ABBA - Super Trouper Deluxe Edition coming May 2011

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by OberonOz, Feb 23, 2011.

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  1. Batears52

    Batears52 Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Baltimore, MD
    Now - if someone would just take the same approach & the same amount of care - and put together a nice-sounding Abba compilation - they can delete all the rest of the junk out there.

    Why do we need this when the landscape has been littered with comps over the years? For people like me. Honestly, I'm not tremendously interested in collecting all of their albums - but I would like a decent sounding comp - and there isn't one!

    Dexter
     
  2. aarsonbet

    aarsonbet Forum Resident

    Actually, the original CD versions of Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits Vol. 2 sound wonderful. Other tracks from after that era are available on a few different compilations (The Singles - The First Ten Years, for example), so it is possible to have a very good sounding compilation right now. You just need to hunt for them a bit.
     
  3. KennyG

    KennyG Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    There are actually several but you will have to combine them to get a career spanning compilation. The basic ingredients are:

    * Greatest Hits (Atlantic)
    * Greatest Hits Vol 2 (Atlantic, Polar or Polydor)
    * The Singles: The First Ten Years (Polar or Polydor)

    Just remember that Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits Vol 2 are superior to The Singles for the tracks that they contain. But you need The Singles for the later tracks. And then you can mix and match to your heart's content.
     
  4. Mike the Fish

    Mike the Fish Señor Member

    Location:
    England
    I don't think the older comps are THAT great, but they could be the best of what's out there for comps. GH v1 sounds like the UK vinyl of the same album to me. Was not blown away by v2 or The Singles. The first edition of Gold is by no means terrible, but again not great.
     
  5. KennyG

    KennyG Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    Greatest Hits Vol 2 in its Atlantic and Polar forms is probably the finest Abba CD ever issued in terms of sound quality. The other two are competent but in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
     
  6. npc210

    npc210 Forum Resident

    Wasn't planning on buying this, but if the improvement is that significant, I might just have to. :)
     
  7. Hootenannysinger

    Hootenannysinger Member

    Location:
    Sweden
    Is GH 2 made from mixdown or cutting tapes? I agree that it's good sounding.
     
  8. KennyG

    KennyG Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    I suspect its cutting tapes because the Name of The Game appears in its full version - the mixdown tape was cut in 1978 for a US promo and wasn't restored until 1997.

    In addition, the other track taken from Side A of Abba: The Album, Eagle, is also distorted in a similar fashion to 1984 CD which we definitely know came from cutting tapes.
     
  9. newstarter11

    newstarter11 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    how about "take a chance on me"?

    btw do u mind if we continue this discussion on this thread:

    http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=6554012
     
  10. KennyG

    KennyG Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    Okay. I have gone back and done another comparison sample. This time it's On and On and On and the volume has been levelled across all four masterings compared.

    The sample is two choruses cut together and includes 15 seconds from each of:
    (i) Atlantic 1984
    (ii) Astley 2001
    (iii) CSR 2005
    (iv) Deluxe Edition 2011

    The link is: http://www.2shared.com/file/qOpbdnTq/onandon.html
     
  11. rock76

    rock76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northwest MEX
    My vote's for the Atlantic.
     
  12. KennyG

    KennyG Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    The one thing that stood out for me was how poor the Astley 2001 remaster sounded once I'd brought it down to the same level as the others. I knew it was bad but never that it was that bad.
     
  13. newstarter11

    newstarter11 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    2001 sucks hardcore. sounds like a thin car radio!
     
  14. mozpiano2

    mozpiano2 Forum Resident

    Does anyone have more reviews that they would like to share?

    Rudolf
     
  15. Ricko

    Ricko Forum Resident

    Sure do, Rudolph...IT'S AMAZING!!!!

    Never imagined in my wildest dreams Abba's best album could sound so good!

    The dynamic range is a revelation: what had been previously lost to NR and the general noise created by badly applied compression is now revealed with the mixes yielding a host of meticulously recorded details, all taking their place in superb balance with everything else.

