This is helpful. Thank you. Just for reference, when you conducted your listening, were you listening on your Jean-Marie Reynaud Euterpe speakers or on headphones?
The Reynaud speakers. All my posts on sound quality are based on that system since I got it in 2010. I can see how the wording in my post was confusing--I only mentioned the headphones to point out that this was the first time I was hearing Scary Monsters on a speaker system after having been used to it on headphones, so some of my disappointment may have been due to how the mix sounds on speakers (though I seriously doubt that is really the problem here--I just try to be as fair as possible and consider all contingencies when I comment on sound quality). I just made an edit to that section that I hope will clarify what I meant--thank you!
Always thought this was an odd release. Purchased it at the time and generally pleased with the sound. Great overview Mark. Thanks for taking the time. Scary Monsters does sound somewhat 'muted' to my ears too - in particular the bass sound - on this remaster. And I agree, the SACD is the way to go for this record - with perhaps some caution on the volume control! - And my original UK release sounds great as well. Just played the remaster and the UK original back to back - albeit on a modest set up - and the original does sound more dynamic, and very noticeable on Scream Like A Baby and Kingdom Come.
Blade Runner is my favorite movie, and I will say this in defense of the Final Cut, it mostly follows the workprint and director’s cut versions with just a few nips and tucks here and there. It’s not some wildly different version like this Lodger remix is.
I do agree. It is not the same thing really as it was essentially using modern tech to improve the movie. There were some real oddities though that force me away from 'The Final Cut' which I will not go into here but I enjoy it and I like that I have 6 versions to choose from (one being the ADM-fan-edit with 4 different audio tracks. Blade Runner is my favourite movie also. In fact Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is among my very favourite books too. Dick being the greatest writer to walk this earth.
As did I. My memory from 35 years ago could be faulty, but I swear I remember buying the vinyl for the first time when I was in college in the early 1980s and being bothered by a volume drop halfway through the song. I got used to it. In fact, I didn't even notice it listening to this boxed set for the first time.
Saw a documentary recently indicating that in fact a lot of counterfeit material originates from this place where they like to shoot some of those missiles, think of us as fatherless ... So cheap may come at a price at some point
Another source for "Heroes" to use as comparison: it's on the Perks Of Being A Wallflower soundtrack album. No drop-down at 2:50 there a la the ANCIANT box - stays at a steady, consistent volume throughout.
Heroes 2017 Remaster with volume drop at 2.50 and overall compression. Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet Heroes German RCA with no volume drop, more dynamics, and gradual slight increase in volume during second half. Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
That's one thing I've always wondered about when artists or producers who mixed and mastered an album come back to it 40+ years later to remaster it. One example that comes to mind is Jimmy Page remastering the Led Zeppelin catalogue a couple of years ago. Besides the simple fact that 40 or 50 years can produce a change in our outlook, unconscious biases, sound preferences, etc., as we get older we do hear differently. At the very least, we don't hear higher frequencies at 70 as we do at 30 as well, something particularly likely to be true for rock musicians and producers, who have had a lifetime of loud music contributing to potential hearing loss. Indeed, this loss of ability to detect high frequency sound begins in our late teens. For that simple reason alone I'm always a bit skeptical about the original artist or producer going back so many years later to remaster their old work. Their hearing and experience are so different.
^ That's just the 1999 remaster, no? Or did Stephen Marcussen do a fresh transfer for that soundtrack in 2012? Well, Scott inserted CGI to cover up continuity errors, and Visconti used digital plugins to approximate the sound he wanted on the original tapes — so there's some similarity there
Will we ever say anything nice again? BTW, I haven't got this set yet, but I have listened to some of it from an online source. Has anyone heard a strange buzzing distortion behind the final sax phrases on Neuköln? I heard it on an mp3, and if it's there on the vinyl/cd it can be added to the sh*tlist.
I usually am a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but in this particular case I think it's just incompetence by technicians who are living on their reputations, no longer able to do a proper job (perhaps due to hearing impairment or creeping dementia), and who don't bother addressing the concerns of those to whom their work means the most.
The fake box set of Who Can I Be Now, that I stupidly bought on ebay (but got all my money back, thankfully), had a matrix number (or whatever they are called) on the cds which was for a Mexican cd factory. I think the reality is that - just like the proper box sets - they are manufactured from various sources, and then (in the case of the fakes) distributed via china. Not that that was my point in what I said, I was just making a joke about how the counterfeiters probably have better quality control than the cowboys at WBI and Parlophone.
There's been a debate going on recently about whether the box set series would continue past this, the end of the RCA years. For those who put stock into such things, the booklet may have a clue that they will go forward. The booklets for "Who Can I Be Now" and ANCIANT are both bookended by very carefully selected quotes (the "Five Years" box may have had that as well, but I didn't purchase a physical version of it). WCIBN started with "Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years" and ended (tellingly) with "The European canon is here". ANCIANT begins appropriately with "Sometimes I feel the need to move on" and ends with "There's a brand new dance but I don't know its name". Doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to consider that as a preview for "Let's Dance".
That's a pretty serious accusation to level at Mssrs. Visconti and Staff. I don't care for the sound of this box, but far be it from me to question their competency or mental/auditory faculties Visconti is also directly addressing fans on social media, so you are just wrong to assert he doesn't bother addressing their concerns
that drop in volume on heroes is definitely incompetence - there's no other way to view it, or you would have to be deaf to not hear it. so they've either not checked or they didn't hear it.
So do you think the problems people are describing with the errors on this and previous sets are deliberate - planned accidents?
If they have not checked then they should be fired and if they have not heard it they should be fired. Either way it is clear evidence of incompetence.
that five years quote is obviously just a red herring to put people off the scent of their clues to follow in the next two sets. it would be ironic to think they did go to that level of detail on things like that, when you consider the sound issues that have been overlooked.
