Smashing Pumpkins - Adore Reissue

A great album that stands with their trio, Gish is up there too, as one of the THE defining moments of rock for me at least. I was hoping we would get more dynamic range on this. The others kept most of their dynamic range and sounded great. Not sure how I feel about being more even if slightly less. EQ should be more important then. Ludwig knows what he is doing though and the DR spectrums even when high look pretty good to me for modern music. A little transparent compression isn't going to hurt too much I guess. Not sure about DR6 mono. Seems a little high there but they must have their reasons. Who am I kidding though I'm not listening to this in mono lol.

What we should realize is that compression equipment at this point in time is near transparent for certain types of music. Now don't me wrong Adore was pushed before and I'm not exactly thrilled it's possibly higher. This Howie guy sounds totally incompetent and no idea why he is on staff. It should be noted that demos often need additional compression to normalize their levels. Didn't hear or even play Pisces though.

For me the MOST important thing was an updated scan and eventual 24/96 downloads of Adore. Period. Also, anyone that thinks the original albums sound better than the 24/96's is lying to himself. Sure, Gish and SD are not DR12 but they never needed to be lol. Half the albums are guitar/drums on 11. Exactly how it is supposed to be. Not much in the way of dynamics there to have as long as they did everything right with the EQ, etc. DR8-10 should suit them perfectly imo. Now Adore though last I remembered was entering into DR6-8 territory which gets a lot more complicated.

^^ I also was hoping they would give Adore its time in the sun. A decent and fair review.

 

Hmm…this is interesting. Mike Mettler posted an interview with Billy Corgan that specifically talks about the sound quality of the remastered Adore album. http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/billy-corgan-smashing-pumpkins-adore-reissue/

For those not interested the whole article, or need a little motivation, here are the highlights:

• Apparently a 24bit/44khz version of the mono mix exists…MM mentions “a full disc of mono mixes in 24/44"
• BC talks about how great the analog transfer of the tapes sounded digitally
• BC talks about some musical differences with the mono mix, specifically Dusty and Pistol Pete as being very different from the stereo version
• They specifically discuss loudness, and BC references the loud era, which is ironic based on the DR levels
• Mike notes to BC that the “overall sound quality of the Adore box set is at a supreme level”

I emailed Mike to try and find out what he meant about the 24 bit mono mix.

 

Can you email Mike and ask him what he specifically thinks about the clipping and distortion on the Adore Mono Disc? The other bonus discs are okay but I find the mono disc to be not listenable at all.

 

With all the reissue discussion, I pulled out my old Pulse magazine (Tower Records freebie) with the Pumpkins on the cover circa '98. Nice interview/article on the making of the album the band tensions were there on the few occasions Iha or D'Arcy were allowed to answer!

 

I sent Mike a follow up about the clipping and referenced the discussion here. Feel free to do the same thing...here's where I found his contact info: http://www.soundbard.com/soundbard/contact/

 

I noticed that Ava Adore is about 10 seconds longer on the CD remaster (longer outro) and Crestfallen had about 13 seconds chopped off (the ending chorus was repeated less). There may be more changes, but these are the ones that stood out on my first listen.

 

You have NO idea how relieved I am to read that. As someone who was planning on picking up a new copy of Adore anyway, and considering the decent job Ludwig has done on the past reissues, I'll be picking up the single disc at some point. Call me mad, but I'm not overly bothered by the bonus material though I will give it all a proper listen before I decide for certain but there is no point forking out a ton of money just for Howie and his brickwall, my ears are still bleeding from Pisces.

 

I can assure you all that the Adore Remaster Disk 1 is absolutely superb and stunning. Volume is about the same as the original, but the low end has much more clarity. Very subtle remaster, and probably my favorite of them all so far.

The bonus disks are all really good. The volume levels seem to be about the same as Mellon Collie bonuses. Yes, they're jarringly louder than the album itself, but they're not as bad as Pisces stuff.

In fact, the songs that suffer the most from Howie's loudness are the acoustic tracks and demos.

