A rant about ABBA masterings

Over the last 6 months or so I have searched a lot over the sad case over ABBA masterings (obviously I'm quite a fan) and have gradually replaced my compressed Astley/Jonsson with the original Polydor's from the 80s/early 90s. What will probably follow is a rant about ABBA masterings since I cannot organise and handle the vast amounts of information I've picked up from forums like this and sites like this. So bear with me, I never put a great impression with my first posts but this is the best I can do right now.

Ring Ring

So, lets start off with the other ABBA LP's and B-sides of singles. I don't have a copy of Ring Ring yet but I have heard parts of it, particularly the track Ring Ring (best digital version from The Singles - The First Ten Years), People Need Love, He Is Your Brother, Love Isn't Easy (from Astley Definitive Collection) and Nina Pretty Ballerina (Greatest Hits LP). As far as I know there were no real problems with the LP cutting tapes so a decent LP copy of this album is not too hard to find. Living in the UK I'm used to the pressings on Epic, all my ABBA LP's are on this label and they sound pretty good. I can't imagine Ring Ring would be any different but there is a chance I might be wrong of course.

Getting a good CD here is where matters get a little tricky. The very best digital masterings come from Polydor's 'Honey Honey' CD (which contains all the Ring Ring tracks but I Saw It In The Mirror). The other option is a 1988 Polar CD though apparently this version does sound slightly muddy. Both these CDs are very rare and out of print, which means finding a good CD of this album will be easier said than done. Not only that but not many album-only Ring Ring tracks were put into compilations so it is hard to piece together a cheap version. The easiest option here is to simply digitize a lesser-played vinyl copy and wait till the nutters at Universal dig out those mixdowns for the next deluxe edition.

Waterloo

Not a whole lot different of a case to Waterloo, except the 1988 Polar and the 1992 Polydor sound a little better to Ring Ring. The former can be a bit muddy, the latter can be a bit harsh. However, these characteristics can benefit a few tracks depending on the mood so combining the CDs wouldn't be a bad idea to get the best from both. At least they have the full dynamic range compared to the nasty Astley and Jonsson works. I have the British Epic LP and that sounds very fine to me, somewhat inbetween the harshness of the Polydor CD and the muddiness of the Polar CD but I have not heard those and don't have them in my possession. There were several CD compilations which included tracks from Waterloo, so if you have several of these you might be able to piece together a well-rounded sounding album but it depends on the source tapes that were used. Waterloo was included on The Singles - The First Ten Years CD which sounds fantastic so that is one way to go for that single track.

ABBA

For CD lovers the Polar 1988 pressing (apparently) sounds the best by far and doesn't have the muddiness of Ring Ring and Waterloo. Course, even better quality of certain tracks can be obtained from The Singles - The First Ten Years which has So Long, I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do, SOS, and Mamma Mia. Most of the LP copies sound absolutely fine but I have not found enough information on these to come to a valid conclusion. I don't have a copy of ABBA at all in my possession.

Crazy World

This was an originally unreleased track, intended for ABBA, but only saw the light of day as a B-side for Money Money Money. It was not released on CD at all until the Astley remasters came along but thankfully a version with decent dynamics can be found on the Danish ABBA - Collected compilation released in 2011. It has a DR of about 10 and sounds pretty good for me, but as audiophiles we still want a raw mixdown tape transfer with no extra gimmicks (Warner is doing this with their FLAC re-releases, why can't Universal?).

Arrival

Now this is where my own opinion comes into play! I have the 1984 Polydor CD pressing of this and it sounds okay to me. It used the German LP Cutting tapes which were okay except there is not a whole lot of detail in the bass and the whole thing sounds slightly 'rough'. Not the easiest thing to describe but the transfer could have been smoother, as it is with certain tracks on the album from The Singles - The First Ten Years. Overall then it is definitely worth having if your a serious ABBA audiophile. LP copies I would think sound fine but I (shock) don't have one yet.

