Xanadu soundtrack on CD

Maybe the U.K. itself is too bright? Too much sun might be affecting their CD manufacturing plants, but in the case of the U.K. XANADU CD, I think some powdered sugar fell off some donuts and sprinkled right on to the mastertapes and really sweetened the sound a bit too much!

 

It looks like only Jeff's comments, I don't see any Rob Caiger articles for each CD.

 

Interesting that your booklet is missing some of this, as the Rob Caiger articles are the main liner notes and Jeff's comments are the secondary ones.

 

Question for you XANADU experts: While doing a few comparisons between the US, UK, and Japanese CDs, it appears to me that the stereo is reversed on the UK version, but only on the ONJ side. The ELO stuff sounds oriented the same way on both. The Japan seems to be oriented the same as the US as far as the stereo direction goes. Is this something that's been discussed and I missed it?

Harry

 

I never noticed. I'll have to check it out for both CD and vinyl.

 

I think the only time this was mentioned was by BillWX who stated that the Aussie CD of Xanadu under the Red Hot Label had the channels reversed. I don't think anyone has mentioned this about the UK CD. Is there a program that will show channels being reversed (like Audacity?) with visual waveforms? or is this only detected by hearing it?

 

YIKES...I hope this isn't the case! If it is, yet another strike against the U.K. CD I guess.

 

Yes, please do. Ah, the Japan CD is looking pretty good right now, eh Pizza?

Only kidding of course! It would be disappointing to say the least if the stereo is reversed though.

 

To be fair, this album was produced at a time when stereo channels were not very separated. If you listen to any of these tracks, you'll hear pretty much the same kind of sounds in both channels. A cymbal hit in the left is matched by a different cymbal hit in the right. It's "stereo", but not the real divided kind of stereo from the earlier days.

It's almost difficult to pick up that it's reversed, the channels are so "balanced" anyway. But there are occasions when an isolated sound is heard in one channel only, and that's what you need to key on.

Audacity wouldn't have any kind of way to identify a channel, but it certainly has the facility to reverse them.

Harry

 

Yes. I would agree. I really couldn't pinpoint much difference to denote one channel from the other. It actually made me a bit disappointed in the mixes. It would have been neat, for example, if during the chorus of Suddenly Olivia would be singing from one channel and Cliff from the other. I guess that's probably a no no in proper mixing but I miss that kind of fun of stereo.
Bottom line, it didn't seem to matter if the channels were reversed.

 

Seriously, maybe it's time to demote the U.K. CD to third place though, and bring the U.S. CD up a notch to second place, behind the Japan CD? Between the reversed channels, the extreme brightness of the audio itself and even making the artwork all purple, I can't really recommend this U.K. CD to anyone - the only one that's near perfect in terms of sound quality and beautiful overall packaging is the Japan CD.

 

For the ELO fans out there, here's a story on Jeff Lynne that was included in the Xanadu presskit.

 

Hello there. Joining this thread late. Is this the general consensus for CD recommendations? I only own the muffled Australian CD and am looking for a replacement. Are these CDs all currently available or do they require some hunting? Thanks for the help.

 

For CDs, I would say the consensus is:
1. Japan
2. UK
3. Skip the rest

Both the Japan and the UK are currently available. They are quite different in sound, the Japan sounds pretty straight forward, non-compressed, the UK is punchier, a bit compressed and bright. The Japanese one is three to four times more in price than the UK depending where you get it. Most likely you will need to import the Japan CD from Japan.

The US one is heavily compressed and you already know about the Australian one.

For me, Xanadu sounds best via vinyl and, no, I'm not a vinyl guy. I just happened to listen to my US copy and was surprised at how warm Olivia's voice sounded on the record. The ELO side on the US soundtrack isn't the best but the ELO side comes alive in the UK and Japan issues of the vinyl soundtrack.

Futurecity will tell you to only go with the Japan CD.

I like both the Japan and UK issues for different reasons but I prefer the Japan and UK vinyl versions.

If you're on a budget, you can get the UK for under $10 with a little effort. If you don't mind spending a little more then the Japan CD is a good catch and will cost about $30 to $40.

 

If you only want to buy one XANADU CD, pick up the Japan CD. This is not only my opinion, but it's generally rated #1. Why? Because it has the most normal and natural sound quality...actually the closest thing to a vinyl experience. All of the other CDs have some kind of issues when it comes to sound quality, but not the Japan CD - it's not compressed, it's pretty dynamic and it's not loud, you can actually turn up the volume and it's still dynamic and warm....the music and her vocals all sound natural, but on the U.K. CD, they do not sound completely natural....they sound higher pitched.

I discovered that the U.K., which I also own, is extremely bright, to the point where I can no longer listen to it. Only the first song, Magic sounds very nice, but after that, it's downhill. You are better off spending a little more and going for the Japan CD.

 

Thanks Futurecity and Pizza for the detailed opinions. This helps a lot. I think I will pursue the Japanese edition. Now if only they could come up with a good-sounding edition that includes the three non-LP tracks!

 

some info on the uk edition

http://www.ftmusic.com/xanadu/index.html

 

Interesting advertisement, but it's flat out wrong though... Unfortunately, it is not the most superior sounding XANADU CD. The problems with it have been mentioned over and over again on this thread, but basically, it is NOT the gem that was touted at all...someone mastered it with extreme brightness, which actually affects the music and her vocals...they are all slightly higher pitched to some degree.

The Japanese CD is still the one to own, even after all these years.

 

I have no doubt you'll enjoy your purchase!

 

Let's continue here:

Xanadu soundtrack on CD (pt2)