The Rush cd mastering thread

Wow - just listened to an Atomic Fly By Night - blooming awful, veiled sound, muffled drums, sounds like someone switched inputs on my amp to a cassette player!

Complete opposite to the Atomic Caress of Steel, and of course the Moving Pictures (03 matrix). Is the Canadian disc really as bad too?

It was never my favourite of Rush albums, so no great loss. I'll carry on collecting some of the Canadian issues - so far have the ANC Farewell to Kings - great sound presence, drums, bass where they should be!

 

The original Fly By Night is a little mysterious, but the great dynamic sound is there for those who are willing to spend some time messing with the eq. I've used an narrower midrange curve setting to tame the midrange which helped bring out the other frequencies better. Also, it might help to crank this CD for maximum sonic benefit. This is a rock 'n roll album after all.

 

Excellent. My thought was that the SHM was superior for this one too. And yes, I think that pretty that the Anthem and Atomic/Mercury releases are synchronized around Power Windows.

And yeah, I use Mercury/Atomic synonymously Signals-onwards.

 

The Anthem is unfortunately the same as all the other early CDs for this one. Only one mastering out there.

Someday I might pick up the Sector 1 set just to see if this one is any better there.

 

It's weird man. I do not have good things to say about the vast majority of SHM CDs, but for Power Windows, and Hold Your Fire, a very tasteful hand was at the console.

 

I agree with you 100% on this, especially when it comes to Hold Your Fire. Strange that the quality of this same line of SHM-CD's would vary so much. I wonder if the second release of the Rush catalog on SHM that's coming out next week will be any different. I've ordered the S/T, Caress of Streel, and Permanent Waves, mostly to just compare them with my other favorite masterings of these albums.

On another note, I'd just like to extend my thanks to all the knowledgeable folks that have made this such an interesting and educational thread for me, especially Fizbin, Kevin5Brown, and Dave. I've learned a lot.

 

^^^

I was just thinking ... Have the SHM people done a CD for Fly By Night?

 

Do you have a link to the new SHMs (Amazon, etc.)?

 

This may have been answered here but at 47 pages....

I decided to hang on to my Rush Atomic cds. Some that I have are Made in Germany (not W Germany). Not sure where or when those were issued. Any thoughts?

 

Don't have the link about the CD's are being released by CDJapan. The release date is now June 13.

 

Yes, Fly By Night was among the CD's released on SHM in Japan. Another round of releases of their Mercury recordings is coming out on SHM CD on June 13th. I preordered 4 albums way back in April. Looking forward to it.

 

The stripped down raw production that Mr. Collins brought out of the 3 Kings in 93' makes listening to the CD much more forgivable...

 

Uh, ok. But that doesn't change the presence of unnecessary compression and too much processing, a trend that would continue with Rush from CP onwards. The vinyl simply keeps the same raw production but has much more reasonable dynamics. The drums, for example, sound lightyears better. In fact, as an analog medium, the vinyl probably has more of a raw feel.

I was simply saying that the vinyl dynamics were closer to the 80s productions, not the sound overall. I understand that CP has a stripped down, more "alternative rock" sound, and I like that.

 

Uh...Obviously ?

 

Ok, moving on...

I have samples for Presto next. This is another straightforward release from a mastering perspective, because there is apparently only one version of the original release. There appears to be no difference between the Atlantic or the AMCY, and the Anthem peaks values I've found match these version exactly. So for this one, I am posting samples of the RM as well, since this is one Rush RM that isn't as squashed in the dynamics department as some of the other Rush Remasters albums.

Presto - Show Don't Tell
- AMCY
- Atlantic
- 1997 Remaster

Presto - The Pass
- AMCY
- Atlantic
- 1997 Remaster

Presto - Scars
- AMCY
- Atlantic
- 1997 Remaster

Presto - Presto
- AMCY
- Atlantic
- 1997 Remaster

Presto - Superconductor
- AMCY
- Atlantic
- 1997 Remaster

 

I've been reading through this thread for hours. Days! And I still can't find the answer I'm looking for. Are all the original Canadian WANK, VANK, ANC and ANMD pressings the same? I believe they are with the possible exception of the ANMD pressings. Clarify? Anybody? Please?

