle and EMI releases from a year before. I'll pick a song or two from the albums discussed so far and run EAC peak levels or waveforms including BOTB. I am fortunate to have all versions of this release!
I seem to prefer the focus of the 1CD version, the 2CD one has more tracks, but I find myself often browsing through it and not listening from start to finish. Also, at one point I had the Castle 2CD Limited Edition of BOTB. It has a thick cardboard box and a huge booklet, really nicely done, tons of info inside. The CDs are inserted in paper pocket inside the booklet, very prone to scratching. The mastering was badl. The tracks had very audible noise (haven't heard any noise on any other version) and were maximized. Not excessively, but still maximized. I don't know if the original EMI UK 2CD edition also has these issues. The 1CD sounds great.
O.k., I did burn a CD-R with the respective EQ setting. Sure sounds much better than the original mastering in my opinion. Still, it's not quite as good as "The First Ten Years" version. By the way, the EQ difference between the original EMI CD and the FTY version is not identical for "Flight of Icarus" and for "The Trooper". I went with the EQ adjustment to match "Flight of Icarus" best as possible, but the resulting version of "The Trooper" on the re-EQ'd CD-R sounds noticeably different to the version which can be found on "The First Ten Years", but not bad. I like this re-EQ'd version much better, and maybe I should invest in a good EQ for my stereo. It seems like you can help some CD's quite a bit that way.
Continuing with POWERSLAVE. I only have the 2CD Castle. Duration is 51'00", will update in the next table.
Here are the EAC peak levels from my US Capitol copy. Looks the same as the Castle. CAPITOL CDP 7 46045 2 (DIDX 247) Manufactured for Capitol Records, Inc. Made in USA Matrix: CDP-4605 SRC-01 Aces High.wav Peak level 100.0 % 2 Minutes to Midnight.wav Peak level 100.0 % Losfer Words (Big 'Orra).wav Peak level 87.7 % Flash of the Blade.wav Peak level 100.0 % The Duellists.wav Peak level 99.5 % Back in the Village.wav Peak level 98.4 % Powerslave.wav Peak level 96.4 % Rime of the Ancient Mariner.wav Peak level 93.1 %
I ran EAC peak levels for disc 2 of both the Castle and the EMI version and they are both the same. I made some waveforms from the song Hallowed Be Thy Name off the Castle 2-CD BOTB, the EMI 2-CD BOTB and just for kicks, the 1998 Raw Power remaster off TNOTB. I have the 1-CD version of BOTB on Castle, but I haven't done an EAC for it (yet). Hallowed Be Thy Name from BOTB 2-CD, Castle. EAC peak level 90.1% Hallowed Be Thy Name from BOTB 2-CD, EMI. EAC peak level 90.1% A little bit louder perhaps? Hallowed Be Thy Name from TNOTB, 1998 Raw Power remaster. EAC peak level 98.8% Forget about it! In the credits for the 1 and 2-CD versions of BOTB it says: "Re-mastered by Simon Heyworth and Murray Harris at Chop Em Out". The NOTB 1998 remaster states: "Remastered by Simon Heyworth at Chop 'Em Out". The EAC peak levels for the song are different from the ones listed in post #87 Different mastering for Best Of The Beast? -- Oldschool, I haven't had a comprehensive listening session yet, but when I do, I'll look for the noise you mention. Actually, the 2-CD version is quite listenable to my ears. Is the difference you hear between the 2-CD and the 1-CD versions very big?
IIRC, the 1CD sounded better to me. I don't have any of them now to do a new comparison, though. I probably have a CD-R of the original BOTB somewhere. If I find it, we can also do a comparison for BOTB
Best Of The Beast, as roland pointed out above, credits Simon Heyworth and Murray Harris for remastering, whereas the '98 remasters only credit Simon Heyworth... I wonder if the name Murray Harris is just a way of saying Steve and Davey were involved? On a curious note, the '98 remasters up to Powerlsave all credit Simon Heyworth... the rest have no remastering credit, even though on the back insert it says "digitally remastered"...
I want to post POWERSLAVE EAC peaks but EAC isn't recognizing my CD drives anymore. Wierd, I installed IE8, maybe that has something to do with it.
Moving on to Powerslave, here's my EMI 2CD: IRON MAIDEN / Powerslave EMI 7243 8 35872 2 3 UK: CDEM 1574 MATRIX: EMI UDEN 8360412 @ 2 / 2-1-2-NL Marketed And Distributed By EMI Made In Holland Total time: 0:50:58.30 Pista 1 Nombre de Archivo 01. Track01.wav Nivel Pico 97.7 % Calidad de Pista 100.0 % Test CRC 0256A921 No se puede verificar como preciso (confianza 6) [A6F0EC20], AccurateRip devuelto [96CD3054] Copia OK Pista 2 Nombre de Archivo 02. Track02.wav Nivel Pico 97.7 % Calidad de Pista 99.9 % Test CRC C61A7F2B No se puede verificar como preciso (confianza 6) [5DE982E0], AccurateRip devuelto [4AF536F1] Copia OK Pista 3 Nombre de Archivo 03. Track03.wav Nivel Pico 93.6 % Calidad de Pista 100.0 % Test CRC A4AEE567 No se puede verificar como preciso (confianza 5) [5A1AC18A], AccurateRip devuelto [D893530A] Copia OK Pista 4 Nombre de Archivo 04. Track04.wav Nivel Pico 97.7 % Calidad de Pista 99.9 % Test CRC 864D40D1 No se puede verificar como preciso (confianza 6) [B0C03ACF], AccurateRip devuelto [E1516BD3] Copia OK Pista 5 Nombre de Archivo 05. Track05.wav Nivel Pico 97.7 % Calidad de Pista 99.9 % Test CRC 2C5781A5 No se puede verificar como preciso (confianza 6) [5F5C39EA], AccurateRip devuelto [67C99E32] Copia OK Pista 6 Nombre de Archivo 06. Track06.wav Nivel Pico 97.7 % Calidad de Pista 100.0 % Test CRC D5F92755 No se puede verificar como preciso (confianza 6) [E0FB2DB5], AccurateRip devuelto [ACDE5871] Copia OK Pista 7 Nombre de Archivo 07. Track07.wav Nivel Pico 97.7 % Calidad de Pista 99.9 % Test CRC 1C223DD1 No se puede verificar como preciso (confianza 6) [532B3CB6], AccurateRip devuelto [3CCCE9B8] Copia OK Pista 8 Nombre de Archivo 08. Track08.wav Nivel Pico 97.7 % Calidad de Pista 99.9 % Test CRC 99F6E034 No se puede verificar como preciso (confianza 6) [061FC42D], AccurateRip devuelto [14958597] Copia OK No se verificará ninguna pista como precisa Puede que tengas una edición diferente a la(s) de la base de datos Sin Errores Final del Informe
You should check under "EAC" => "EAC Options" => "Interface" => if "Native Win32 interface" is selected. It sometimes switches to "external ASPI interface" for whatever reason.
