Is it possible that Greatest Hits 1970-2002 has been "pulled" in order to promote sales of Diamonds? Is that sort of thing still done? I'm not knowledgeable about this so just asking. Diamonds double disc would be nearly perfect for me if one of the final tracks was replaced by The One.
I went to Best Buy to see if they still had cds and was going to buy Diamonds, but they had a copy of Greatest Hits 1970-2002 which I haven't been able to find recently so I bought that instead. Even though i understand Diamonds showcasing the live version of Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me with George Michael, I prefer to have the original studio version on a compilation.
Still waiting to hear back on anyone who bought the vinyl of this. I wish this would've been released on vinyl... I figured that the 'Diamonds' set would be as close as I can get to having a 2LP set of Elton's hits on vinyl. Darryl
"The Very Best of Elton John" was released originally on vinyl in 1990, and reissued on 180 gram vinyl a few years ago. If you only want the essential hits from 1970-1990, it's a good set. I've seen Diamonds on vinyl but passed as it's pretty expensive.
Are talking about this UK vinyl set? Elton John - The Very Best Of Elton John I just added it to my discogs wantlist a few days ago. Mastering is more important to me than it being expensive. I'll pay more for the analogue mastering than digital. Darryl
Yes, but it is a recreation of the single edit of "Victim of Love"; it's not taken from the single master. I compared the fade with the MCA 45 and it's not quite the same.
You want a good remix of "Philadelphia Freedom," track down the 1984 CD "The Superior Sound of Elton John." That's a good remix that keeps the balance of the instruments more similar to the original, but it's a little punchier and more open sounding.
I recently purchased this and am trying to figure out which tracks are remixed and which aren't. Because "Philadelphia Freedom" is DEFINITELY a remix, and I think "Bitch is Back" may be as well. I am starting to think that the bulk of it may be remixes. But I can find no info about it anywhere. I may have to do a track-by-track comparison.
That's crazy and it's ticked me off not knowing this before i purchased my UK copy! Why is this happening? Who decides those mastering differences between releases for respective countries?
Well, the only way to get disc 3, the bonus CD, is to buy the EU Diamonds 3CD Box...there is no U.S. version of the 3CD Box, only a U.S 2CD set which has discs 1 & 2. Yes, this whole thing is crazy and I've never been able to pinpoint the reason why the same title of a CD might sound different or worse in another country? Frankly, I'm surprised this phenomenon isn't being discussed on the Forum or that anybody else notices the sound quality differences between EU, U.S. or Japan CDs? I have bought a lot of EU CDs recently because they were cheaper or in the case of the EU Diamonds 3CD set, to get the bonus CD, only to re-buy U.S. versions right afterwards, because they just have more bass and midrange, which is sometimes lacking in the EU versions, but I have been unable to find out why this is? Japanese reissue CDs can also be hit and miss, as their sources or mastering methods can be highly questionable. I recently picked up two 2016 Japanese Sony priced-down Hall & Oates reissue CDs for X-Static and Voices, only to discover the tone is way off on both of them, and I question what sources were used as well...they sound totally sterile, lack normal tone (bass, midrange, treble) and are too bright overall.
Well, you learn something new every day. I assumed that this box set when ordered in the US was made in the US. Just checked the package. Wrong. Made in the EU. I find it really odd that the sound would be that different. How is that possible unless it was mastered twice? Are the credits different on the two CD sets?
I'm sure some of you will think I'm crazy, but here's my thoughts on the matter -- not as it relates to this set (I don't own it) but as it relates generally to cds from different territories or even simply different factories: I have possessed multiple cds where one copy appears to have more bass but upon close listening the bass only seems more prominent because the everything is a bit muddy. Why this would be, I don't know. I've read speculation that it's due to jitter introduced via lax manufacturing controls, but I don't know. At any rate, my experience is that once I'm focused on imaging and soundstage that the differences are apparent and the presumably better bass response is, in fact, a negative.
The mastering was not done twice or separately for each country, Bob Ludwig is the only one who remastered the Elton John Diamonds CDs and he is the only one credited in all editions and countries. Well, disc 1 sounds more similar between the EU and U.S. CD, but I did hear some pretty noticeable SQ differences with disc 2 though, as I spoke about in more detail in a previous post. I've actually had a brief discussion about this topic with a pretty well known mastering engineer a while back and he acknowledged sound quality differences are possible in each country, but could only speculate why? He thought maybe it has to do with different working practices in different manufacturing plants, and that it possibly had to do with the glass mastering stage, that maybe the American plants are running their glass mastering process slower than the EU Plants, but again, this is only a wild guess and I'm not even sure it would ultimately explain the sound quality differences I am encountering between EU and U.S. CDs. My thought is that the EU uses slightly different equipment or simply has different preferred settings for how the audio should sound in the end...maybe they like their music brighter or lacking bass and midrange over there, who knows, but after buying many EU CDs over the years, I have discovered minor and even night and day sound quality differences between an EU CD and its U.S. edition.
Back in the late eighties and early nineties, I started collecting Blue Oyster Cult on CD. The few EU available CDs, I thought sounded bad, so I slowly bought there US made Columbia equivalents. They definitely sounded better IMHO and could never understand why.
Does anybody have the regular edition USA CD or USA deluxe edition and able to figure out where the disc was manufactured? It's not a DADC disc as far I can tell. So, it must've been manufactured at another facility.
There is no U.S. Deluxe 3CD edition, that is only Made In The EU, but there are U.S. 1CD and 2CD sets.
Okay. Curiosity got the best of me and I finally picked up the 3cd version of this set. I am still uncertain whether anything was remixed, but as others have pointed out some tracks sound significantly different. It is true that Philadelphia Freedom's strings are almost imperceptible now. Is that due to a remix or just some heavy handed compression, EQ, and processing? I don't know. I'm not an audio professional so I don't know what's possible in terms of changing the sound this much without doing a remix, but I still am skeptical that anything was remixed because it seems like if they went through the time and expense to remix at least some of this set there would be some press that mentions this as a selling point. Instead we just have fans listening to it and wondering what happened. No doubt about it, though, some of it sounds significantly different. I like the increased clarity on a few tracks, but it really is just too loud. It's a much more enjoyable listening while exercising and listening to Sennheiser Momentum bluetooth headphones than it is on my main rig. When I a/b'd tracks with the To Be Continued box set (turning up the volume on the latter significantly since Diamonds is so compressed) I found that the differences became more subtle. If these are remixes, the balance is nearly identical to the original mixes. I don't know that that's easy to do, which is another thing that makes me suspect these are not remixes. A lot of the differences seem like they could be simply the result of the compression and maybe some added reverb. But could that account for the strings almost disappearing in Philadelphia Freedom? If not, Bob Ludwig (or whoever did the remix) really screwed the pooch with that one. It's just too radical of a departure from the original mix to appear on a best-of set like this one.
It does sound like the whole orchestra track is significant lowered in volume. Also the drums/percussion are quieter now compared to the version on the "Captain Fantastic" SACD. But I doubt that this would be a Bob Ludwig decision. Elton John is an artist who cares a lot about his back catalog and I'm very sure he spent some time approving these tracks before releasing. Maybe he requested the change because he was unhappy with it? BTW, "Nikita" is MUCH BETTER than the original "Ice On Fire" CD version, the horrible brightness and missing bass is corrected.
From what I am hearing on the 2CD and 3CD sets, nothing sounds like it was remixed to me...you never know, but I am not hearing 1 song that sounds like a remix though. As for Philadelphia Freedom, I did contact Bob Ludwig about this to find out what the story is, but never heard back. In general though, I really like the modern SQ on Diamonds and it's much better than the previous Greatest Hits 1970-2002 2CD comp, which sounds dated compared to Diamonds.
Yes, and I also agree with you about "Nikita", it sounds spectacular now...the brightness is gone and the bass is even fuller on the U.S. 2CD set.
After another listen, I have to say that "Song For Guy" suffers from heavy compression artifacts at at the end of the song (from about the 5:00 mark), which totally spoils it for me. I compared it to the "A Single Man" 1998 Gus Dudgeon remaster and that one sounds much better. More clarity, more space between instruments and no artifacts.
