Yup, ordered it tonight. Should arrive about the same time as the Isley Brothers set I pre-ordered back in May at £33. Where I'm going to find the time to listen to all of this music is beyond me LOL
This is true however the solo albums he made during Roxy do, at times, sit pretty well with Roxy albums.
After owning this for a few years and getting very familiar with it, I have one problem with this box. The whole set is perfect, except for the debut album. This album starts off well, and clears up towards the end. The middle tracks have some serious problems with volume and detail, the worst track being 2HB. 2HB is so bad that I think it's a perfect simulation of what it's like to have numb hearing after a loud concert. Does anyone know of a CD of this album that would fit in better with the quality of the rest of this set? I already own the loud 1999 remaster, that one is way out of line with this box set.
It isn't. They are different transfers, cleaner and better, IMO. For the albums I have compared, namely the 1st and Avalon, the SHMs were superior to the boxset.
I've read this thread in the past, and from memory the thread says that these 2012 remasters are flat transfers. Yet when I look at the DR database I see that: For Your Pleasure in this set is DR11 whilst the '84 CD is DR13, Siren in this set is DR13 whilst the '84 CD is DR14 So are these slightly compressed (and thus not flat transfers)? Or have I got things wrong somewhere?
Whatever the DR software measures, it is not dynamic range, and posts in other threads seem to suggest that results can vary depending on spectrum, so a transfer with more compression but the 'right' spectral shape returns a higher DR value than a less compressed transfer with the 'wrong' spectrum.
Yes, in short you can gain DR points with EQ. Or a different tape. Or a bad transfer... Many variables really.
Is anyone hearing static in the right channel at 1:25 & 1:27 on My Little Girl on Manifesto? Does anyone have the 2015 Japan master to cross-check to see if maybe it is just a transfer issue?
Japanese master doesn't have what i'd call static, but there is a short right channel drop out at 1.27. i've just checked the original vinyl and it's there too.
Yes not really static but more of a tape glitch. Does not appear on my Ludwig cd as I did a comparison. Guess an error
So I bought this 10CD box from Amazon UK at Xmas for £46. I tried ripping it to my HD for playback on my Squeezebox Touch linked to my Hi-Fi. Got off to a bad start ripping CD1 (1972 Debut). Exact Audio Copy was giving errors. Tried CD2 and ripped fine (as did the rest of the set). Inspected the playing side of CD1 - looks perfect. Tried ripping it on a different PC and got the same errors. However, managed to play it through with no issues on my old 1990s Pioneer PD-S705 stable platter CD Player. What is happening here - is the disc faulty? Is it something to do with the fancy picture of the sleeve design on the label side of the CD? Anyone else got this CD1 and had problems ripping it? My disc says AC788676-01 manufactured by Optimal Gmbh on the matrix. If the disc was scratched I could understand it but this disc looks perfect.
...OK thanks - maybe I got a dud. Probably keep it though as it only CD1 (and I can play it on my CD Player).
The Offline TT DR Meter measures RMS and Peak data and calculates a 'crest factor' value. It's not correct to call it Dynamic Range, as that term is better used to describe the difference in perceived loudness over time, how much light and shade there is in the music. Crest factor, on the other hand is simply the gap between peak and main bulk of sound. In general a compressed version compared to an uncompressed version will have a smaller crest factor and measure with a smaller DR value according to the TT DR tools. However, as Black Elk correctly points out, it's easily 'fudged' with an EQ change, potentially making a version with compression show a higher crest factor than one without. Because it uses RMS energy, taking out a bunch of LF meterial whilst boost HF will produce a higher crest factor, even though it could sound like garbage. An example would be something mastered by our host, nice smooth, warm, natural and then a not so much compressed but just treble boosted and noise reduced version by some nutter, the poorer sounding version would measure with a potentially higher DR/crest factor value. The tool and the PMF have the heart in the right place, it's just a rather blunt instrument, and a bit of background understanding on exactly what it is and how it works, and what the results mean is needed to make any use of the results. It ain't an easy and simple 'score' of quality. http://www.dynamicrange.de/sites/default/files/DR-Manual-V1_1-English.pdf We since have EBU / ITU loudness standardised algorithms for calculating perceived loudness. Whilst not a perfect simulation of human hearing perception, the algorithm is pretty reasonable. Tools using this method at least give more accurate indication of the actual loudness level (or how loud it plays back) compared to other material. The good thing is that it's incorporated into ReplayGain for Foobar2000 and other tools. So offline file scanning is rather easy. Of course with Fb2k RG scan, everything is based as an offset to meet a target of -18 LUFS. So RG values are the value required to adjust the file to meet -18 LUFS, simply subtract it (including it's sign +/-) from -18 to get the actual LUFS the track/album measures.
I have the same problem on my Disc 1. And when I play the disc, it is definitely not fine. There are extraneous noises throughout the first few tracks (did not check every track on the CD). Easily heard on my monitors, but you may need to use headphones to notice. Very light background noises that sound like butterfly wings flapping (best description I can think of). In this day in age, I do not know how to get a replacement disc from a record company. How to proceed? I am pretty disappointed with this set - sound-wise and the tape issue (or whatever it is) on My Little Girl from Manifesto. Very surprised the amount of praise the set has received on this site.
I think you're hearing what's on the master. The fact that those noisy bits are dropouts on other releases would seem to bear this out.
The problems on Disc 1 are definitely not on the master tapes. They must have had a run of defective discs. I have heard these same kind of noises on other CDs. I would say it is a pressing problem.
