How's the SQ on the 2011 Sundazed mono CD for If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears

Here are some samples. All are FLAC, 16/44.1.

Dancing Bear [mono LP]
Dancing Bear [Sundazed CD]

Dancing In The Street [mono LP]
Dancing In The Street [Sundazed CD]

In addition to my notes above, you can hear that there's actually about a half second missing from Dancing Bear before the guitar comes in. I'm assuming this can be attributed to how the stereo mix is edited, but I don't have a copy of that handy to compare right now. Either way, the Sundazed is missing a bit.

My dub is hardly perfect, but it's amazing how much better it sounds on Dancing In The Street.

This is really baffling.

 

No... but, most of the time you can surmise if there's hard limiting through the peak values on either the DR list or EAC logs. In the log I linked above, you can see that none of the peaks are the same and have quite some variance. Now, there'll be rare cases where some CDs might have massive clipping but the gain's reduced to compensate, and the peak values wouldn't show this, such as the Sundazed Supersneakers or the Rhino Yardbirds' Greatest Hits Vol. 1.

But rest assured, I've played this through Audition many times and I never saw any limiting whatsoever, so just get the 1st album from Sundazed with ease of mind already, will ya? (2nd album... jury's still out, let's just say...)

Well that settles it, doesn't it? I'm quite amazed at how cleaner the high-end on your DITS clip is compared to the Sundazed, and I can't believe that they managed to miss 0.5 seconds of the intro on Dancing Bear!

One thing I'd like to note is that I noticed something odd on the final cymbal hit/fadeout of "No Salt on Her Tail", like some sort of upward phasing noise (probably caused by a stereo fold problem?), but this isn't on the mono mix. I don't have the stereo with me on hand to verify in full, however...

 

Okay. Thanks for that info.

 

I just compared the stereo mix. Sure enough, the stereo mix is slightly shorter in that spot, just like the Sundazed.

Frustrating on several levels.

 

I wonder what caused the stereo mix to be shorter at that point. Different editing down from the multis? Kinda baffled Sundazed didn't catch that...

Luke, do you know if the stereo ending of "No Salt On Her Tail" has some weird phasing on it when folded down? Now that I've heard it on the Sundazed, I can't unhear it, and for the time this was released, I don't think at that point they'd use phasing deliberately...

 

I compared to the SHM CD with the stereo mix. I don't have an LP, but I would presume it's the same.

Weird that they bothered with this at all if they didn't have a mono tape. But it's not weird that the intro matches the stereo, if they spliced a fold-down of the stereo intro onto a dub of a mono LP.

And yes, the slight oddness at the end of "No Salt On Her Tail" does seem to be an artifact of the stereo mix.

 

As above, large chunks of the album (all of side 1 and at least parts of side 2) are a needledrop. Fold-downs of the stereo intros and fades were edited on so surface noise was less obvious. But noise and distortion is still quite present at times. The edit from fold down from tape to needledrop is especially apparent in the Dancing In The Street clip I posted.

 

I withdraw my earlier statement.

 

Well that's worrying, but let's face it - we don't have any other options here, it's the only mono version available digitally.

 

I just bought this disk last week! Had I known it was a futzed needle drop I would have passed.

 

Sometimes needledrops are the only option available, and they can be quite well done. Unfortunately, in my opinion, this wasn't one that was well done, between the poor quality of the dub and the edited on intros and fades.

 

I wouldn't mind if it was just a needledrop, but you say it could be a fold-down? That's the part I have a problem with.

 

Some of the intros and fades are (at least) anyway, yes.

And like I said, it isn't a very good needledrop either.

 

This is really interesting if not a little shocking. I will have to give these a deeper listen soon. I look forward to hearing more about this.

 

agreed

 

My Girl is as well.

Has it ever been stated where those alternate mixes came from? They definitely seem to be more modern sounding, with centered rhythm tracks and a bit more clarity. Curious that Creeque Alley is the original mix.

 

Yeah, I seem to recall that, but it would still be nice to know more details. It's not clear how or why John would have had them, or what they were originally made for.

 

I listened a bit on the office system and yes there is something or other going on. I am not good enough to know what it is exactly, but especially when comparing it to the If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears Sundazed CD you cannot help but notice something is up. If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears sounding much more like your LP samples.

 

Well, Even If I Could cannot be a fold, as BG vocals are missing in the mono mix.

 

Mono needledrop with edited on intro and fade: