Expanded Versions of The Cars - Candy-O, Panorama, Shake It Up, Heartbeat City albums Coming 28 July

I thought it was my imagination that the tracks run fast. Have only listened once, but I thought the same thing from the moment the Northern Studios take of "Candy-O" started.

 

This should really be no surprise to anyone that is a regular here on the forum or who is savvy to the unfortunate trend to master everything louder to please "modern" listeners and their wimpy players. Evidently nobody has a stereo with volume and wattage/power anymore!

I would venture to guess that less than 10% of remastered cd's actually sound better instead of louder. It's almost always about the bonus content and spiffy repackaging for us collector nerds.

 

Go to vinyl guys, apparently it is the way to go. Up the credit limit on the cards.
Meanwhile I will sort out which 1 out of a 100 major label CD reissues I bought sounds better.

 

I picked them up today. I had a Barnes and Noble gift card. I'm about to open them. (I heard all the bonus tracks on Spotify and YouTube. I love The Edge)

 

Too many pressing problems <this site is loaded with proof> and most are mastered from digital sources now anyway. Not for me, thanks anyway. Original cd's or vinyl are the best way to go, imho.

 

10% would be 1 out of 10, not 100.

 

Have you heard any of the MFSL masterings of The Cars albums? I think they are great!

 

I have the DCC of the first Cars and love it, could the MFSL really top it? I have original issue cd's for Candy-O and Panorama, and they suffice fine for me.

 

The Candy-O bonus version of title track plays a half step higher (F instead of E) so it's definitely speeded up.

 

Either it's a poorer tape source or the source is the same but the tape has deteriorated over the last 18 years. Either way it's not good.

 

Liner notes are kinda weak too.

Plus, when I tried to import to iTunes it didn't recognize the CD.

 

It can, and it does.

 

The SACD MFSL of the debut tops all versions I've heard including DCC, HDtracks and vinyl by a huge margin. It is stunning.

 

The "something like 9 percent of that 10 being on audiophile labels" got me con-fuse-ed.
Our local store has not got these in yet.

 

Indeed, and I would guess that 9 of that 10 percent comes from audiophile labels.

 

I've listened to the two new releases of Candy-O and Panorama on Spotify today. As expected they fell short in the audio quality, and they definitely missed a golden opportunity to give us fans all the demo and unreleased material that exist for these two albums. At this point the best we can hope for is for MFSL to issue ay least Panorama on vinyl and SACD. But even if that was to happen, we still wouldn't get any of the demos and unreleased material.

Since we're not allowed to discuss it on here, could someone who knows where I can find the 'Monitor Mix' of Candy-O, send me a PM? It would be greatly appreciated.

 

It would be nice if MFSL or similar label would step up and follow the Criterion model and release deluxe editions with additional content, properly transferred and mastered, since the major labels don't seem to care much about quality these days.

 

Well I was really interested in the Panorama issue but I think I'm going to pass. Maybe one day we will get the MSFL of Panorama. But my original vinyl is in good shape and sounds pretty good. Based on this thread I'm going to assume the original vinyl sounds better than this re-issue (not a surprise).

 

I bought both the CD and the LP of Panorama -- have to say that although I have not yet A/B'ed with an original pressing, the vinyl sounds phenomenal.

 

Thank you! How's the bonus material?

 

Panorama bonus material is good -- Candy-O has those speed issues as noted above (I bought both titles on CD). No such problems with the Panorama bonus material, though there's less of it. "Shooting For You" is a bit of a bore, "Be My Baby" is an early take of "Maybe Baby" from the Shake It Up album. Always liked the B-side "Don't Go To Pieces". These are 3-sided LPs with the fourth side containing etchings. Have not yet seen the etching on Candy-O, but Panorama looks pretty sweet with the album art and THE CARS all around the perimeter. They did a nice job with this.

 

Good catch. I knew there was something wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it. What's worse is that the Northern Studios tracks aren't all playing at the same speed. Candy-O runs faster than Dangerous Type, both at a different wrong speed. The vocals on Candy-O sound like Mickey Mouse. I cannot stand it.

 

Has anyone else noticed that, since the HDCD mastering way back when, the Panorama song transitions are spaced longer? They used to be tightly banded - almost crossfaded. I wonder if the new vinyl is the same. The spaces kind of lower the energy of the album a little (IMO)
Similar to the AF Hearbeat City (and that's all I'll say about that!)

 

In case anyone is interested, adjusting the pitch shift slider on my SL-1200 MK2, to roughly -4.5, slows down all the northern studios songs to normal speed and pitch.. At least to my ears. I ripped it twice, normal and slowed, and then combined them to produce a proper side rip.

 

I love this. Does anyone know if this was recorded for Panorama or was it from another album and they used it to pad the new expanded reissued? (Same question applies to the other bonus tracks)