Just wondering. I have the 1999 Pet Sounds Mono/Stereo CD. Was there another Pet Sounds with HDCD recently released? Also, anyone know what version of Pet Sounds BMG Music club is offering? On their website they list the CD as remastered. Thanks!
The original Pet Sounds mono/stereo CD was withdrawn and quickly replaced with a HDCD version. Sounds good.
There are a number of old threads in the archive that discuss this. The 1999 CD was replaced a year or two later by an HDCD version, mastered by Joe Gastwirt instead of McMaster, with Love's vocals restored on the bridge of the stereo "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (done pretty poorly, I might add). Last I checked, BMG offered the 1999, non-HDCD version. Try e-mailing their customer service.
I wouldn't say that the "Love" vocal drop was done *poorly*. It was probably the best they could do, granted that they were taking it off a mono mix. You can hear the flanging and such when it comes in...but I actually expected it to be much, much worse. There are gonna be problems no matter what you do....
I guess from that perspective, yeah, it could've been worse, but it still sounds like a sonic mess, and we're stuck with it thanks to Mike's ego.
Well, the story I've heard is that oldies radio was playing the stereo mix, and they (Mark Linett?) didn't feel that was "correct". Hence the re-do. Now, I haven't heard that myself, but I have heard two similar sync-ups, and both sounded great. One was of the different vocal track in God Only Knows (IIRC, Brian was on the original, but Carl was on the stereo mix). Same thing - they added a mono mix to a stereo backing track, but in that case it sounded quite good. Another case would be I Get Around. I've heard a stereo sync-up that puts together the stereo backing track with the complete mono mix, and it sounds *great* - no phasing sounds or anything. What I'm trying to get at is that good jobs *are* possible. Am I the only one that feels the vocals to California Girls go terribly out of sync on the reissued edition of Endless Harmony?
