Renaissance (the band, Annie Haslam era) : Best vinyl pressings?

This is a discussion on Renaissance (the band), looking for clues on the best vinyl pressings. Skipping the two pre-Annie Haslam releases.

In the US, the first two albums came out on Sovereign/Capitol, then later as a 2-fer on Capitol (with some edits)

The Sire material came out variously on Sire/Gulf+Western, Sire/ABC, Sire/Warner Bros, with some albums reissued on all three affiliations.

The IRS material only got a single issue.

Then there are the foreign pressings on BTM, Warner Brothers, and (for the first two) Harvest.

Anyone compared the various pressings?

Summaring the pressings I believe are available:

Prologue: Sovereign/Capitol (US), Capitol (US, as 2-fer), Sovereign, Harvest
Ashes are Burning: Sovereign/Capitol (US), Capitol (US, as 2-fer), Sovereign, Harvest
Turn of the Cards: Sire/Gulf+Western (US), Sire/ABC (US), Sire/WB (US), BTM
Scheherazade & Other Stories: Sire/ABC (US), Sire/WB (US), BTM
Live at Carnegie Hall: Sire/ABC (US), Sire/WB (US), BTM
Novella: Sire/ABC (US), Sire/WB (US), Warner Bros
Song for All Seasons: Sire/WB (US), Warner Bros
Azure d'Or: Sire/WB (US), Warner Bros
Camera Camera: Illegal/IRS
Time-Line: Illegal/IRS

 

Now that was a band. In the '70s, they were the favorite of a NYC rock concert promoter named Howard Stein. He booked them into his Academy of Music quite often. He even played piano with them during a New Years concert once. Annie Haslam was special, that's for sure.

 

Yup, and NYC was where they had the greatest success. In fact, they were a lot more successful in the US than in their home UK, at least until Northern Lights hit for them as a tie-in with a UK TV show.

 

Bob Ludwig did a nice mastering of the ABC/Sire pressings Scheherazade and Turn of the Cards (and maybe even the Gulf+Western/Sire press.of "Turn OTC`s"). This gets tricky since there were different masterings/pressings of many of these titles (in the US anyway).

 

I guess part of this discussion should also be whether there are any albums that are bested in any vinyl version by some CD version. The live album might be a candidate there, since the sides are pretty long. But I know there was no love for the first CD version.

 

A friend of mine had the US CAMERA CAMERA on IRS and it sounded horrible....fuzzy, gritty mono (at least the side with 'Jigsaw' was).

 

Ive owned ALL the vinyl of this band, and honestly never though most of them were top rate recordings. Not horrible, but a bit muffled or something, except for the really later ones.

 

I own several of the CDs, and they all sorta have a muffled, couple copies away from the master tape sound, not bad, but just not great.

The first two are on "ONE WAY" records, not bad, but just seem like they could be better.

 

I have the 2-fer CD of the first two albums on Capitol. It sounds muffled and lousy. (It sounded so lousy that--because people were complaining--at some point Capitol started slapping a sticker on copies saying "from the master tapes" or something like that; but I think the set uses the edited version of one of the albums, which is identical to the edited version used on the 2-fer reissue that came out in the late '70s, so it's not likely the "real" master tape). I also have the One Way releases (on 2 separate CDs), which, as you note, sound so-so at best.

 

Here is what I have Renaissancewise. Audio quality range 1-5. I had other CD versions for some of them that I sold, because they were worse than these. Hope it helps.

Code:

Title             DR RMS    Audio Country  Label/Number           Format
Renaissance                 5     UK       Island ILPS 9114       LP
Prologue                    5     UK       Sovereign SVNA 7253    LP
Prologue          9  -12    3     Germany  Repertoire REP 4574-WY CD
Ashes Are Burning 9  -12    4     Germany  Repertoire REP 4575-WY CD
Ashes Are Burning           4     UK       Sovereign SVNA 7261    LP
Turn of the Cards 11 -15    3     Germany  Repertoire REP 4491-WY CD
Turn of the Cards           4     UK       BTM/RCA BTM 1000       LP
Scheherazade                5     UK       BTM Records BTM 1006   LP
Scheherazade      12 -16    3     Germany  Repertoire REP 4490-WY CD
Novella                     5     UK       Warner Bros. K 56422   LP

 

I have 2 copies of Prologue on vinyl: the Capitol US release, and the EMI Japan release.

The EMI album is... almost completely lacking any cymbal and snare drums. No high-end. It's so bad, I actually thought the record had dirt I could not see deep in the grooves, and scrubbed it both in my Spin-Clean and by hand with the carbon-fiber brushes.

