Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1965-1972 Box Set - Realiz/ation (Content, tracks, etc. ONLY!)

I think it was an ambitious project and Pink Floyd bit off more than they could chew on such an expansive set. Market demands may have necessitated its entire release at once so some elements of the complete box set were rushed. It's not the first time that has happened with an archival project and won't be the last.

There is a lot to like about the set as we got it but people are more demanding when dropping several hundred on something. You didn't see these type of complaints on the Immersion sets.

 

I could accept that, but there was supposedly "years" of research put into this. I find that hard to fathom.

 

I prefer the London 66/67 version. It's the definitive version to me.

 

Unfortunately not. Even if you rip the audio material from the discs it still has the abrupt ending.

 

You're not taking into account the video aspect of this release. Lana has been involved in the video aspect of this project on and off since 1994. The audio portion is another matter and I have no idea how much time/effort they put into researching this.

 

I tested that 'inverting' on Audacity right now. Indeed it sounds better. Was the right channel accidentally re-phased or was that present in the original tape (the source) already?

 

I am most definitely NOT talking about the video portion of the box. Let me make that very clear, as that is not my area of expertise.

However, I was told by many folks "in touch" with the audio people that they worked on it for quite a long time and deliberately ignored suggestions and information that could have been very helpful.

I would imagine that it was recorded that way, and Floyd's mastering guy didn't have the know-how to recognize and fix the problem.

The recent Frank Zappa road tapes vol. 3 is also an audience recording and it has the same problem, except it can't be fixed without a time-consuming effort because there are whole bunch of fake stereo fills added to it!

 

From what I have read here in this thread they were given the information on where to get hold of much better-sounding BBC session tapes but, for whatever reason, they just didn't bother.

That's a real shame.

 

There were many complaints of a similar nature about the Wish You Were Here Immersion set; the videos being screwy in particular and the hi-res audio formats having dropouts and faulty Blu-ray discs on certain EU pressings adding extraneous clicking noises. Any time you 'dump' a bunch of alternate versions across multiple formats of the same stuff repeated many times, there are bound to be a few errors that slip through even if the source audio has been checked and approved — that is what quality control exists for; here it seems there were a few issues that made it to the production stage.

Only on the DVD; as I said, the Blu-ray does have the complete "Breakfast" ending, if you rip the whole title it will be there.

 

Quality control is definitely a problem with this set, but the poor mastering work and unnecessarily-bad source material that they used for some things is equally to blame, and that would seem to be because of a lack of good production/research.

 

You are conflating them all together.

 

Mastering is entirely subjective. Just because it is not made to your specifications as a listener does not mean it is 'poor'.

And I guess you missed the earlier part of my reply when I said that the compilers did their best with the available material. Somewhere in this thread is the entirely believable suggestion that the BBC would not licence their material if the source was not the recordings they supplied. I'm inclined to believe that, as myopic as it is. So, if the compilers were placed in that situation, the only alternative would be to leave it all off. Would you suggest they do that? I wouldn't.

Likewise the spectacularly wrongheaded assumption that the Floyd's archive and tech team are not competent has no merit. Is the implication that after five decades of grest quality studio work, Gilmour, Mason etc are deliberately using amateur staff to save money, and ripping off their fanbase?

You haven't quite made clear what your 'area of expertise' as you put it is. Perhaps if you can share that, we can understand where your frustrations come from...

 

Yes, I would suggest they do that instead of charging people a premium for something that is far below the quality of what is known to exist. They should've waited until something could be figured out between them, the BBC and the tape owner before releasing something that sounds that terrible and is even of worse quality than the available bootlegs.

 

Yup. They should have saved that stuff for a BBC-centric release once they got their act together. The quality on the box set is hilariously bad.

 

I have never heard so much treble on an official release before. It is ungodly bright.

I am also repulsed by the massive amounts of amateurish NR added to the remixes, the Amsterdam shows, the Zabriske outtakes and so on....

Totally unprecendented for a Pink Floyd release.

All of this coincides with them hiring a new mastering engineer, and I don't think the bad results are a coincidence.

If that's acceptable to you, then more power to you. Enjoy having your ears blown out for $600.

 

Come off it, it's not that bad. It's a nine out of ten that could have been a ten out of ten. I'm perfectly happy with that..

 

Not even close.

And I'm the one accused of hyperbole?

Come on...

 

Like I said earlier, you are really hard to please..

 

Is the complete AHM quad playable on the bluray, or just if you extract it from the bluray?

 

Just if you rip it; playing from the menu will stop it short of the full ending.

 

The Barrett-era BBC sessions are abysmal, especially compared to the best bootlegs. What makes it worse is that they were told well in advance where the original tapes were, and didn't even bother to contact the owner (who was more than happy to oblige). They just went with whatever crap the BBC handed out (including new transfers with a bunch of digital clicks in them!)

It just seems to me that the video section of the box seemed to get all the effort, with bugger all being put into the audio side of things.

Not to mention the terrible trebly mastering and messy remixes.

 

Not really. You will find that I have praised many things in other threads.

But I know a turd when I hear one!

 

Thank you very much for this detailed response. I'll have a go at extracting it now.

I just chose the right channel because, well, because I had to choose one. It doesn't matter which channel you invert, as far as I understand it - the point is that they're in phase or out of phase.

 

That is correct!

 

And I don't think it's been fixed on the stand alone set either, will hold off on buying the quad mix till they do.