The Album

A hot topic as this album has been plagued from the start from a faulty LP cutting tape used for the A-side tracks which has been used for all LP and CD releases up until the Astley remasters. This caused the tracks to sound saturated/distorted particularly at the high-end. To make matters worse, the mixdown tape for Name Of The Game was damaged to form the US promo version which removes the second verse. Thankfully though, a non-distorted copy was made for the Epic 1977 single before this happened but it hasn't found its way onto any CD yet. Eagle also hasn't had a decent unremastered pressing yet on vinyl or CD yet but the full version included on the 1992 Dancing Queen single should sound alright. ABBA Gold was in general less bright than the TYFTM boxset so I can't imagine this would be any different with that particular CD Maxi single. Also, the shortened version was on ABBA - International and from what I have heard about on abbaoncd, it sound very clean. Nothing good on vinyl though.

Take A Chance On Me was included unedited on The Singles - The First Ten Years and sounds best on that CD. But, as One Man One Woman was never released as a single we have no choice but to put up with distortion on that particular track until the next Deluxe Edition comes along. The B-sides are all fine on the vinyl side of things. The 1984 Polydor apparently has some tape hiss but this is compensated by Greatest Hits Vol. 2 and the various compilations put out in the 1980s.

Voulez-Vous

Another relatively unaffected album which sounds good on the big-name LPs and the 1984 Polydor which I have. For the best copy of the originally unreleased Dreamworld, get the 2010 Deluxe Edition which is still widely available and doesn't have the fade-in on the TYFTM boxset. Several Voulez-Vous tracks and Gimme Gimme Gimme are also on The Singles - The First Ten Years and sound wonderful.

Super Trouper

The first track on the 1984 Polydor CD (Super Trouper) has a dropout towards the end, but The Singles - The First 10 Years rectifies this. Aside from this it is a personal choice really between the 1984 Polydor and the 1985 Atlantic CD. The latter seems to have a cult following as the bass was increased, but I prefer the German mastering for the detail. A decent sounding LP copy is dead easy to find. The only slight missteps are in the 'bonus' tracks.

Put On Your White Sombrero and Elaine

These two tracks were supposed to commence the album but were replaced as development continued. The latter song ended up as a B side to The Winner Takes It All and was included on the ultra rare From ABBA With Love, completely unmodified. Second best for the audiophile on a budget is the 2011 Deluxe Edition which has a better dynamic range than one would expect in this Loudness War ridden world. Put On Your White Sombrero was finally mixed by Tretow for the TYFTM boxset and probably sounds a bit brighter than originally intended, but that is technically the original pressing so we can't argue with him.

The Visitors

Sounds great on all formats. Period. Don't even bother looking anywhere else. This was the first album ever released on CD so you can imagine how seriously Polydor took the transfer process.

Should I Laugh Or Cry

Released as a B side for One Of Us, was eventually put onto CD by Pickwick on ABBA - The Love Songs compilation in 1989. Those CDs suffer from rot so make sure you check one thoroughly before purchase. Otherwise, just digitise the vinyl version.

1982 Tracks

Under Attack and The Day Before You Came both featured on The Singles - The First Ten Years and sound just as good as anything else on that compilation. Its the B-sides to those two singles where things get complicated. Cassandra had an okay-ish release on More ABBA Gold but sounds a bit bright. The ABBA International version is the best bet but is very difficult to find, and comes from a "mediocre analog dub". You Owe Me One was first released as part of Astley remasters, the best version by far being on this years The Visitors Deluxe Edition which has not been compressed much at all from looking at the Dynamic Range figures. Just Like That will, sadly, probably never be released in its entirety as Benny and Bjorn are reluctant to do so as they were never happy for it and already reworked the song in 1985 for a musical. But, it did make it into bootlegs and several people have collaborated in restoring the audio to its original quality, at least to last until it is officially released. Here's my preferred version.

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So there you have it. I have used up all the time I would have been revising for GCSE exams :/ (being 15 years old) but I guess that shows how dedicated I am to this kind of stuff. I could have included a lot more technical data including catalogue numbers but that would have taken too much time which I just don't have. Hope you enjoyed it and I'm interested in all your comments that you have to make particularly if I've made a few factual errors.

 

Thank you for a great first post. You will find lots of agreement here.

 

I don't think Ring Ring as an album ever got a release on Epic over here. I could be wrong. I personally don't rate the UK vinyl particularly highly, and you'll probably see that mentioned in the other threads. Maybe see you there!

