I want to pick up New Order's catalog on CD (up to Technique): please advise!

I assume the Complete Smiths box had new masterings. I believe there is a market for old masterings without having to trudge around used CD stores.

 

I am also waiting for the Depeche Mode Original Album Series set for the same reason.

 

I've long thought that Technique might have been better recorded than the other original albums. Was that the one they did at Peter Gabriel's Bath studio? My original Qwest cd sounds amazing and I've never felt the need to upgrade that title (and I generally don't like 80s mastering too much). I did use iTunes to get some of the bonus tracks on the reissue though.

 

I want our host to remaster Substance for the AF series! A couple of years ago when they asked for nominations this was at the top of my list along with The Cure's Staring at the Sea.

Shame that Rob Gretton passed away so young. He was the one pushing for Recycle and it would have been wonderful to get a singles boxset with all that beautiful artwork on the sleeves.

 

Both if those titles would be awesome on SACD mastered by our host. Count me in if it ever happens....

I cherish my original New Order singles and LPs. Never has been a better combo of sleeve designs and music into book. Peter Saville is some kind of genius.

 

Did they ever fix the problems with the deluxe reissues?

 

PC&L doesn't have PE, but none of the cd's compare to the lp. For vinyl, the UK is the best. The FACTUS is not as good. The Qwest is excellent and more easily found.

As much as I appreciate Substance, it doesn't have the full versions of some songs, and the re-recorded version of Ceremony is blah compared to the original without Gillian, which is not her fault. It just doesn't have the monster bass, which is why I think they re-recorded it. Some systems just couldn't handle that bass on vinyl.

Yeah, and those remasters are LOUD.

 

Yeah, they fixed the bonus discs glitches. How to find the fixed versions? Order from Rhino directly. I read from the Steven Morris article that only the bonus discs had the problem.

 

I do like what I've heard with the FACT pressing on a few different rigs but, as I don't do vinyl personally, it isn't an option at home for me. On a more technical level, I think this is a mastering rather than a format issue, so I'll probably work something out in DSP for PC&L, once I settle on a starting point...

As a side note, I forgot that I also had the (revised) release of PC&L sitting in one of those large CD binder things. I took a look at a time record, as compared to that for the CY pressing, and it appears the CY is phase-inverted. Makes me wonder if FACD100 (Low-life) is as well.

 

These remasters got a bad wrap because of the initial problems with the bonus disks. Apart from the initial glitch on Sunrise, the quality of all of them is very good and generally as good if not better than the original cds. Low Life is definitely better remastered.

 

How loud are they?

 

DR is 9 for Technique, 9 for Brotherhood, 10 for Low Life, 11 PCL and 9 for Movement.

Their louder than the originals, but that doesn't equal bad, There isn't any clipping either. Out of the originals Low Life had the biggest issues with the overly trebly brightness, the others were ok. The way people talk you would think that it sounds awful, but I find them comparable to the recently well received a-ha remasters.

 

The brightness on low-life is probably due to the fact you had a pre-emphasis cd... Once de-emphed it sounds fantastic
Every edition through my research indicates all but the US Qwest have it, I prefer all originals over the remasters, they are not bad, just not to my taste

 

And on the original Japan for UK/Europe Low-life 100 Facd 100 the PE flag is NOT in the appropriate place.
EAC will not find it unless you select an additional option (forgotten what).

I thought it may be that my players weren't correctly detecting the PE so I ripped a copy to Toast and burned it with PE flags.

No difference in sound that I could discern.
None.
Any others with experiences of PE and Low-life?
I found the Qwest cd to improve a bit over the Facd 100 in the smoothness dept.

For PC&L, I prefer the original over the remaster by a good margin.

 

Yep, the Pre-emph is located in the SUB Q, Not the TOC on that edition, Australian carries it in the TOC
Ripping either with foobar using the de-emphasis plugin works nicely

 

How about just using your player to decode it?
Can you hear a difference between the original Japan for UK and the Australian?

 

I can and have, But Oppo's only add the proper eq if Pre-emphasis is in the Table of Contents, My Onkyo 7030 will detect both TOC and SUB, (they both use the same master so they sound the same once de-emphed), sucks because then I have to use two different players, My pre only has one analog input (Which I use the Oppo for SACD use) So I've elected to use software during ripping to add the proper eq
I would stick with my US Qwest but I have quite a few pre-emph cd's, so on the player side I'm still SOL, lol
I have way too many editions/formats of this title, maybe I need to unload a few...

 

It is also my understanding that the original Factory cd's were reissued in the 90's, with the same packaging and catalog numbers but also the year of release printed as well, if I remember from the top of my head. The masterings are the same too correct?

 

Interesting. I had no idea that the Oppo (do you have a 105?) only detected the PE flag in the TOC.

What I can't figure out is the Toast option to add PE when burning does not seem to make a difference in sound. On anything - including Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon early Japan pressing.
Hmmm.

But still, the original with Pre-emp (decoded? I still don't know) sounds better to me on the most difficult track, and my favorite, Sunrise. It's just more dynamic and smooth than the remaster. This is one you have to play LOUD. The only New Order song that requires that.

 

I've got a later Japanese release (WPCR-75043) that indicates no PE using the manual detection in eac095pb3. I think this may be a clone of the London 90s issue but not sure. Are you saying that most of the pre Deluxe Edition releases of Low-life have PE but it's not coded in either TOC or SUB Q?

 

No James, But it would be cool if we could come up with a definitive list of Non-pre emphasis pre-remaster Low-life's, it may help those poor souls who may accidentally purchase one and think it sounds like crap, kind of like PSB-Please, pre-emp runs rampant on many of those pre-remasters

 

It would be nice to see such a list. There was a lot of debate over the early Joy Division CDs but not as much (that I saw anyway) regarding the New Order discs. Sadly, I sold off my original Factory CDs long ago so I've only got the set of later Japanese CDs and the Deluxe Editions for the classic five albums. I can contribute that info though!

It's funny. What really made me go back and pay attention to PE was when I first started messing with that ABX plugin. I noticed some differences between various masterings of albums but OMD's A&M really stood out. That's when I realized I was comparing the non-decoded rip of the original Virgin to the later remaster.

 

As I reserve the right to change my mind, I am now using the originals as my go to versions, but my point still stands that the remasters aren't bad. Lots of people like the Simple Minds, Depeche Mode and A-Ha ones and I think the original albums remastered sound as good as those remasters.

I have a Low Life from Germany (1994 I think) the CentreDate one, which doesn't have pre-emphasis and sounds excellent.

 

I don't understand why any cd's had pre-emph on them if your player wouldn't automatically decode it. What's the point? Was it a secret club you had to join to learn how to make your cd's sound good? I never even heard of this s**t until I joined this forum. It sounds really complicated and a pain in the a** to properly listen to a cd that has pre-emph on it.

 

The CentreDate is great for the packaging.
The sound is, somehow, wrong.
Just awful compared to other pressings.
Despite the the fact that it has the same peak levels as other, earlier versions that sound better.
Get a US Qwest pressing for cheap.