Trouble finding non-remastered CD's

The Peter Cetera Solitude/Solitaire CD still sold today is the old mastering.

 

Farewell Andromeda was released in 2008 .The PPP & Farewell Andromeda CD was 2005.
Just to clarify,are both of these unmastered? It says re-mastered on Amazon .Was 2005 the first release of this album on CD?

 

I've found this to be true for a lot of old MCA CDs as well.

 

I get what you are saying, but fast forward 30 years, and all these versions are now in the bins. Foreign pressings were often the only available version at the time (very true of Miles Davis's In a Silent Way where there doesn't appear to be a domestic pressing prior to the Columbia Jazz Masterpiece edition). The average consumer was forced to buy what was on the shelves at the time. Now we have more choice.

 

I was just as shocked, but his loss, and definitely my gain! Both are in my personal top five comps, based on the fact they both are listened to in their entirety every time.

 

It was around 1988 when they were was released first on CD and the individual titles are unremastered. There are remasters available on download services and as part of the RCA Albums Collection boxed set.

 

I use a blended threat approach for shopping here in the UK - Discogs and the eBay iPhone app.

1. Use Discogs to find the mastering/edition you want, and copy out the barcode. Remove the spaces to get one long string of numbers.
2. Open the eBay iPhone app and enter "ean:00000000", where those zeroes are your barcode number. You'll more likely than not get a match from a bulk used CD shifter like Music Magpie or World of Books, often at a very low price.

Unfortunately, the EAN search is part of the eBay API which can be used by apps, but not from the desktop site. I'd guess this would work on Android too, as it's what backs up the scan-a-barcode functionality the mobile apps all have.

Music Magpie are best for this - as far as I can tell, their whole workflow is barcode based, so their EANs are always accurate, even if they've chewed the description and have the wrong picture. I've picked up some very specific stuff using this method with MM: the original Danish domestic release of Junior Senior's first album; the only version of Heroes to Zeroes by The Beta Band which doesn't have copy protection; unremastered ABBA discs, etc.

Here's an example - this is almost certainly an original, unremastered 1980s CD of Arrival by ABBA, for £1.68. It's listed as being the 1995 CD and the art's wrong, but that's because Music Magpie are just using the CD database built into eBay, which tends not to go very far back. But the EAN is a match for the original release on discogs, and I'd put money on it being so (not least as this is how I acquired all my unremastered ABBAs).

It's not, then complain that it doesn't match the EAN and Music Magpie will pay for postage back, although I've genuinely never had this happen*.

* I have had them twice send me incorrect CDs from the pre-barcode era, as they mixed up the What Difference Does It Make? Rough Trade CD single by The Smiths (RTT 146CD) with the album On Fire by Galaxy 500 (Rough CD 146). Presumably when there's no barcode, they do rough matching on codes, and in this case they were too similar. They paid full return postage and a refund for the first, and gave a full refund and let me keep the second. It's actually a great album, so win-win.

 

Current going rate on eBay is north of £40. You might want to call in there next weekend...

Actually, if you genuinely don't want it and it's a half-way competent charity shop (e.g. Oxfam, British Heart Foundation), then it could be worth telling them it's worth something, and they'll probably sell it online themselves, or at least sticker it up in the glass case. If it's two old ladies in the Cats Protection, then obviously this isn't an option - might be best to buy it, sell it on eBay yourself then donate half the money back to them.

Or, I guess, leave it for some other happy hunter.

 

It was Barnado's and of course it's gone now.

They have a lot of CDs. Mostly 90s stuff. That stood out because of the distinctive RCA spine.

Ah well. Someone would go home thrilled that day.

 

Dynamic Range Database - Album List also has bar codes on many entries.

 

One other hotbed of older CDs here in the UK is car boot sales. I go to one here in York almost every weekend, Spring to Autumn, and usually come back with at least three CDs, sometimes more than ten. Average price is £1, although obviously the condition can vary wildly. Worth keeping an eye out for what I think of as the car-boot special - VG+/Mint CD and inlays in a jewel case that looks like it's been sandblasted and/or run over by a bus. Take them home and swap out the case, and you have a lovely addition to the collection that plays like a dream. Always strikes me as a testament to the genius of the jewel case - good luck finding anything in a digipack in decent condition (it does happen, but rarely).

As an RCA Bowie hunter (almost have the set now, not a single one found in the wild), I get so excited when I see that spine. Turns out it's usually Glen Miller or something, although I did stumble on a fantastic sounding original release of Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics this way.

 

I bought the Sweet Dreams CD on eBay a few weeks ago. I never see the Eurythmics stuff in my charity shops.