 

About the 1988 Polar Ring Ring... if you're prepared to fiddle a bit with EQ you can get it to sound good. I wish I could remember which settings I used for mine when I dumped it in an audio editor... (I just adjusted it until I liked what I heard...)

Richard.

 

You might also enjoy this recent thread.

 

Hi there

Welcome to the forum! A great first thread!

Regarding Crazy World, the general consensus is that the best CD version comes from the 1994 Thank You For The Music box set, remastered by Michael B. Tretow. This mastering was done before Astleys 1997 version. I hope this helps!

Rudolf

 

It has been a while and I have obtained more CDs to evaluate.

One particular set that has enamoured me lately is the compilations put out by Pickwick in the 1980s for the UK market. Some of the tracks on there sound better than equivalents on the 80s German CDs, including Greatest Hits Vol. 2, in particular:

First three tracks from The Album - 'Eagle' and 'Take A Chance On Me' make the GHV2 versions sound muddy by comparison, and have much less saturation and better EQ. The Love Songs has the sole unremastered appearance of 'One Man, One Woman' aside from the Polydor CD, but there is not enough saturation for me to believe they used the LP cutting tapes, so maybe new copies were made between 1977 and 1987 without the distortion.

Super Trouper (title track) - I have heard the Atlantic version on YouTube and I personally think there's too much bass here. Maybe some listeners/engineers have damaged their hearing to make lower frequencies more difficult to percept or somethin'. The Polydor album copy by comparison has too much mid-range and not enough emphasis on the treble. The Pickwick has just the right amount without being overbearing (think The Singles or ABBA Gold). As another plus - there's no dropouts on this copy.

Maybe I'm praising this set too highly but I can't get over how much nicer these are to listen to. The tracks above are only the highlights - even though The Name Of The Game, for instance, is only shown in the US edit, somehow it pips The Singles version at the post by sounding more authentic to the original and less metallic. I hope none of it is my imagination.

 

Hello,

Could you help please, I already tired trying to find out, because there are different thinking about this question...

ABBA POLAR CD's

There is SILVER/BLUE ISSUE and also more rare - WHITE/BLUE

For example, if we take ABBA "The Album".. Both "POLAR's" issued in 1984.. ( white/blue- maybe 1983/1984). Is these CD's are 100% clones, or any difference in mastering??

Thank you so much for helping!!

 

So what are the best CD releases for the albums?

 

Supposedly, the version of "The Album" released in Japan on the Discomate label doesn't have the distortion in it because they used higher quality tapes or something like that (I forgot).

(And yes, I know, I'm necroing this thread, sorry!)

 

I've just ordered a copy of The Album from Japan. Arrival sounds great on discomate vinyl. Gh2 CD is also good. Currently listening to a near mint epic A1 B1 Waterloo, much brighter than I'm used to, the exact opposite of all the CD versions I'm used to.

 

Thought I would report back now I've just played the Discomate LP. It sounds a lot brighter than I'm used to, a bit of a shock after listening to the old dull Polydor CD and new 45RPM vinyl, really strong and clear upper mid range on vocals. It does appear to have lower distortion over the entire album, not just name of the game and I didn't notice the tape drop outs.

 

I'm surprised my OP is still racking up likes as I would consider some of my advice a bit outdated. I actually sold off most of my 1980s Polydors years ago because my mission is for clean 1st generation transfers, not 3rd gen LP cutting tape transfers.

On another thread I espoused my current belief that the 1992/1993 masters (ABBA Gold, More ABBA Gold, promo singles) seem to be the cleanest of them all and only require some filters to sound authentic to the originals. To that end I created a short script (the one below assumes a Unix-like OS but SoX can run on Windows as well) to accomplish this:

Code:

sox "04 Eagle.flac" "Eagle_mm.au" bass -4 0.15k 0.8k bandreject 21.7k 1400k equalizer 0.5k 1k +2 swap

For tracks coming from The Visitors album the 'swap' tag can be removed as for some reason the stereo image wasn't swapped for those tracks. I have some samples for those interested:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2uls7uhw6mi2c9d/Dancing Queen_trimmed.flac
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/uuc9tu944b5da9o/Eagle_trimmed.flac
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/mqbkt32wfzc0ro0/The Name of the Game_trimmed.flac