Abba complete studio recordings

Here are interesting news concerning the upcoming Abba box set.
Try this:
http://www.carlmagnuspalm.com/abba/completestudiorecordings.html

There's a complete tracklist and what is most important a new mastering engineer called Henrik Jonsson is mentioned who has been working for Abba's original record company Polar Music. I don't know this guy but maybe there's a chance now to finally get the sound that does justice to Abba's music.
We'll wait and see......

Achim

 

There's only one word for this: AWESOME!

 

CAN'T ****ING WAIT!

Henrick Johnson is the guy who did Frida remasters this year - while he's no Hoffman, the sound of these was really good - light years ahead of Astley's crap. If this is the case with these new ABBAs then we would probably have the all time best sounding ABBA on CD! (Or should I say the only decent sounding ABBA on CD?)
By the way, anyone noticed the huge price difference between US ($225 on amazon.com) and Europe (approx.$180 on amazon UK)?

 

I asked Carl-Magnus Palm if Michael Tretow was involved in this project.
The answer was no. Here's what he wrote on Jon Astley:

"I’m not really an audiophile, but it seems to me that Astley has worked more on sound reduction and Henrik Jonsson has gone more for preserving the original sound. I liked Astley’s work, but I could also make a case for Jonsson’s approach."
Sounds good !


Achim

 

Wow. It's great that Universal London were up for remastering everything from scratch; even better that they seem to have gone for a different approach.

I can't afford a whole box though

 

Let me guess... you've never heard the original W. German Abba Atlantic CD's? Going to be hard to top those for decent mastering.

 

Of course I never heard 'em - they are 100% impossible to find and anyway it was only one LP Supertrouper and a Greatest Hits comp released on Atlantic so I guess they just don't count. The real choice is between either weak and distant sounding Polydor/Polar CDs (these ones sound like 3rd generation tapes) and horrible Astley remasters. Not much choise I'm afraid.

 

Are the albums going to be released individually or do you have to buy the entire box set?

(And perhaps a single or double disc of hits - wishful thinking)

 

Actually, there were two volumes of greatest hits on Atlantic CDs. I just checked ebay and they are around. Someone just got both with "Buy It Now" for a total of $35 (not bad for the best sounding Abba out there!).

As a bonus you may find that you get a "target" CD if you win one of the Atlantic discs.....

 

I'm holding out hope that this set turns out well. While I never found the 1994 box set and original Abba Gold issues as offensive as some here did (I believe the complaints centered around too much treble and possible NR), clearly there is room for improvement.

The Atlantic CDs are indeed tough to find, although some of the more easily obtainable Polydor original CDs are not that bad (likely used nth generation tapes though).

Maybe, just maybe, this time we'll get Abba mastered from first generation tapes without NR and with minimal or tasteful EQ.

 

You'll have to buy the whole box set but I think single cds out of this will appear at ebay sooner or later.
Achim

 

You can buy of Frida's solo remasters and hear for yourself how that guy Jonsson does it - reminded me of good Bill Inglot work like Fleetwood Mac remasters etc. If he uses the same mastering technique on ABBA I'm more then happy!

 

Searched eBay. Was unable to find the auction you speak of.

 

Did you find the "vol 2" auction? Search for 4772933341 and you'll get it.

The "Buy it now" auctions for Vols 1 & 2 were completed auctions but recent - they are both available fairly regularly on ebay by the look of it.

 

Im just wondering if anyone has this box yet and can report on the sound quality? I have all the albums and DVDs and the Thank You For The Music boxset and am not sure I want to - or can afford to <grin> - buy them all again in this box.
All I know about them so far is this posting Im quoting from the Abbamail website. Check it out.

 

This surely includes everything recorded under the ABBA name, but I have a CD which is the perfect complement to this or any other boxed set. It is a compilation of miscellaneous early recordings by ABBA and ABBA members, including the Swedish versions of "SOS" and "Fernando", originally released as Agnetha and Frida solo recordings respectively.