 

I'll try and help. This thread provides great info and may just answer your question:

http://www.wellers.demon.co.uk/rushpage.htm

First ANMD-1075 and up are Canadian remasters. Order of the pressings or issues go as follows (let's use Fly By Night as an example) prefixes apply to Rush through Hold Your Fire:

ANC-1-1002, Anthem, Canada
WANK-1002, Anthem, Canada
ANMD-1002, Anthem, Canada
ANMD-1076, Anthem, Canada - Rush Remasters series

For A Show of Hands

A2-1055, Anthem, Canada
WAGK-1055, Anthem, Canada
AND-1055, Anthem, Canada
ANMD-1091, Anthem, Canada - Rush Remasters series

For albums after this (Presto and later albums see link above).


I just snagged the Canadian first of Counterparts (ANK-1067) for $10 in EX+. Sounds wonderful! Dave personally recommends Canadian 1sts for best SQ. I'll let other weigh in....

 

Can someone fill in any titles I may have missed. For the JPn 1sts worth hanging on to from my reading here are (I have all Atomics):

2112 25.8.P-5166

Permanent Waves 25.8P-5075 (for the Dewey Defeats Truman newspaper. Dave indicated also found on the ANC-1) same peak values as Atomic (?)

Signals 25·8P-5169 - increased treble helps the mix as Geddy is somewaht buried)


Any others?

 

Some of the early ANMD's are the same as the ANC-1's, VANKs, WANKs, etc, and some aren't. I never specifically searched out any ANMDs but I got 2 by accident, and 1 was the same and 1 wasn't.

 

Thanks Kevin. I am just getting into Canadian issues. My fault for being a late participant here. But I love Rush and wanted to join in.

Can you please tell me what JPN Rush cds are still worth holding on to? I have been doing some a/b tests. I find the Atomics more relaxed overall with only the few cds I have compared. Thank you...



Brian

 

^^^

Personally? So far, I like all the early Anthem CDs the best, except for the 03 and greater (matrix code) Atomic for Moving Pictures (and the two SHMs we recently found that have very good sound). But I still need to do more comparisons for GUP and Signals with the early Japanese discs. And for some of the releases, the masterings are the same across the board like for Fly By Night and Permanent Waves. And some of the early Anthems are the same as the 25-8P's as for 2112, AFTK, and Hemispheres.

Someday, I really should do a summary, but ...

But there are other opinions as well.

 

Kevin,

Thank you. Big help here! I have all Atomics and the 03 matrix of Moving Pictures. I may end up just holding on to those JPn discs. Can't have too much Rush!



Brian

 

Kevin! Which two SHM's are getting the thumbs up?

 

Power Windows and Hold Your Fire. The Signals SHM is excellent as well IMO, though Kevin prefers the Anthem. The SHM is a lot easier to find than the Anthem as well.

Is that your final answer, taking into account all the samples? If so, I will amend my personal preferred mastering list.

I seem to recall that you settled this a few posts ago, at least GUP IIRC. You said that the 25.8P/35.8P of GUP was clipped in places, and the Anthem was best overall. The Atomic is overequalized (and The Enemy Within has a nasty click during the synth solo).

I should note that it seems that all Anthem/Atomic/Mercury/Atlantic masterings from the 80s become more or less synchronized from Power Windows onwards.

For this release (Anthem and Atlantic are identical presumably), I highly recommend the vinyl if you can get a rip somehow or you have the available hardware. Pretty much all releases Counterparts-onwards require vinyl to get any decent dynamics (and even the Vapor Trails vinyl still has serious problems, so I guess all we can hope there is that a vinyl version of the remixed/remastered version comes out).

 

Actually, btomarra, can you possibly post peaks levels of your CD please, so we can confirm that the Atlantic and Anthem releases are identical?