Genesis - early CD versions thread (Ver. 2)

How does the Brazilian Nursery Cryme CD hold up? Haven't seen any comments about it yet. It has Sonopress listed in the matrix, so would it be identical to the West German releases?

 

Very probably.

 

I found a clicking noise around 1:29 or so during The Chamber of 32 Doors on the Atco Lamb. I've checked the DE and it's not there. Is this noise present on the V/Cs as well?

 

I just checked my Atco and V/C copies and I do not hear anything untoward around the 1:29 mark (monitored on Sonoma Model One electrostatic headphone system).

 

I've checked again on another player and the click wasn't there. Must've been a bad rip.

 

I don't hear something strange at 1:29

If you listen with headphones you will hear that in the start of the word TRUST 1:30
there is a sound which sounds like something digital with Reverb on it and it's part of the music ( maybe it's something regarding the Microphone when Gabriel saying the T letter)
it's also on the DE.( it's not the type of Click from a record it just kind of sound.

 

Or one too many glasses of wine!

Yes, there is some 'popping' on the vocals in a few places due to close-miking.

 

Thank you Black Elk for the explanation.

 

I changed from I don't hear nothing strange at 1:29
to
I don't hear something strange at 1:29

It just sounds more polite to me

Such a beautiful album.

 

For UK/EUROPE 1994 Virgin (724383988624 CDSCDX 4005
For USA/CANADA 1994 Virgin 075678269028 CD 82690

The Wind & Wuthering DE has more bass compared to the original cds,
Some people like it and some feel that there is too much bass on the DE.

 

I'm comparing the V/C and Atlantic masterings of Land of Confusion on Invisible Touch right now. They both seem to use the same digital transfer, but I'm noticing some strange stuff here. Once you level match and invert the phase for one of the CDs, the right channel goes silent from 1:28 to 1:46 (when Phil sings "the future"). When he says "much" a few seconds later, the right channel cancels out again, but only for half a second. Other than these 2 instances, the volume and EQ seem to fluctuate randomly throughout the song, usually with the V/C having a little more bass. Very interesting. I wonder how the rest of the album fares.

 

Didn't I write about this mastering difference many posts ago?

Anyway, according to my notes, there should be a frequent unbalance in channels, like if one is slightly louder than the other. I wasn't able to make them cancel out completely (but I compared the whole album). Atlantic has 1 DR point more, maybe the consequence of this fluctuations.
I compared Anything She Does. In the first 40 seconds or so Nimbus seems louder, then drops volume and cancels out. During the same sections, high frequencies are a little muffled in comparison, like if a Dolby decoder goes wrong (this is what I thought at the time, I don't know if it's a simple volume fluctuation, it seems more like a decoding problem or a playback problem in the DAT).

Now, I wrote my notes superficially so I can't be sure which is which now but I seem to remember the Nimbus is the one with the faults.

Also, the later japanese Mini LP has different kinds of differences: An apparently more complete attack on Tonightx3 (Nimbus is slightly cut out) that translates in a click in the delta file, 4 milliseconds missing at the end of Land Of Confusion, some wrong milliseconds in the transition od Domino, resulting in a slight click before the second part begins.

So, if my memory serves me right (and it probably doesn't), the Atlantic should be the more correct version. DADC picture disc is bit identical to the Nimbus.


EDIT: I found pictures too

DADC vs Mini LP

 

You're expecting any of us to remember all this????????? I can't even remember what I had for breakfast!





Wait a minute, I haven't had breakfast yet!

 

Thanks for posting this. I wonder why the Nimbus wasn't taken from the actual master tape instead of using the same digital transfer that Atlantic used. I can understand Atlantic not doing so according to Barry Diament's comment from an old Invisible Touch thread, but I don't see why Virgin would hav such limitations, especially with an album released that same year.

 

I know the feeling. Believe me, I do.

 

Probably (based on what I learned here, just a speculation) the digital master or transfer was sent around on a DAT format. As far as I'm told, that format is really fragile and prone to read errors. Once a mixing engineer made me listen to some DATs recorded only five years before, and they were unplayable, full of nasty dropouts.
So my guess is: when Atlantic did his own mastering based on that source, everything went fine. When the mastering for VC was done, some reading errors happened and went unnoticed (it's not that they are so obvious on simple listening).
The digital transfer was done only once, the problem happened later in the chain.

 

True, but a common misconception is that all digital tapes are DAT. The DAT format was only introduced in 1987/88, before that (and up until a few years after) the most common format were U-matic tapes paired with the Sony PCM-1600/1610/1630 PCM adaptors. For more info: Digital Audio Tape - Wikipedia

 

Indeed, and U-Matic was far from ideal.

Exabyte was introduced later, as well as PMCD (Pre-Master CD).

 

Not to mention 3M's proprietary system or Mitsubishi's X-80.

 

Got it.

So, if I understand correctly, since U-Matic is basically "VCR with benefits", potential tracking problems were always around the corner.

 

How rare is the US Target for And Then There Were Three? I thought I had the West German version, but it turned out to be the US one.

 

You could try PM'ing member KeithH if you don't get a good enough answer here.

Your disc is featured on Keith's site here: Keith Hirsch's CD Resource » Target CD Gallery: E-H

 

Not rare:

genesis target and then there were three cd | eBay

 

You're correct about the West German version being common, but I was referring to the US for US Target. There's no mention of West Germany anywhere on the disc or packaging.

 

Yeah, I have the much more common W. German version myself. Still, I doubt that raises the value of the US disc very much, if at all.


My common WG Target (below)