 

After reading the post on the ABBA fansite, I ordered mine. I picked mine up from Amazon UK. It was £59.57 less the Value Added Tax (VAT). That's a lot less than the Amazon US price. ($103.70 vs $225.00). That puzzled me too.

 

I expect to get my Abba-box tomorrow.......
It's very cheap at amazon Germany, about 116 $. I hardly couldn't believe that it's so expensive at amazon.com (226 $).
At dvd-pacific they sell it for 139 $
http://www.cdpacific.com/CDItem.asp?ID=686839

Achim

 

I have them both thanks to forum member Kym!

Gee...I wonder what happened with Jon Astley, and why he is no longer involved with ABBA recordings...

 

Howdy,

I've never posted here before but I read these forums everyday and I can't tell you how much I've learned eversince I found this site (so thank you!) I never thought that my ramblings on the box set would be posted on that website for all the world to see, so I assume full responsibility for the hype and if you don't like the sound of the box set when you get it, feel free to yell at me! I does sound better than the remasters of "he-who-shall-not-be-named", however, the dvd of the video clips uses his mastering which is why I haven't played it... While I'm not technically equipped to describe to you the sound of the remastering on the discs as some of you guys can, I'll tell you this: I hear tape hiss (which fills me with delight!) To give you an example, on the intro for "Thank You For The Music", you can hear the hammers hitting the strings -which you cannot hear on the remastered version done by "he-who-shall-not-be-named". The 2001 cds sound "constipated" (for lack of a better word) compared to these ones. My only concern is that they sound a bit loud and bright (my favourite sounding ABBA would have to be the Polar LPs followed by the Atlantic pressings.) The alternate mix of Waterloo sounds weird, I don't know if it was mixed like that or the tweaking involved in the transfer from a 7" record (the liner notes claim that the master tape for this couldn't be located) The full version of On And On And On is the same mono mix as the clip (again, they didn't have a master tape for this.)

That's all folks!

Richard

 

Richard,

Welcome aboard! And thank you for your "ramblings" on the box set. It was the review that I needed to spring for the box. I'll let you know my impressions once I receive it.

 

Mine is on it's way - hope we can finally get a good sounding ABBA catalogue!

 

Here's my audio verdict from the Abbamail mailing list. The set is a definate improvement over previous remasters.

In terms of sound quality, the boxset represents a distinct
improvement over previous remasters. Although the sound has been
somewhat compressed, there is much less noise reduction employed. The
audio is less bright than previous remasters but there is still plenty
of top end.
Despite being gentle on noise reduction, the new remasters seem to be
more ruthless on tape dropouts than previous attempts and even the
biggy on I Have A Dream (when the choir sings 'to cope with
everything') is less noticable.
The overall sound is very similar to the original Polygram CDs from
the 1980s. Unfortunately, however, the tapes used for the Album for
these remasters don't seem to have been as good as those available to
Astley and Tretow. There is some bad distortion at times on The Name
of the Game, as there was on the original 1984 CD.
There is also a slight odd fault at Dancing Queen at 2:08, which is
similar to the one on the 1997 remasters. I'm beginning to wonder if
there was slice on the tape that was improperly fixed at some stage.
The alternate mix of Waterloo is a bit distorted but that has to be
expected as the master tape was unavailable.

And the other stuff...

I finally got my hands on a copy of the boxset this afternoon. I
played around with it for a bit this evening and here is my
comprehensive first impressions on the box.
Firstly, the boxset is well packaged. The box itself is quite roomy
and there's plenty of space for all the contents. My only reservation
is that it's coated in suede, which gives it an unpleasantly camp
image.
Both books are hardbound and the contents booklet has a few pictures I
haven't seen before such as Stig Anderson with piles of Waterloo LPs.
The lyrics booklet has the lyrics for all the songs, including the
foreign language versions.
Each of the nine CDs are housed in thick mini-LP sleeves, which
feature accurate original artwork for the original eight studio
albums. The printing is excellent and the text and images are just as
clear as the 2001 remasters sleeves.
The cutting on a few of the sleeves in my box were a little rough and
the overall finish isn't quite as good as other mini-LP series such as
the 2004 Japanese Queen remasters but the packaging is still quite
impressive. Each CD is pressed on black material (like Playstation 1
CDs), which is a classy touch.

