Caravan on CD help please

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Fishoutofwater, Nov 4, 2018.

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  1. Fishoutofwater

    Fishoutofwater Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I have a few Caravan albums on cd and they sound ok to me. I read somewhere that my fav 2 albums, Land of Grey and Pink and If i could do it all over again were "messed up" by Paschal Byrne. They are the only ones i have! Should i be looking for better versions and without spending a fortune, which should i look at? As i said i have no big issue with the SQ but i might be missing something. What do you think? Thanks
     
  2. Fishoutofwater

    Fishoutofwater Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Anyone have any thoughts?
     
  3. Toad of the Short Forest

    Toad of the Short Forest Forum Resident

    Location:
    90220 Compton
    I never heard about Paschal Byrne messing them up, but this is the version of ItLoGaP I have: Caravan - In The Land Of Grey And Pink

    It has very good bonus tracks and I have no complaints with it. Hope this helps!
     
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  4. Fishoutofwater

    Fishoutofwater Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Hi and thanks. Do you know who did the mastering? I could be wrong about Byrne; but somewhere in my tiny brain i thought the Byrne masterings were seen as poor. I could well be wrong
     
  5. Sydster

    Sydster Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    The Steven Wilson 40th anniversary edition of ‘In the Land of Grey & Pink’ sounds quite good. I’d go with that one. I’ve got the Byrne edition of IICDIAOAIDIAOY and I don’t recall anything wrong with the mix/mastering, though admittedly it’s been a bit since I’ve played it. I’ve got an original UK vinyl I spin when I’m in the mood for it. I had the first CD issues on the French Mantra label from the late 80s and “upgraded” to the Byrne reissues when they came out. My overall impression was that there weren’t many sonic upgrades on the new editions but the bonus material was interesting. The most notable CD reissue from the series was ‘Live at Fairfield Halls’ which finally gave the hard-to-locate (and French release only) ‘Best of Caravan Live’ from 1974 its first CD release and that one is ESSENTIAL Caravan...be sure to grab it if you see it.
     
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  6. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    The bonus-track versions are fine. The messed-up Grey & Pink was the original Deram CD, which cut off part of side two's opening chord.
     
  7. jkauff

    jkauff Senior Member

    Location:
    Akron, OH
    The early Caravan albums are very straight-forward recordings. Guitar-bass-drums-keyboards without much overdubbing or vocal harmony layering. Pretty hard to mess up from a mastering perspective.

    They sound best on vinyl, but all of the recent CD versions sound just fine.
     
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  8. Andreas

    Andreas Senior Member

    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
    About the opening chord: I just compared the Deram CD with the Byrne remaster, and couldn't really hear a difference in the regard, are we talking about a millisecond?
     
  9. Dave

    Dave Esoteric Audio Research Specialist™

    Location:
    B.C.
  10. ArpMoog

    ArpMoog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit
    I thought all the reissues were good and bought everything up to Cunning Stunts I have no complaints. The first album has both stereo and mono.
     
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  11. Andreas

    Andreas Senior Member

    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
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  12. awizard

    awizard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massacusetts
    I have had different digital versions of these albums over the years and there are good & bad across all the labels. Case by case basis but I have almost never gotten a Paschal Byrne master that I thought was lousy!

    His Caravan re-masters are very good! I would never trade my Mantra "For Girls... and I love the Derams that I have! As someone earlier said the best you can probably get are UK Derams and US Londons as far as vinyl is concerted. But that wasn't the original inquiry was it?
     
  13. Dave

    Dave Esoteric Audio Research Specialist™

    Location:
    B.C.
    What flaws Andreas?
     
  14. Fishoutofwater

    Fishoutofwater Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I have to say that all my Caravan albums sound great to me. I think someone on a Camel thread said something about how good Byrne's mastering was on Camel albums but was critical about his Caravan Mastering. Whoever it was, i think he or she was wrong. They do sound fine to me. I too like the Derams as well.
     
    anduandi likes this.
  15. cjwynes

    cjwynes Active Member

    Location:
    De Soto, MO
    I have both of those 2001 UK remasters, and though I have no comparison point for Grey and Pink, I did also have a vinyl rip of Do It All Over Again, and don't recall noticing much.

    I'm gonna be adding a vinyl copy of Grey & Pink to my wishlist sometime, probably the '71 UK version? Looks like there was a '75 remaster by an in-house Decca studio engineer for the continental europe pressings.
     
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  16. Crawlin From The Wreckage

    Crawlin From The Wreckage Custom Titled

    Location:
    Canada
    Not too many Caravan threads available, sorry for abusing this one. Anyone looking to dip their toes before diving in may want consider this comp. Decent sounding, probably dirt cheap and samples the Deram albums though Cunning Stunts.

    [​IMG]
     
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  17. tlake6659

    tlake6659 Senior Member

    Location:
    NJ
    The platinum SHM-CDs of Land of Grey in Pink and For Girls Who Go Plump in the Night are flat transfers of the original masters and are the best digital pressings.
     
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  18. Fishoutofwater

    Fishoutofwater Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Which year was that please?
     
  19. rpc_2_uk

    rpc_2_uk Forum Resident

    A good companion to the studio albums is this BBC compilation

    [​IMG]
     
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  20. tlake6659

    tlake6659 Senior Member

    Location:
    NJ
    Fishoutofwater and cjwynes like this.
  21. Siegmund

    Siegmund Vinyl Sceptic

    Location:
    Britain, Europe
    I don't think Paschal Byrne is in the habit of messing things up. I've always been happy with his remasters.
     
  22. abzach

    abzach Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    I prefer the 80's CDs without the bonus tracks, they sound more natural then the remasters.
     
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  23. Andreas

    Andreas Senior Member

    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
    Mainly narrowed stereo image, also some additional noises, they sound like a generation removed from the master compared to the Deram CDs.
     
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  24. Andreas

    Andreas Senior Member

    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
    I dislike most of his masterings, mainly because of the noise reduction.
     
  25. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    People swear by Land Of Grey And Pink as their best and I've never really felt that, it's one of my least favorites, though I still have it... maybe I need a different edition??? I think the first self-titled is my favorite, and one of my favorite albums of the period entirely, and the second one is almost as great so I guess I like the edition I have of that.
     
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