Exile on Main St. on CD - Is there anything better than the 1994 Virgin RM

The severe volume fluctuation in Sweet Virginia removed the Columbia CD for me in the best stakes. Listening to the Virgin CD now - any accusation of this being muddy are simply wrong. The wash of horns tends to obscure the vocals at times, as they are all mixed centrally. That Virgin CD sounds very, very nice. Get the collectors' Edition or the Limited Edition, as they both have the full original 1972 vinyl presentation in miniature.

 

Yes there is!

The blu-ray

 

I'm a CD man. And side three of Exile on Main Street is my favorite album side of all time.
So I can say the Virgin. While the CBS was great, that mess up on Sweet Virginia ruined it for me.

 

Besides the mess up on Sweet Virginia, the CBS CD has the best tonality. I can overlook that one flaw when the rest of the disc is better than all other digital options IMO. The SHM-SACD is far too bright for my tastes.

 

Only a couple of songs got the remix is what is thought, other songs are from original mix down Reels, these were copied for the Artisan mastering, and future reissues. Which led to some consistency - but less than stellar sound.

Something new was done on the Virgin mastering and nobody wil say what it was. But damn it came out nice!

 

Please can you tell me where I can find a TRUE stereo version of "all down the line"..?

 

The Brussels Affair

Tim

 

Nice to see that there are other fans (sarcasm) of the dropout on the CBS "Sweet Virginia" besides myself!

I'm unable to post a clip if there is one, but right at the start of the first chorus, it sounds something like this:
"Come on, come on down, sweet Virginia..." There is a very noticable dropout in the tape that ruins the first "Come on". And I don't think said dropout has every been adequately explained. It's on the CBS vinyl and cassette as well.

The legendary Canadian "Kinney" pressing. I have that rip for commuting purposes, and the real thing for turntable purposes.

IMO the '94 Virgin is the best CD version of Exile.

 

If there's anything better than the 94 Virgin it would be so slight that it's not worth seeking out or spending money on imo.
I've got an original Australian pressing on vinyl and it's splitting hairs on what sounds better, i could happily live with the Virgin CD it's a great sounding copy.

 

Virgin is My one to go

 

I have a CD with a mini LP cover that is mastered by Bob Ludwig. I liked it so much I sold my EX/NM Artisan vinyl.

 

Yup, that's the Virgin. I've got that one as well. Love it to bits!

Thanks - nobody's bought it yet so I'll dig it out and listen for it.

 

Agreed!

 

IIRC, SH explained this a few years back as the mastering engineer being asleep at the wheel and missing bringing the faders up before the song started - if I've misremembered you, Steve, please feel free to correct this. Crappy mistake and even worse that such an obvious mistake was overlooked until final production started. It was never corrected by Columbia. Virgin did a better job.

 

Steve quotes regarding the Sweet Virginia foul up...

“You noticed that fader drop in "Virginia", eh? That is just plain mastering BULLSH*T. The mastering engineer didn't preview the song ahead of time, so he didn't realize that it starts very quiet and then builds. In other words, it has a great dynamic range. When the guy realises that the song is getting too loud, he just pulls back the volume. He doesn't even stop everything and do it again. Just lets it go.

ARGHHH. I got rid of my CBS "Exile" the minute I heard that and pulled out my original USA LP press. Ahhhhh...”

“Me too. The only big goof was on EXILE with the Sweet Virginia goof. The tone was perfect on these.”

“Which is the version that had SWEET VIRGINIA where the CD mastering engineer ducked the volume real fast just as the song increased in volume? Was that the first CD issue? Worst mastering move I'd ever heard up until that time. I couldn't believe it. Ruined the song, never played that version again.”

 

@Steve Hoffman Beautiful. I couldn't have said it better myself. Exile On Main Street is my favourite album; my first exposure to it was an Atlantic copy of the LP from the library, which I taped (this was 1989). I then got the CBS LP for Christmas from my folks- I noticed that dropout/mastering b.s. right off. All these years I just figured something happened to the tape when they were transferring it or something, had no idea it was something as stupid as a volume thing, it always sounded like a tape dropout to me. There were times when I could swear I could hear the damn dropout on the Virgin CD but I'm sure that was just my mind playing tricks on me...

 

I stumbled across this thread and decided to check out the 1994 Virgin remaster for myself. You're right! Lots of bounce there and much more fun IMO than the SHM-SACD which has always been rather 'flat' and unexciting to my ears (great definition notwithstanding). Thanks for the recommendation!

 

I singled out the Virgin '94 remaster as sounding great, but I actually like all the Virgin remasters. In sum, if you are a Stones fan you can't go wrong with the 2002 remasters for the Abkco stuff and the Virgin remasters for the 70's and 80's recordings on CD. Beware the newer deluxe editions with bonus discs---Some Girls being the worst offender.

 

Search the archives for the links, but there's several interviews by Ludwig, Calbi and maybe even others involved in different masterings of this album where they all said the same thing: this album NEEDS mastering. Playing it flat isn't a great idea because a lot of work really needs to be done. The sound on the master tape is not even close to being consistent from song-to-song either.

 

More's the pity.

 

I really like the sound of the 94 Virgin. I rarely reach for the vinyl, because four sides can get a little tedious, and the cd sounds just as good or maybe even better than my vinyl copy.

 

Yeah, that one is the bomb. For a CD.
Rumour has it Bob Ludwig or someone did a new tape for that issue because the original tape used for the original Artisan was MIA....
I would believe it. It has a different feel from the original Artisan.

 

Good. Best to keep it that way

 

I like the CBS the best, followed by the SHM.

 

I think that the SHM-SACD sounds the best. I noticed some people say it sounds too harsh and others say it sounds flat - so it’s clearly system dependent.