 

I'm sure he's a nice guy but I don't get how Howie Weinberg gets so much work...

 

What baffles me is the surely quite simple logic of having the bonus material the same volume as the album it is accompanying is a concept that seems above and beyond Howie's comprehension. The first two reissues managed this quite admirably but ever since Weinberg has taken the reins he clearly sits down and masters apparently without even bothering to at least hear the material his work will be complimenting. Apart from making it an unpleasant listening experience for us it also looks incredibly amateurish on both his and Corgan's part. I'm just grateful the main albums have come out of this not just unscathed but actually improved IMO. I'm guessing they were all mastered roughly at the same time by Bob Ludwig, which means that since there is still going to be some major work reassembling Machina for reissue the odds of it being handled, and thus being brickwalled to hell and back, by Howie are worryingly high.

 

The answer is simple: Billy likes his work. I read a recent interview where he praises Howie's work actually.

 

For the most part, I am happy with the reissue. My only two complaints are that the mono mix isn't mentioned in the liner notes (why was it released? What is different?), and the mix on the DVD is horrible.

 

I made a cdr 0f the Matt Walker 2014 Reimagined and some of the live tracks and have been playing those on repeat in the car this week. Nice to have some fresh takes of the Adore material.

 

I'm digging the Reimagined stuff also

 

Let Me Give The World To You is so compressed and loud. Wow, does it sound like crap. Usually I can stand the louder remasters, but this is pretty horrid. And that's the first track I listened to!

 

Next track...Tear......sounds awful. Oh wait, a quiet part, mostly just Billy, they didn't compress this part, it has some room to breathe..... OH HERE COMES THE CHORUS AGAIN!! AAAHH MY EARS.

 

If I were you I would switch to a different title.

 

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/q-h...igital-brickwall-limiter-do-you-use-most.html

Notes on Howie..... doesn't seem to like brickwall limiting and achieves it in other ways. Seems to just want to make his clients happy. I don't know but I think some of that stuff is pretty bad on the Pisces but whatever I don't even listen to all these bonus cuts but once or twice.

 

But am I dumb or there seems to be no 24/96 FLAC download for Adore?

 

OK... I just opened the EU vinyl of the new "Adore" and felt immediately let down: Pressed at GZ?! WTF?! I thought "Gish" and "Mellon Collie" were done by Pallas?! And... yes... unlike other SP releases the printed innersleeves are empty only that the vinyl isn't put in polylinered innersleeves but simple paper covers. GZ style. And contain fingerprints on all four sides and strange marks. Not totally bad but more than should be acceptable for a brandnew album that is also not cheap. No idea who came up with the great idea of involving GZ but I don't really want to play this at all. Even if it would sound great this simply isn't acceptable. Is the US edition also manufactured there?

Yes... the cover is as heavy as the original but with metallic sheen, the tracks fill all four sides but at the moment I couldn't care less...

 

...the deadwax ("A&R Dallas") indicates that GZ was provided with plates and "only" manufactured it. A very quick aural test showed that this release is in stereo!

 

That's bad news!!!!! I'll treasure my original mono vinyl then!

 

Yeah but I also wanted "Adore" in stereo. Just looked at the new pressing again, it's ridiculous, I bought it like four hours ago, haven't even played it and yet if I where to put it on Ebay NOW I could neither call the vinyl "Mint" nor "Near Mint". That's not what it looks like.

I guess I WILL play it before I decide what to do. In most cases these typical "GZ surface marks" are not audible. Incidentally I also bought "The Beatles" in mono and guess what: Both records look totally flawless. Pristine. Just like one would expect from a brand new piece of vinyl... but that is a Pallas job

 

Just looked at it in bright sunlight and my mind is made up: This is going back without replacement. Without playing it!

 

Wow, I picked up a used original copy of Adore on vinyl in near mint condition about a year ago, for ...are you ready for this... $1. Obliviously, the place I got it from had no idea how much it was worth.