An early Who "My Generation" (New Stereo Deluxe Edition) Review

Luke,

Thanks for the valuable information on this release!

Bob

 

Steve,
I hope you're wrong about being alone is the engineer universe. If there are music fans in the world who love your approach there have to be music engineers out there who agree with your/our mastering philosophy.

 

Luke, I want to thank you for the heads up on the JPN Who's Next. I pick one up at a garage sale in town. The guy sold it to me for $3.00 CDN :^). It is in mint condition. here's what was on the cd MCAD-37217; DIDX-152;C 1971, 1984; Manufactured in Japan for MCA Records, Inc.; MCAD-37217 1A1 6X. I also picked up LALC (Midas Touch) for $8.00.

 

Original or CD-R?

 

Aside from the mixing complaints, has anybody written anything about the mastering/sonics of the new set? Narrow stereo doesn't really bother me as much as it does others here, and with the multitracks being used it would stand to reason that the sound quality would still represent an improvement over the second- or third-generation masters we're used to (provided Talmy didn't go nuts with n/r, compression, etc).

As a huge Who fan, I'll probably wind up getting this unless it really does sound like garbage. And "garbage" to me is not synonymous with "non-wide stereo".

 

Original

 

Damn.

I paid $45 for mine, and that was when you could still find them if you tried.

Well worth it, though!

 

I agree, take what ever original mixes (wide stereo, mono etc.) were done at the time and do a straight clean transfer using the original tapes. Then if you want to remix do it on a second disc. I always prefer to hear how it was originally issued even if its bad. Since the CD for My Generation thats been available in the US used tapes that were generations down a straight transfer would have been a significant improvement.

 

Isn't it a little early to start tearing this one apart based on a couple of second hand reviews, especially since no one here appears to have actually heard it for themselves yet? Hey, I value the opinions of the folks here very much, I'll be anxious to hear all of your reactions to it. But I'm waiting to hear it with my own ears before I decide whether or not it was done properly.

Or have we already sharpened our talons over this one? If that's the case, then nobody's going to be satisfied with it.

 

Bahhh. Bahhh. Somethings I just gotta buy.

 

From the Creem review of MG (Deluxe):

A Super Audio (SACD) release is planned for later this year. This new, high-resolution, digital audio format claims to be a vast sonic improvement over the Compact Disc with regard to noise and dynamic range and theoretically delivers the most direct and lifelike reproduction heard outside the mastering studio. Sure, why not?


Hmmmm............

 

Well, the thing is, I don't need to hear it for myself to know that the stereo image is more or less mono. Or to know that the horn is missing in Circles. Or that some things were split via a delay to make them "stereo".

 

Point taken. But I'll still be interested to see if your opinion changes, or at least softens at all after you've actually heard the discs.


Incidentally, looking back a few posts, Talmy said that he had all the multi-tracks for this stuff, and Astley, thank God, said he didn't, and had to stick with the mono. Yet Steve had multi-track tapes from these sessions to mix the tracks on Who's Missing. So, who actually had the tapes? Or can someone point me to a thread with this info? Just curious.

 

No, Steve had stereo mix tapes, NOT multitracks.

All of the tracks that have shown up in stereo (thanks to Steve) were done in the spring of 1965, during the first sessions for the LP. At some point *somebody* must have said "we want stereo mixes done". Now, stuff like My Generation itself was done in the fall - probably after those stereo mixes had already been made and put on the shelf.

 

Makes a bit more sense.

 

I Can't Explain Review

I got the chance to hear I Can't Explain from a promo cd.

Mix: The guitars, bass and drums are mixed to the center. The vocals are panned left and right with a slight delay. Not a great stereo mix, but it's more "open" than the mono mix. There is NO tambourine on the stereo mix. I hear hand-claps during the guitar solo that I've never noticed before.

Sound: Amazing. Soooooooooooo much clearer than the original. I've never heard the bass line in that song before. The drums sound loud and clear and the guitar actually sounds like a 12 string.

Mastering: It's mastered a little loud. It's pushed to the limit without distortion. NO NOISE REDUCTION!!!

The verdict: The sound is so much clearer. The "Who Sings My Generation" cd sounds like a 3rd generation copy. If the vocals didn't have the delay, it would be perfect.

 

Re: I Can't Explain Review

Now, this is news I can use! Thanks a bunch.

 

Re: I Can't Explain Review

Well, no surprise there. Talmy stated as much in the ICE interview. Thankfully!

 

Re: I Can't Explain Review

This doesn't sound bad.

Given the choice of rhythm track hard left, OR rhythm center and VOCALS split I take vocals split any day of the week.

 

Re: Re: I Can't Explain Review

My main problem with stuff like this is when they try to "create" tracks. Based on what's been posted, it sounds like the same vocal track has been taken and split left and right with a delay to sound like more than one (correct me if I'm wrong). What was once one vocal track is now two. BAD.

Some of Pete's demos are like this. Substitute and Pinball Wizard come to mind. One track is mixed dead center while the other is split via a delay left and right. If they are going to do that, why not just make it mono?

Even if *hard* panning is out of the question, I'd rather have, say, backing left-center, vocals center, and guitar hard right (or something to that effect).

 

Some Forum members would call that "revisionist history tampering" of the worst kind. But, if Pete and the record company are happy, I guess that is what counts.