Heart - "Little Queen" - Poor sounding album?

"Recut went flat" I think meant that tape was assumed to have the mastering moves incorporated so it was cut flat. Which can explain why it sounded so bad. With very rare exceptions in this era, the mixdown master tape. gets mastered, there's a tape with the mastering moves applied, that gets used for future recuttings. And copies of that tape go to other plants. And usually each plant gets stampers. Dub masters get played on quite a few tape machines in mastering labs over the years. New lacquers get cut if the existing stampers get worn out from too many pressings, or if they sustain mechanical damage through whatever reason. Sometimes also it's not unusual for one pressing plant in the day if one stamper wears out or gets damaged, to ask another plant if they have a spare, rather than have a new lacquer cut and plated, and mothers and stampers made.

 

I'm currently in the market. The Dutch pressing is by far the easiest one to find in Europe, but maybe I should find a US/Canadian pressing instead?

 

The HDTracks 24/192 version of Little Queen is pretty good but maybe a little harsh. It's certainly not lacking in brightness (if that's the complaint with the Portrait LP).

 

Any experiences on the Dutch pressing?

 

I have this pressing from Europe which was cut/mastered at Kendun and has the same inscriptions in the dead wax that some other people have mentioned for early US pressings. ("Go For It" etc.).

Heart - Little Queen

I think it sounds good but is certainly not bright sounding. I always thought this was one of the better sounding Heart albums, I like the sound better than "Dog & Butterfly".

 

Dunno which Poco album you're referring to, but that clip has the mud sound of A Good Feelin' To Know. That album sounds AWFUL. The only Poco album I have with that "sound".

 

For what it's worth the 2004 remaster of this album is bad, but the original 80s CDs are ai'ight.

 

I had one of those black Portrait labeled reissues.

One side not tooooo bad but the other really sucked. Went and found a Kendun original and it was much better.

 

Thanks for the info. Interesting, so it's the American mastering.

 

The original CD sounds great. This is one of my favorite albums. It's just so smooth and balanced sounding. Try cranking it a little, it comes alive. This is just one of many old CDs, where I think it just invites you to crank it. And it sounds better and better, the louder you play it, assuming you're not overdriving your system.

 

Steve, what do you mean by "went flat" ?

 

I have a KENDUN pressing with the above inscriptions on it and when I first listened to it, I was blown away, but I remember the last time I listened to it, it fell a little flat for me. I'm going to throw it on again tonight as I feel like my setup is as good as I've had it, better even than when I first got the album, so we'll see.

 

Just put it on - back to being blown away. This pressing is an animal.

 

Man... how many millions of this LP were made? There has to be a few dull ones out there. Not mine.

 

There’s a mid Seventies back to back hit Epic 45 ( blue and yellow) of Good Feelin To Know that sounds terrific. It’s really alive with a lot of presence. It’s longer too than the album version and had a cold ending - no fade. It’s different than the earlier released single. My Favorite Version .

 

I think most of the dull ones were the later non-Kendun reissues. The one's with bar-coded covers/black Portrait labels are the one's especially I'd avoid.

 

OK, got it, thanks!

 

Yup, mine has barcode and black portrait label.. No "Kendun" in the deadwax.

 

I love the sound of the original CD. I had always thought it would be a waste of time and resources to remaster this for an audiophile label (e.g. Audio Fidelity or MFSL), but Steve's comments now have me second guessing that.

 

Get the Mastersound LP. Yes there is a cut that was cut flat and doesn't sound good at all.

 

I think the mystery is solved. My deadwax corresponds to this 1984 reissue in Discogs:

Heart - Little Queen

So I am going to order one of the original 1977 pressings.

 

Just got a $14 NM copy of the Canadian PR 34799. After giving er a cleaning I gave it the headphone test... At first I heard no separation and thought I had a bad copy... Then I noticed my headphones were not plugged in all the way... Ah there's my bass and kick drum! If this is a flat transfer, they killed it!! The beauty of this LP is that you can find a good sounding 1st pressing under $20. Loving side A, but Little Queen is my fav. track so I'm pretty sure side B will be incredible. Enjoy this record!
Aside: Other than gifts and new bands, if I want a good sounding pressing, I dig everywhere to find a pre 1980s pressing and listen before I buy until I pull the trigger. Advantages- you know exactly what you're getting, you are guaranteed an analog pressing, and no wasting time returning defective discs. I have also noticed that Toronto shops keep crusty needled turntables in their listening centres. This has to be a selling point because my records always sound better at home.

 

My apologies, don't know this verbiage. "Cut the sides" to me means, either, the top and the bottom of the dynamics, or they physically removed the information residing at the edges of the tape - neither of which make sense to me.
Now probably it means, the "sides" you refer to means, "Side One and Side Two"? And there was no mastering-engineer EQ added to what came out of the studio, for the purposes of compensating for the mechanics of needles in grooves?
Little help?

 

I like the old cd as well. Very mellow and crankable. A tasteful mastering job might add some things (punch and clarity) but take away other things (detail and dynamics and certainly $$ from wallet). Luckily we'll always have the Portrait cd.