The Rolling Stones On Air In The Sixties Book and Album

You know, record labels have been known to tell a lie or two

 

Indeed. And there are ways and means of dealing with them.

 

It has obviously not at any time occured to the unforgiving critics, that the bootleggers could have used the exact same transcription discs and tape sources that is now being presented officially.
No, of course not. Instead they blame them for using "bootlegs" as sources, even though the liner notes could tell the very truth - that they used the transcription discs and the tape sources. They just happen to be the very same as the ones the bootleggers got hold of.

Another scenario could also be in case: The official management got hold of these sources back in the nineties. There was talk of a BBC release even back then. The sources they have had in the archives is the ones they have used now.
It could simply have escaped them that upgrades has become available in the meantime.

 

I am ill at ease in that has become dangerous to express a liking for any release. There is far too great a risk of being taken to task by the experts and being made to look and feel a gormless idiot. Irrespective of their source those IBC demos didn't sound bad on the CD in the Grrrrr box set. But I think I remember their being dismissed as being sourced from mp3? The Camden Theatre tracks on this release don't sound bad (at least they don't sound bad to me on my system) - though curiously they sound different in character to the Georgie Fame recordings that I think were from the same session. But they are being dismissed as being sourced from bootlegs.

It was with great relief that I noticed one whose ears I trust approving the 1967 Sunshine Tomorrow and its sequels. It was safe to like it!

 

Perhaps I don’t understand your concern? If it sounds good To You then please enjoy. It’s just rock ‘n roll music, not fine art masterpieces in a museum. Working from less-than-ideal sources is not always a problem, if the underlying performance and engineering still hits home

 

Nice theory, but there are easy ways to determine these things. When the official release digitally syncs with an old bootleg and has the same glitches/anomolies and cut intros/outros, the chances of it being from a "different" source is extremely unlikely. Especially when there are newer, more carefully curated bootlegs that don't have these problems.

 

Anyone one order from UK store, I ordered Yellow vinyl, still waiting here in Ireland

 

That's great. I'm sure that you will have no qualms in reporting it to your local trading standards people as the liner notes would appear to be misrepresenting reality. Looking forward to hearing what happens.

 

Still waiting here in the Seattle Washington USA area also.
But I did buy the black vinyl one from Amazon last week so I could listen to it over the weekend.
It is pressed by GZ in the Czech Republic by them and like the Stones LP's pressed by them for the two vinyl box sets, the pressings are beautiful, flat, quiet, CLEAN, with no paper lint from the heavy paper sleeves.
I've listened to it this weekend on a Ortofon M2Red cart, and while the M2 is a bit too polite for me tastes, overall the sound, while not up to MOFI one step fidelity, was very consistent GOOD across the board. Bass was not bloated but very much more audible and DEFINED, and this is the major improvement over the bootlegs to my ears, even on the Low Fidelity tracks there is AIR around the instruments that's not present on the bootlegs, where it all sounds moushed together. Nice to hear Charlie and Bill more defined than before.
Actually listened to all four sides like 3 times over the weekend, very enjoyable to me but ymmv.
Beave

 

Excellent post and very good points, never thought of that but could very well be the case.
Beave

 

Beave,
I haven't bought either the CD or the LP yet. Is there any reason to prefer the sound of the LP over the CD if you're playing them on fairly high-end equipment?

 

I love the new set! I think it sounds fine. I have the boots too but I will listen to this polished version more often.

 

I wonder if they will come out with some niffty
merchandising for this? Many Im sure would enjoy wearing an Audio Source Separation hat

 

I like having the BBC introductions cut when they interrupt the songs but the glitch in The Last Time is inexcusable.

 

Does the booklet state that original tapes/discs were used on every track?

Because it seems to me that if just 2 songs used original material, then the statement is technically accurate.

 

Being honest , there a joke. I had a couple of orders on pre order and no updates or shipping confirmation or anything, I pre ordered the LP and book from The Stones site and it just said more stock coming soon so I cancelled and bought the standard LP somewhere else.

I agree , they shouldn’t have let this happen but it’s not the first time this has happened, the skip on the b side of the complete singles collection is another instance when they were replacing faulty discs. Unbelievable really.

 

But how does one then explain that they (finally) have "Spider and the Fly" and "Oh Baby (We've Got a Good Thing Goin') at the right speed here - which appear way too slow on every boot version of this I've ever heard (and I've heard 'em all). It's not a subtle difference either.

 

Agreed. But it has been posted above by someone with whom I would not dare argue that there aren't any tapes.

 

Speed correction is easy to do, regardless of the source.
The latest (and best) bootleg version of the BBC material is all speed corrected in much the same way.

 

Me too, I ordered on release day (Dec 1st) and they usually dispatch in about 3 days max - here I am ten days later, hopefully it's just due to Christmas and not lost, or worse still, stolen...?

 

Work with audio myself and am well aware of that. To me though, it would seem that if they would be so cavalier to just use bootleg versions as their sources, then they wouldn't go to the trouble of also pitch correcting. Also, when a source is this far off (at least a half-step in this case), it's pretty easy to tell a pitch-corrected version versus the correct-pitch original.

 

I think if they are using bootlegs they would do anything to hide it, including pitch correction.

 

I can only partially answer this Feinstei because I didn't purchase the CD set.
In my experience with the Stones 'Vault, Collectors ' releases over the past decade, the Cd's have almost all been brick walled, or overly compressed, whereas I found the LP's to sound normal and wonderful. The only issue I've come across so far where the Vinyl sounds overly compressed is the recent Sticky fingers live, which is a disappointment to me. But I love both formats, having a mint condition Technics SL-P770 to play my cd's on, and it has a built in calibrated V.U. Meter, so I can tell immediately on playing a CD whether it's compressed or brickwalled. And that's a very valuable tool for me to be able to pick from between a CD release of its L.P. Counterpart.
Cheers.
Beave

 

Thanks. I have all of the LP sets from the past few years (the Mono and Stereo boxes etc) as well as the SACD stuff, so I guess I'll invest in the LP's for this set as well. Certainly, the presentation in 12"x12" format will be nicer anyway, even if the source material isn't that great.

 

Ill at ease? Safe?