That's strange. OK, well, to reiterate, I have purchased two so far: the mono LPs of Surfer Girl and Shut Down Vol 2. I can't compare them to the original capitol monos because I've never heard them, but I agree with another poster that Surfer Girl generally sounds sharper than SDV2. People who have the original capitol monos have compared both favorably though. Hopefully we can generate some more discussion here about how these compare. I've really enjoyed mine so far.
I was just searching for a thread on these..... Looking forward to more comparisons/reviews. They are all analog, see here: http://www.analogplanet.com/content/beach-boys-reissues-master-tapes-ready-ship
Yeah, seriously. Seems lame on the surface. Anyway, who knows the real reason. Either way, I've been trying to find some reviews or even hands-on pics of the LPs from around the Internetwurks, but so far it's slim pickin's!
Now I get it. Even a dog knows that you don't allow people to **** where you eat. If that was the case, not sure that starting another thread was the best way to handle it.
Basically people were begging Steve to tell 'us' why the mastering wasn't great etc...totally disrespectful to Kevin. In what world did those people think Steve would want a discussion like that happening on his site about his mentor???
Yeah. How dare the plebes criticise the kings. Sounds like this Beach Boys reissue campaign was botched from the get-go.
There is a difference between someone saying they didnt't like Kevins mastering and why versus begging Steve to tell us why Kevins work sucked. It's the same reason why none of the professionals stay here....some people here just don't know how to phrase things or think about what they are asking.
But He who was doing the disparaging could have simply edited the offending posts, no? Choosing to delete the whole thread? Did the CIA end up getting involved or something?
Full disclosure: I don't have any of these reissues yet, but I plan to get them all. With respect, the first sentence and its sardonic sentiment I agree with. The second I don't. The reviews that a few posters wrote were overwhelmingly positive, if I recall. No indication that these releases were "botched" at all. I'm still excited about them. Frankly, I would be very surprised if the mastering disappointed me given the engineer. Edit: awesome, handle, by the way!
Steve's concerns had nothing to do with Kevin's work. It was in regard to choices of which tapes to actually use. No one ever said Kevin's work sucked in that thread. Steve raised the issues himself.
Nobody is saying Steve criticized Kevins work.....what thread are you reading? In terms of some members not liking the mastering...they sure did. Maybe you missed it but it was there. Even that wasn't the problem- lots of people aren't necessarily fans of Kevins work (yourself included I believe)....it was when people started asking Steve to explain why Kevins work was sub par....thats when the thread went poof.
Yes for sure they could have....I wasn't offering an opinion on whether it was good or bad the thread disappeared...I was merely explaining why it probably did.
Anyway...back to the releases at hand. I don't mind if the odd song doesn't use the best master available...overall I'll be happy with SACDs done by a mastering engineer that I almost always like the sound of and won't worry if there's a better master floating around out there for maybe 5% of the tracks.
It's funny, I didn't see it that way. Hoffman suggested in several posts that Gray may be cutting lacquers from dubious sources (which I believe was complete conjecture). It certainly didn't seem to me that he was shying away from casting doubt on this reissue series himself. In his defence, though, he did point out that mastering engineers will master from sources they are given and told to use.
Totally agree. A track cut by Kevin Gray from a 2nd generation tape is probably head and shoulders above anyone else using a 1st gen master any day.
