Spirit on CD

I picked up a few used CD's today, & one of them was one of those old Sony Special Music Products CD's by the band Spirit. It's called "I Got a Line on You", & I figured for $5 I'd pick it up, as I always liked the songs "I Got a Line On You" & "Nature's Way", which are both included on this set.

Man, do these guys rock!!! 95% of what I listen to is from the 60's & 70's, so I always get real excited when I discover a new/old band that piques my interest. I've never known anything by this band except for "I Got a Line On You" & "Nature's Way", but I really like the other songs on this set as well.

So here's my dilemna: With only 10 songs clocking in at a little over a half an hour, this CD just ain't gonna cut it for me for this band! I'm not real big on compilations in general, & I'm now thinking of picking up their first 4 albums, which I see were fairly recently remastered by Vic Anesini, whose work I usually think is pretty good. Should I just seek these out, or are there older CD pressings which are better sounding? I know, I know, I should search the archives (which I am going to do when I finish typing this post), but I am just too excited about this band right now to have not started a new thread!

Thanks for any help guys, & feel free to add anything you'd like about this band, I'd really like to learn more about them.

 

The Anesini remasters are a good bet (bonus tracks and good sound). There is a aluminum MFSL of Dr Sardonicus that is tremendous but will cost you more coin of course

 

Any Spirit fans heard the Sundazed mono press of their debut lp?

Dale

 

I really considered picking this up from Sundazed's web-site but I thought, "What's the point?". The original stereo issue of the album is such a joy to listen to...especially with a good set of headphones.

 

True. But if the mono is a true, dedicated mono mix, there could be something to it worth listening to and having. I can imagine Fresh Garbage and Uncle Jack being more powerful in mono...

Dale

 

Cool you discovered the rest of their catalog! I have those first four all on the Anesini remasters, and all are great. And all worth getting

My favorite - or I should say a tie with Dr. Sardonicus - is 'The Family That Plays Together.' The bonus tracks are utterly superb - like a natural continuation of the original album itself. Very jazzy and yet psychedelic. One of the ultimate 1 am albums of the era. In fact, I think the bonus tracks on that album alone - out of all my CDs - stand as the best bonus tracks done for any remaster.

Their first release is also excellent. 'Clear' their third LP is the only one that, IMHO, has a few 'just OK' tracks on it, but over half are the usual superb Spirit numbers.

 

I'd also recommend "Spirit Of 84" aka "The Thirteenth Dream" which is a live, reunion greatest hits set recorded on a soundstage in 1982. The new material is OK but the live renditions of the old stuff at least equal the originals. The highlight is an extended 7.32 workout on "I Got A Line" featuring, among others, Jeff Baxter, Bob Welch and Jo Lala which blows away the original. The original liner notes mention a video taping of the session but I don't know if this was ever released.

 

I agree, The "12 Dream Of Dr Sardonicus" is a must have if you enjoyed Spirit's music.
I have never heard the MOFI but am sure it probably sounds great as the majority of the Silver MOFI's do. I do have the remaster from Anesini though and it sounds very good though as does "The Family That Play's Together".

Then, if you enjoyed more of the Spirit catalog you may want to check out "Jo Jo Gunne".
Jay Ferguson continued with this band after Spirit and they made a couple of great albums.
The S/T debut probably being their best work. They had one hit in the early 70's entitled "Run Run Run" from that album which you probably have heard before.

 

there is also a 2-CD set of greatest hits out there, i don't know though if it is still in print.

renny

 

This CD was remastered by BGO last year... excellent

 

I can't.

 

I agree completely!
I even have Clear on 8-track tape! Rather a lame album IMO compared to the others. The recent remasters are very very good. I recommend them highly.

 

I believe it is OOP. It is worth seeking out if you don't want to get the individual Vic Anesini remasters. Otherwise, except for a previously unreleased track or two (including a track from the Potato Land sessions,) it covers all of the same ground as the first four remasters. Sadly, IMO, music from Feedback is nowhere to be found.

 

For anyone who just wants to get a taste of Spirit before committing further, another good bet is the remastered The Best Of Spirit from 2003. I believe it is still in print and readily available. It contains all the songs from from the original 1973 compilation plus 5 bonus tracks. Once again, Bob Irwin produces and Vic Anesini handles the mastering duties.

 

Hmmm... I just noticed this unusual designation on the back side of the first four Anesini Spirit remasters. Can someone refresh my memory? What exactly is "SBM Super Bit Mapping"?? Is it some type of forerunner to DSD?

 

Don't forget that the first four albums were "Mixed and Mastered" by Vic Anesini. Also, the tracks from the second album were remixed on the great "Time Circle" 2 disc set. I am not familiar enough with the originals for it to bother me, but some might complain. Those first four albums are loaded with great bonus tracks which by themselves are worth the price of purchase!!

The 2cd "Mercury Years" compilation is a great companion to the first four cds IMHO. I am not sure if it is still in print, but it shouldn't be hard to find. It contains almost all of the tracks from the four Mercury lps of the seventies.

 

Thanks so much for all the responses, dudes. I checked on Amazon, & I can pick up the 1st 4 albums mastered by Vic Anesini for $10 each, for a total of $40, with free shipping. Sounds like a bargain to me, for music of such quality. That should keep me busy for awhile, & then down the road maybe I'll consider some of the latter-day compilations that you guys suggested. As Tony just stated in his post above, I am not familiar enough with their music for the remixes to bother me, so that works out in my favor. It's nice to know that I am also able to obtain those 1st 4 albums mastered & sounding very good. Thanks again, guys!