    Ola's drumming thumps away defining what I believe Benny & Bjorn's original vision of what "Super Trouper" could have originally sounded like without the sonic limitations of vinyl. It's a huge sound, but now sounds perfectly integrated. The vocals are neither buried in noise nor shrieking from lousy remastering: they just sound amazingly real and live. You can crank this one up loud...real loud!

    It blows every other digital Abba (and "Super Trouper") out of the water. As far as my criteria for perfect mastering goes, "Super Trouper" ticks all the boxes:

    * Full dynamic range, with no crossover mixing noise
    * Expansive cloud above grand piano and acoustic bass
    * Synthesizers not pronounced but integrated
    * Full-voice vocals not gutted by NR
    * Percussion not jumping out from the mix

    This is how it's done folks....:righton:
     
  16. Hootenannysinger

    Hootenannysinger Member

    Location:
    Sweden
    I hear you like it! :) Yeah, it is good. So what's the chance that they will remaster (again...) the earliar albums, in the same way? If they can sound just as good? Let's try to convince Universal :)
     
  17. ferdinandhudson

    ferdinandhudson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Skåne
    With the number of remasters and repackagings thus far I'd say there's a decent chance of them revisiting the earlier albums eventually.

    Maybe there's a Complete Audiophile Studio Recordings Box set somewhere in the not too distant future. Perhaps a ABBA: The Audiophile Vinyls ;) set too.

    I ordered this from Amazon UK earlier today, can't wait to hear this.
     
  18. Ricko

    Ricko Forum Resident

    Yes I sure do like it!

    I'm quite happy with "Voulez-Vous" remaster, but it's time to purge the world of those rotten Astley messes and the the CSR box.

    Since Universal & Polar are now listening to the ever-growing chorus of damnation for ridiculous noise in the name of remastering, it's a no-brainer for them to start promoting the next Abba reissue campaign: "Full Dynamic Range Remasters"!

    Sorta like endlessly recycling the Elvis catalog lol with a new gimick every few years :)
     
  19. Delius

    Delius Well-Known Member

    Location:
    London, UK
    Before I bought the 2011 DE of Super Trouper, I had never been aware that:

    A) The Winner Takes It All has an amazing bassline
    B) Frida's vocals on Andante, andante have so much "breath" in them that they get you drift away.
    C) Me and I is actually a very well-produced track.
    D) Happy New Year has a choir-like chorus.
    E) Lay all your love on me is a rythm-driven dance track with great beat.
    F) There a few high hat clashes in The Way Old Friends Do.
    G) For the first time after The First Ten Years, I could listen to On And On And On without cringing.

    For all these reasons, I'd like to thank Polar and Jon Astley for the 2001 remasters, which were up until now the only available format of this album, and had me believing for 8 years now that Super Trouper is not as good an album as it actually is.
     
  20. fitzysbuna

    fitzysbuna Senior Member

    Location:
    Australia
    just a quick question was the mastering any good on Abba the album deluxe and Arrival?
     
  21. Delius

    Delius Well-Known Member

    Location:
    London, UK

    They're clones of the CRS 2005 mastering. Very loud and distorted and to make things worse, bad quality tapes had been used for The Album - so you get distortion on top of distorted material - Avoid!
     
  22. fitzysbuna

    fitzysbuna Senior Member

    Location:
    Australia
    well lets hope they get redone then!
     
  23. dphilippov

    dphilippov Forum Resident

    Location:
    Moscow, Russia
    Thank you. I was going to buy the DE of The Album. But I heard that the DE of Voulez-Vous has good sonics, is that true?
     
  24. Ricko

    Ricko Forum Resident

    Yeah Voulez-Vous sounds fine. We had a thread on it but it fizzled out with some degree of unpleasantness lol
     
  25. Delius

    Delius Well-Known Member

    Location:
    London, UK
    I hate admitting this, but the 2001 remaster of The Album is the best version you can have for casual listeling of the album as whole. Hopefully, one day we'll get a DE of The Album which will use the same tapes as Astley, without the dreadful NR and compression. Voulez-Vous DE on the other hand is the best possible representation of this album on cd. It could benefit from being a couple of db's quieter - still a very good mastering work.
     
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