Sad, because I got the Capitol version for a steal, and the EMI was supposed to be near-mint. It looks beautiful. Looks brand new, and on really quiet vinyl. I'm now thinking it may be a counterfiet album, as I see no mention of a Renaissance album on EMI in this thread.

 

In my experience they were virtually unknown outside of but hugely popular within the Boston>Washington D.C. corridor. They were huge in Israel and behind the Iron Curtain as well. I was at the concerts @ Carnegie that became the album.
Bill is spot-on with his recommendations of the Sterling mastered titles. In particular my WLP of the live album eats the other original I have.

 

All the Sire issue albums through Novella got a new mastering and reissue through Warner/Sire when Sire moved from ABC to Warner. Not sure if they also got remastered when Sire went from Gulf+Western to ABC. The Warner/Sire pressings of stuff like the live album are much harder to find than the ABC pressings.

 

EMI and Capitol are (were?) the same company. As for me I bought a copy of Prologue but side two was off-center (a common problem with 70's Capitol in my observation) so I'm looking to upgrade.

 

Its funny that this thread got revived. I just listened to my US Sire Turn of the Cards, mastered by Bob Ludwig. (sterling stamp and RL in deadwax). It literally sounds like an audiophile record, deep powerful bass, beautiful clean and open top end. I was stunned because my other TOTC pressings (US Sire not "sterling") is bright with no punch whatsoever. I think side 1 of this album is just about a perfect side of music, it was a revelation.

I have the UK LP of Ashes, and its pretty good, but nothing like what I just listened to.
My Prologue is US Capitol and my Scheherazade is the MOFI, I have not listened to either in a long time and will give them a listen soon.
I also have a "sterling" stamped Live at Carnegie, but with no RL.

Anyway, my main question is what other Renaissance LPs did Ludwig do, I know Scheherazade was also mentioned? If my TOTC is any indication they are worth going after. BTW it cost me $5 at a shop in Reno.

 

The UK BTM of Scheherazade sounds better to my ears than the Ludwig STERLING US version.

The best sounding vinyl of Novella I've found was, surprisingly, the 1st US pressing. Turns out it was mastered in England, look for "KEV" in the deadwax.

A Song for All Seasons is amazing on the UK pressing with the "palms" label. It was mastered at Trident. I've not heard a US press that was in that league.

Carnegie Hall was mastered for the US by Ludwig. I've not compared that version to my UK vinyl.

 

Sigh... I wish there was a decent CD of TOTC, my early Repertoire disc is too bright and I don't do vinyl.

 

When you have some time, can you compare the US with the UK Carnegie Hall? I've been wanting to check out the UK BTM for a while as someone else once mentioned that he thought the UK was better than the Sire LP.

I've had mostly bad luck with US Sire vinyl. Usually, they are quite noisy. I bought three or four copies of "Turn of the Cards" before finding a reasonably quiet copy.

 

Does anyone have the German release of "Camera Camera" on white vinyl (Line Records) ?

I just ordered a M- copy.

Just trying to complete my vinyl Renaissance collection, and the white vinyl looked cool; I just hope it sounds good enough as an album to show off.

 

Is it enough to have the stamped STERLING name in the deadwax?

 

IMO the UK pressings of the first two Prologue and Ashes beat the Capitol pressing which are noisey. I have UK's of the rest through Scherazarde but i didn't find a huge difference between them and their US counterparts.

 

I'm revisiting this thread having had the RL US Sire/Warner TOTC for some time now. I have a beat-up copy but I concur with John Moschella: it still sounds great in terms of quality and soundstage. Really rich and full sound (sorry - I am not good at taking about individual instruments and EQ). I'd grab a copy in better condition!

 

Hi What about Ashes are Burning?any knowledge on pressings?anyone?
thank u cheers

 

I snapped up what I think is a 1st UK Prologue in beautiful condition (the cover is mint) but the matrices are a little different on Discogs. I have:

Side 1: svna 7253 A-2-1- 1- plus something I can't read. At 6 o'clock it has '4 rm'
Side 2: 7253 B-2

The inner states 10/86 but I can't be sure it's the original inner. The actual vinyl is quite thin. I wonder if this isn't an 80s reissue - if indeed there was as one. To all other appearances, it looks like a 1st UK, but I'm suspicious.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

I had a hard time finding their albums on CD in the 90s. They had been out of print for years. Perfect music for the vinyl revival, I would think.