 

http://www.sweetwater.com/publications/sweetnotes/sn-winter97/WinterSN_05.html

SONY PCM 2600 DAT RECORDER FEATURES SUPER BIT MAPPING

Okay...Super Bit Mapping. What the heck is it and why should you want it? Super Bit Mapping (SBM) is a process designed to get the equivalent of 20-bit performance from a 16-bit format like DAT or CD. How does it work? Well, SBM is an intelligent filter process that takes advantage of the human ear's non-linear frequency response. Since our ears are less sensitive to higher and lower frequencies, the process uses noise-shaping to distribute digital quantization noise in the areas of frequency response where the ear is much less likely to perceive it.

So what does this do for recordings made on a DAT machine like the PCM2600 from Sony? Simple, it raises the bit detail and increases the potential auditory dynamic range of music. And it's not a subtle effect, either; it's clearly audible to anyone with a reasonably good set of ears. It's been described as bringing a sense of warmth and true musicality to digital recordings — something we all want, right?

The only DAT machines with SBM are from Sony (these are the people who developed the process, anyway). Like the PCM2600 pictured above. It comes with balanced XLR analog ins and outs, a pro quality AES/EBU digital interface, three sampling rates from 36kHz to 48kHz and a heck of a lot more we haven't got room to tell you about.

We can tell you that this amazing recorder comes with a "sticker price" of $1875, but you won't be paying anything close to that because Sweetwater is pricing these machines to move (we like you and we want you to have Super Bit Mapping on your recordings). So call your Sweetwater sales engineer for further info and pricing right now!


http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul98/articles/cdnextgen.html
SUPER BIT MAPPING DIRECT

If original recordings are made with the DSD format, there will obviously be a need to convert the high-resolution DSD data stream to a conventional PCM signal -- not least to encode the conventional CD layer of the hybrid disc with Red Book-compatible material. The ideal is to encode as much of the original high-resolution audio data as possible into the PCM signal, despite its limitation of 16 bits, and this is performed through an enhanced version of Sony's Super Bit Mapping (SBM) noise-shaping system. The new version is called 'Super Bit Mapping Direct', and a prototype version designed to accept a DSD input signal has already been used on several commercial CD releases of DSD-recorded material.

SBM Direct is claimed to encode a 16-bit PCM signal with a resolution approaching 20 bits through its sophisticated noise-shaping process, which is performed by an integrated digital (decimation) filter and noise-shaper operating as a very complex single-stage process. An idea of the sophistication might be gleaned from the fact that the FIR digital filter topology used in SBM Direct has an unprecedented 32,629 stages -- whereas the first 4x oversampling reconstruction filters used in early CD players had only 512 or 1024 stages!

later, chris

 

If there's a difference between these CDs and the original vinyl I can't recall. I compared them a couple years ago but nothing stands out in memory and I'm pretty familiar with the records. The CDs are extremely faithful although as pointed out I'm sure there is someone who will find a difference to nitpik about. And there is purposeful 're-mixing' and there is being mixed - where the engineer attempts to maintain the original sound as closely as possible with no intent to alter the original mix. For example the Byrds first four albums which underwent this (by Anesini as well) due to no longer viable masters. I'm in the camp that, after comparing the two, didn't hear any differences significant enough to really care about.

 

Thanks, Christopher, for the information!

Am I reading too much between the lines (or not fully understanding your post) to think that Sony could very easily turn these albums into SACDs?

 

SACDs? Sure!

The Byrds Greatest Hits single-layer SACD is compiled from these remixed tracks, so there is technically nothing stopping Sony from releasing any of these titles on SACD.

Unfortunately, it does not look like that's going to happen...

Robert

 

It is OOP unfortunately

 

They actually showed the "video" for this on MTV back in the day (1984?), and I have caught it on rare occasions on VH-1 Classic. You can request it through their web-site if you've never seen it, but sadly, it looks like a bunch of guys stuck in 1978, especially Skunk Baxter.

 

Hey Dale! I JUST picked this up today as a matter of fact! I am about to give it a spin and I'll report my findings later...........

Spirit is one of my favorite bands ever! I have the first 4 on CD (the remasters) and they are awesome. The first album especially benefitted from the Super-Bit mastering. The tracks from the first album that were featured on the "Time Circle" comp sound kind of brittle. In fact I never liked "Mechanical World" until I heard it on the remasterd CD. There's just something "wrong" about the mastering of this song on the compliation.
Also - the original LP mix on the second album "The Family that Plays Together....." is quite different from the remastered CD which, while faithful enough, is missing some hard-to-describe magic on the original. And while the remastered "12 Dreams" CD is very good, my reissue blue/black label Epic LP wipes the floor with it. Still haven't heard the MFSL, though.

And for those of you who've never heard the first album - cue up the track "Taurus" and you'll get a neat surprise (a very famous 70's band wrote a very famous song and lifted the opening guitar lines from the Spirit track!). Enjoy!
------ Chris

 

Wow, I did not know that. It will definitely be on my "to buy" list. Still have the lp, but was trying to make it last, as it gets played often. Every Spirit fan should have this album (Spirit of '84/The Thirteenth Dream)!