I'll have to give the album a fresh listen. I was familiar with the DBX problem, but at the time of release, I wasn't nearly as focused on the band as I was when Can't Buy a Thrill and Countdown were released. (The latter album has always seemed underrated to me). I never understood why Aja is so highly regarded sonically (I'm not talking about the music or performances). That recording sounds dry and borderline antiseptic, to the point where the Cisco, which is even more "precise" sounding, has a very arid quality. That two LP Greatest Hits RL is a great sounding compilation. Can't Buy a Thrill is, to me, one of the best debut albums ever released- every song is different, most of it is radio friendly relatively short tracks; it is a musician's musician album- the playing is masterful despite the tuneful catchy songs. Elliot Randall's leads on "Kings" are absolutely lashing (and I believe first takes). Brilliant band -- at the time those early albums came out, nobody was even close to those guys. (Except, maybe, The Band, a different kettle of fish, and some of the early Little Feat stuff, which still gets play here when I'm in a mood).
It's a special effect, or just an effect. That statement is contradictory. A creative dicision is what it is with an effect created.
I’m thinking it’s was the only way to counter the effect of the rogue DBX on the original recording: trying to compensate for the phasing by hand.
How did they fix it on "Citizen"? That whole box was zapped with DNR. Most tracks sound "sucked out" and therefore the waveforms look really weird!
I have a plugin that emulates dolby A, B, and DBX 1 and 2 Noise reduction. If they can emulate now with software, I bet they could tweak it to get the original muti tracks to sound right and do a remix.
I have read the story about this album and I can't make any sense out of it. I've never heard of DBX being used on multi tracks before. If there was a problem playing them back for mixing, wouldn't they have noticed it right away on the first song? Why mix the whole album and then remix it again to Dolby A? Or was the problem with the Mix downs? If so, and the Multi track was not DBX, then the remix to Dolby A should have solved the problem. I thought I read on here that the correct Album master is DBX and the Dolby A is a cutting dub? I'm totally lost!
DBX was used on the multis (like Dolby can be), but they couldn't get it to decode 100% correctly. Their first attempt at mixing with DBX on the stereo mixdown as planned was even worse-sounding, so they went back to the multis, get them to sound as good as they could, and used tried and true Dolby A on the final stereo mixdown. That's my take on it.
Because it said no special effects on vocals, and then states an effect was specially created for the vocals. Read it again if you missed that.
Oh I see, but I just interpreted it as them not doing any after effects, rather it being a live change. But its obvius that something was done to the vocals so the first statement doesnt seem right.
Here you go. UnZipped FLAC files of "Bad Sneakers" and "Doctor Wu" from four different vinyl masterings: Katy Lied Vinyl Samples Pick your poison!
So I always thought, too. However, you might want to listen to the unmarked samples of the two tracks I uploaded from Katy Lied and see how the Greatest Hits masterings (included) compare to the others and if you actually prefer them!! Katy Lied Vinyl Samples
That’s been my take on it too. Hey, we agree! If I’m not mistaken, isn’t there also a DBX stereo master out there too?
I've often wondered if Jamie Howarth's Plangent Process might improve the sound at all, if he ever got hold of the analog master.