Steely Dan Greatest Hits vinyl sounds amazing!!

The very 1st Steely album I got was the Greatest Hits double LP way back when I was a young 'un. As the years went by I got really into them and bought all their albums, then all their cd's. I never went back to this Greatest Hits LP because I loved the complete albums. Well, I've been spinning more vinyl lately and I picked it out tonight and gave it a spin. i couldn't believe the sound. The bass extension. Wow!!!!! I immediately grabbed my Citizen cd set to do a quick comparison. It sounded horrible in comparison. Very shrill and high ended. No depth, at all. Certainly nothing like this LP. Not sure who mastered it. It has "masterdisk" stamped in the deadwax, but no initials. Anyone else listen to this LP lately. Incredible!

 

Some of the sides I have were cut by ol Bob Ludwig.

 

How can you tell? Are his initials next to the "masterdisk" stamp? Has this vinyl been mastered by anyone else?

 

My copy has RL next to Masterdisk on all 4 sides.

 

we had verification on another thread that Kevin Gray cut Greatest Hits, too, on the powder blue MCA rainbow label.

 

Mine is on 2 or 3 sides..

 

I must have raved about this one in at least two or three threads, lol.

The earlier your stamper (the suffix in which the cat. no. ends on the dead wax of each side), the better your chances that Mr. Ludwig's initials "RL" would be hand-etched next to the "MASTERDISK" machine stamp.

As I have mentioned before, many (I would like to say most) of the tracks on this double LP compilation sound better in every way than the same tracks on the original pressings or any other pressing, IMHO.

The same thing with Poco, Legend LP. The earliest runs of that LP has "RL" on the dead wax, not just "MASTERDISK", and the ones with "RL" blows away the later runs. One way to save time in looking for one: The "RL" Poco Legend has a laminated-looking cover, not just smooth.

Good hunting!

 

Thanks a lot for the info........My Steely is pretty well played, so I'll definitely try and hunt down an "RL" version. .I'll be on the lookout for the Poco, as well.

 

Is this "Gold" you're talking about?

 

No.

 

As I've I said in an earlier thread, my "RL" mastered SD Greatest Hits is nothing special. It doesn't compare to the individual releases.

Probably just a crappy pressing since others have found it to be quite good.

 

Thanks for the tip. Picked one up today with RL in the dead wax. Can't wait to hear it.

 

I did a search and couldn't find any info on this. How does the Gray cut LP sound compared to the Ludwig/ I see a few powder blue MCA's on Ebay now. Are they all Gray masterings?

 

theres' a pawn shop in midtown NY I frequent on my lunch breaks. I found this today for 8 bucks!
RL mastered, can't wait to get home, clean it up and give it a spin!
cheers.

 

i don't have the Gray-cut Greatest Hits. i would stick with the 'RL'. it's on better vinyl and, well, it's Bob Ludwig (no offense to Kevin). also, NO, most powder blues are not Kevin's. the one KG i do have, Countdown to Ecstacy, is no big deal and pressed on the noisiest vinyl known to man--ouch! but i have found one powder blue that is amazing--Can't Buy a Thrill mastered by Steve Hall (SH/MCA in dead wax). it is stunning. i haven't A/B'd it against my WLP and yellow concentric circles copy yet.

 

The Steely Dan "Gold" I have also has RL hand inscribed on both side of the dead wax. And like Sung said, some tracks are better than the original non-RL releases.

 

I agree - my SD GH vinyl sounds fantastic, all four sides, even when I played it on my old cheap Technics SLBD-22. It's on ABC. I'll have to check to see whose initials are inscribed.

 

I just checked my copy of SD GH. The deadwax has an R and then a bunch of numbers following it. The back cover says "manufactured by RCA"...some kind of music club. It has the old style MCA label, and is in the gatefold jacket. I recall seeing this album in the 80s without the gatefold jacket...the 2 discs were shoved into a regular sleeve.

Inside the jacket, Robert Ludwig is credited for mastering. Does that mean there are some copies out there that have that credit that are NOT mastered by Ludwig?

 

Your copy appears to be a RCA Record Club pressing. On the dead wax, AWAY from the cat. no. should be an "I" which stands for RCA's Indianapolis pressing plant (it could also be a "R" for RCA's Rockaway plant or "H" for Hollywood, but most RCA Record Club pressings I have seen from this era had the "I"). From my experience, there are a handful of gems from these RCA Record Club pressings. Unfortunately, I have never heard this album on the RCA pressing, and I cannot comment.

Robert Ludwig cuts are unmistakable, as they have his initials "RL" hand-etched on the dead wax next to "MASTERDISK" machine stamped. If the record was made in the late 60's to mid 70's, however, the"RL" would be hand-etched SOMETIMES next to a hand-etched "ss" (which stands for Sterling Sound) or a machined stamped "STERLING".

Finally, as I have mentioned before in another thread, the EARLIER your stamper number of each side, the BETTER your pressing should sound among the RL cuts of this album. I have 3 or 4 copies of this with RL on each side (some BTW has "RL" on only some of the sides, which is an indication that it was a part of a later run than a copy with "RL" on all sides), and of those RL cuts, the one with the earliest stamper number sounds a bit better. The stamper number I am referring to would be the number the dead wax matrix (cat. no. plus a letter designation for one of the 4 sides, e.g., A for Side 1 or A, B for Side 2 or B, C for Side 3 or C and D for Side 4 or D) ends with on each side of the record.

Happy hunting and good luck to you all!

 

GH I picked up yesterday has RL etched on sides one and two only. It sounds great.

 

Now gentlemen, when you say Greatest Hits, are you referring to the "Decade" album? Haven't seen a regular GH for the Dan...

 

No, it's a double vinyl album:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Hits_(Steely_Dan_album)

 

mine's the yellow ABC label.... AK printed on the wax....... ?

 

I saw Kevin's copy just yesterday for 50 cents, but it was trashed. It came in a special cover... no gatefold, so 2 records fit into one sleeve. MCA may have put something on the cover as well... maybe a "2 for 1" graphic or something like that. It had the blue cloud label. But the deadwax, if I recall correctly, had KPG on all four sides (I can't quite remember if the middle initial was P or not... but you get the idea). I wondered if it was indeed Kevin at the time, now I'm pretty positive this was the one.

 

Put on "Show Biz Kids" and check out that bass. Wow!!