Asia: The John Payne years

I bought the hi res download of this. Sound and or mastering is not good at all. Songs themselves are good. But man did they destroy it at the end result. Never mind that the DR values are a 5 or 6 which is bad. But it’s not even close to a pleasant mastering.

 

Yes, they're all definitely different from the released versions.

 

That's a shame. I was thing of following that thread, but that's a drag.

 

Can you share what songs are on those two cd's please?

 

I have been listening to the complete works of Geoff Downes in chronological order, and I gotta say production-wise, the John Payne albums are much better sounding albums than the early Asia albums. Why oh why did the early Asia albums make those production choices? They sound like someone turned on the "sewer" effect in Audacity. Great songs, but not so great sound. This was a problem for Geoff Downes once he split with Trevor Horn (who had impeccable mixes). Asia, Alpha, Astra and GTR all sound the same (i.e. bad). But somewhere, Downes made a change in his mixing/effects choices and Aqua was the result. So clear and tight and great range, IMO. Same for Aria.

And any chance the original tracks still exist for Asia/Alpha/Astra and could someone remix them without all those effects? Similar to how Steven Wilson has been remixing the Yes catalog and Nick Davis did the Genesis catalog. Even the Chris Squire solo album's new mix sounds so good. ​

 

here to hear or buy

 

I find it so peculiar how two people can hear something compleeeeeetely different.

I don’t think the first Asia album sounds anything like Astra. The first album sounds clear, robust, and solid, with a full range of frequencies. Astra is murky with that “sewer” reverb problem you mentioned.

Aqua is really hollow. It lacks mid-range meat. It’s like setting your equalizer faders in an extreme V position. And, quite frankly, the overall thin drum sound gives it a borderline demo quality. Aria, on the other hand, sounds professional, with a Styx-Paradise Theater style mix.

 

I have a distant memory of reading something online written by Geoff Downes regarding other prominent keyboard players of the time and I was shocked how mean he was towards Tony Banks. Yesterday, I went looking for that information and ended up reading most of his old blog posts on Asia, from 2005.

Geoff Downes Blog » Asia

It's pretty honest stuff and in some ways it's really depressing to read him posting about playing to a crowd of 50 people, especially given where he had come from. There is a short mention of the cancelled Yes - More Drama tour, so anyone looking for some real behind-the-scenes talk would find this blog archive as interesting as any autobiography.

 

As a fan of the John Payne years, I always felt bad about how the Downes/Payne partnership abruptly fell apart, and has since been mostly ignored by Geoff Downes. However, I also understand that that era must’ve become extremely depressing to him by the mid-2000s.

 

While it's a bummer to move from stadiums to clubs... I guess I look at life as a professional musician and have to ask how anybody could expect it to last forever at the heights, you know?

Seems a bit unrealistic, but I'm talking about artists here, so allowances probably need to be made.

 

For anybody within a reasonable distance from the Philadelphia area....

Asia Featuring John Payne
is scheduled to open for Lou Gramm (of Foreigner) on Saturday night, January 26, 2019 at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood, NJ.

One of their rare appearances on the East Coast. It was posted on the venue’s facebook page today. I don’t think the tickets are available yet though.

 

Thinking of checking out Aqua, Aria, and Arena. Are there differences between CD masterings?

 

I would definitely go for the 2005 remasters, they come with bonus tracks and the masterings are much more beefy than other masterings

 

Aura is my favorite Payne ASIA album and is very underrated. I just finished work on building a radio edit and music video for the track ‘Free’. Always thought that should have been the single for Aura. You can check out the music video here...