The video DVD is a mixture of the Abba Gold, Last Video and the
Definitive Collection DVDs with a new menu. The audio has not been
upgraded to use the new remasters and the NTSC makes fast movement
appear very blurry.
The history documentary on the second DVD was previously on the Abba
Gold DVD, which brings us to the mini-concert, which is available in
stereo and the now obligatory 5.1 mix supervised by Benny.
The sound is clear and is, of course, much better than on the
disastrously poor 1986 Live album. It also stresses how desperately a
new live Abba compilation is needed.
Anyway, the visuals are average for archive video and no restoration
work has been carried out, which means there are regular dropouts.
It is very disappointing that only half the concert is featured as the
technical quality of the SVT stuff isn't really so brilliant that you
would notice material from an inferior source.
Overall, I'd give it about 7/10 – it's not exciting and while the CDs
are very well executed, the DVDs are totally lazy (they haven't even
resynched On and On and On).

Ken

 

It will arrive at work early next week.

 

I received my "ABBA - Complete Studio Recordings" from Amazon UK. I paid $128 including airmail shipping. It was shipped on Monday and I got it yesterday - Saturday. I strongly recommend getting imports directly from Amazon UK - it is so much cheaper than using Amazon US, CD Universe or going to your local imports CD retailer.

I have to admit, I am really giddy and excited to have this box set. The music, of course, is great and hearing it as presented here along with the rarities and DVDs is wonderful - inspite of some sonic flaws. If I get too wordy here, I apologize!!

The mastering here is a bit of a mixed bag. The first thing I noticed, and it seems to be common prety much all they way through is a sense of clarity and detail plus a much improved, more solid stereo imaging over previous masterings. However there is noticeable compression/maximization - more than used on previous versions. Sometimes it adds a "seductive" quality to the music, other times it can be a bit too obvious.

I also think that album masters were used as opposed to the original two-track mixdown tapes, but these may be THE album masters at Polar Studios as opppsed to the analogue dubs of the album masters that were sent to other countries back before the CD age. I think the first Polydor CDs in the 80s were made from the dubs originally sent to Germany.

The first CD I listened to was the "Waterloo" album. I was very pleased! This is the best mastering of the "Waterloo" tracks yet. The improvements in detail and stereo imaging are quite apparent. The same goes for the "Ring Ring" album.

I had mixed opinions on "ABBA", "Arrival", "Super Trouper", and "Voulez Vous" and "ABBA - The Album." The compression seemed to affect different songs within the same album differently. Some tracks like "Hole In Your Soul", "Thank You For The Music", "The Piper" "Hey Hey Helen" seem to have that "seductive" quality while others like "Name of the Game", "When I Kissed the Teacher, "Kisses of Fire" don't necessarily benefit. However there was a recurring sense of a more solid stereo image.

"The Visitors" which was in part recorded on 3M digital multi-track sounds very "analogue" here. The original CD had a bit of harshness to it as did the LP (the original Atlantic US LP was actually mastered in Sweden from the original digital master). "Soldiers" still sound a bit harsh. While "The Visitors" and "When All Is Said And Done" again have that "seductive" quality as do the B-Sides "Cassandra" And "Should I Laugh or Cry."

As already mentioned by Ken above, there are a handful of noises/droputs, etc. I want to add that there is a slight dropout in the right channel on "Andante, Andante" at 3:36 and there is a kind of "digital scratch" at 0:56 into "Hasta Manana" ( I was able to remove this "glitch" with Adobe Audition). There is also some tape noise at the opening of "Super Trouper" and "Lay All Your Love On Me" another slight dropout at 2:21.

Overall, if you want a complete collection of ABBA's recordings, nicely packaged, decent (but not perfect) mastering, at a very reasonable price, plus the DVDs - the videos and the rare "Dick Cavett" performances, order it from Amazon UK at about $10-$11 per disc total. A relative bargain.