 

I'm surprised, because the Eurythmics RCAs are some of the most common RCAs out there. About one year ago, I found a couple of Japan for US RCAs in an Air Ambulance charity shop: Eurythmics Revenge and Kenny Rogers They Don't Make Them Like They Used To. The US market RCAs are easy to spot with the yellow at the top of the spine. I think I saw a Japan for Europe Revenge RCA around the same time in another charity shop, but left it because the condition wasn't very good.

 

I have never found anything exciting at a car boot around me. Maybe I get there too late.

 

Anthing decent will be gone within a week at most charity shops.

 

I've had zero luck at my local Goodwill, Salvation Army type stores. Mostly holiday cd's or cd-r's or video games that they think are cd's, I guess.

 

I find jpn for us RCA Eurythmics often as well! They sound fantastic.

 

Steve Miller Greatest Hits 1974-1978 can be found in lots of stores. Is this the original cd?

 

No argument there.
I Don't understand. Digital doesn't have this roll off at the top end so why would these engineers boost the top end like that.

There was an article in a 1986 edition of Hi-Fi Magazine or was it Stereophile entitled "In The Shrillness Of The Mike" The article talked about analog recording techniques that were fine for analog but when used to record digital it resulted in a harshness at the top end. The writer of the article went on to blame microphone choices. Back in those days a lot of people believed that CD was perfect. They didn't realize most of the harshness was coming from bad filters. I have no doubt that boosting the top end and poor mike choices (new digital recordings) were bringing coals to Newcastle.

 

The most common ones are WG, but Japan for Europe discs are not uncommon. In fact, it's pretty hard to find anything but the original CDs. I've never seen the remasters anywhere.

 

Yes.

 

Sounds weird...I know but I read an interview with Gregg Schnitzer, a man who was present in the early days of MFSL. No link. I couldn't find the article but I saved it as a Notepad file. here is an exert from the article:


MFSL did remastering for other labels? This makes sense, of course. An early article I have somewhere quotes Herb Belkin as
saying that "MFSL produced many CDs for other labels."

"Yup. We mastered stuff like Billy Squiers' album, Stan did [Frank Zappa's] Joe's Garage. We did some Windham Hill titles. I mastered all of the Chrysalis Jethro Tull CDs and Robin Trower's Bridge Of Sighs. One of the albums that we did was Daylight Again by Crosby, Stills and Nash. I still have the mother from the pressing that didn't happen. Seems like Stephen wrote this one song that infringed on a copyright held by Rose Royce and they had to scrap all of the art and pressing hardware and remaster. My gold record was supposed to be made from that mother. Interesting to note is that the song they weren't supposed to let out in any form is on that mother and plays just fine...."

I will try and find the article but it's long and this tit-bit is at the end.

 

I tend to get there around 9AM, which is pretty late in car boot terms (the hardcore arrive at opening time and bag the bargains while sellers are still unloading their stalls). Fortunately, CDs are hugely unfashionable, so there's less competition, making a 9AM start quite fruitful. Quite common to be the one guy looking at the box of CDs while people crowd to dig through the crates of vinyl.

Looking at my rack now, a selection of "unremastered" goodies found at the boot across a few seasons:

Blondie - Parallel Lines (Chrysalis)
Bowie - Never Let Me Down (original '87 JPN for UK CD. Still an awful album, sadly)
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Chic - C'Est Chic (original Atlantic)
Coltrane - Giant Steps (Innocenzi)
Cream - Disraeli Gears (old Drake Polydor)
Depeche Mode - Singles 81-85 (original Mute) and Violator (the forum favourite US Sire release rather than the UK Mute, weirdly)
The Doors - Strange Days
Duran Duran - Rio, Seven & The Ragged Tiger and Decade.
Dylan - John Wesley Harding (seen others, but this seems to the one instance where the original mastering is thought superior)
Buddy Holly - From Original Master Tapes (SH mastered)
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures and Substance
Led Zeppelin - I (Diament)
New Order - Movement, Low Life, Substance '87
Iggy Pop - The Idiot and Lust For Life
R.E.M. - Fables, Document (plus lots of Warner stuff)
Diana Ross - Diana (Chic album - Matousek mastering, absolutely kicks!)
The Smiths - Rank (RT)
The Stooges - Fun House
The Velvet Underground - VU (Verve)
Scott Walker - Scotts 1, 2 and 4 (original Fontanas - found Tilt too, but that doesn't fit this criteria)

Plus heaps more seen but not bought, for older bands that I don't care for. Then there's newer stuff, stuff that's never been remastered due to obscurity/getting it right first time, and all sorts of other bits.

In a weird sense, it's my favourite way to discover music.

 

What record shop is this, I may need to make a visit!

 

The resurrection is already well under way! There is a small but vibrant market for early CD pressings, not just the obvious collectibles like Targets, Green Arrows etc, but all kinds of stuff. Pressings from 1984, 85, 86 for example that aren't worth that much money but have a much more natural sound to various reissues of the same album. Come and join us, it's fun!