I'd be curious to hear which titles are acceptable. My current inclination is to avoid any "Rock Candy" reissue, at all cost. There's not another label I can think of where I've adopted this viewpoint.
Lets get this out on the table as I want to invest in their stuff as its reasonable priced in the UK...
If I bought them and kept them, they are good (enough for me; I just crank them in the car). These are the ones I thought were just fine, though some audiophiles may disagree: Survivor - Eye of the Tiger and the one after it Toto - the fourth one, I think Kansas (both) Dio - Holy Diver Gary Wright (both) Ambrosia - One-Eighty Dakota Eddie Money (debut) Frank Marino - Juggernaut Jefferson Starship - FAPZ Krokus - Headhunter Zebra - s/t Dokken - Tooth & Nail and Under Lock and Key Was not impressed with Head East Live, but it might be the source and not Rock Candy's fault (I never heard the vinyl).
Only one i have, or cared to have, from Rock Candy is the only record by The Sea Hags. It sound excellent. Nice liner notes and a couple of demos. Really awesome band. The live shows on You Tube with Frank Wisley on lead are really great. Cool Stonesy band. Original sound, to me. Love the Sea Hags. Kind of a never was, forgotten band. But, i really love 'em. And Rock Candy did a great job on 'em.
I have Dokken's Beast From The East as it is the whole 2CD set, not the truncated 1 disc version. It sounds OK.
I have a few Rock Candy Reissues. I bought them for either their bonus material or their expanded booklet information. I have The Georgia Satellites self titled album. I like the bonus material - it's interesting as well as the expanded booklet information. I enjoy reading about bands I like as much as listening to their music. It's def louder than my original Elektra CD issue. I also have both Badlands CD's (self titled and Voodoo Highway). Both are louder than my original CD issues. In the case of Badlands - no bonus track material. I bought them so I could read the expanded booklet on the band which was told from the bass player's point of view. The liners to these releases I mentioned above does not state the source from which the remastering process came from. Here's the scans I made: Georgia Satellites:
So from a few I have shown above, it's not too clear as to the source of the material in which the remastering comes from.
Thanks for the input Rhett.Appreciated. Still have my Orig.Badlands CDs(love them and glad I caught them live too!) but, I'm dyin' to read the linear notes LOL! I have Zebra s/t on Rockcandy and Montrose s/t they work for me.Until I got the AF Gold disc of Montrose!Wish AF would do Zebra........
I've picked up a bunch of releases from Rock Candy that were otherwise new to me, but I also picked up the first four Dokken albums along with the live album, which I had a few "original" CDs to compare. In the case of Dokken, the volume is boosted, but it's hardly brickwalled and, further, it sounds great to my ears. I can't say that speaks to everything, but it at least proves they're not going completely over the top with whatever remastering goosing they're doing. Beyond that, the packages offered by Rock Candy tend to be great, with excellent liners and great bonus material where it's an option.
The good about Rock Candy: 1. CD booklets have awesome extensive liner notes and photos. 2. They will release hard-to-find or never-before-on-CD titles. The bad about Rock Candy: 1. Expensive 2. The majority of their releases are brickwalled with dynamics that sound like they are squashed. A lot of this, though, depends upon what you are listening to the albums on. For example, brickwalled albums tend to do fine in a car stereo system. But if you have a more revealing system at home, everything is going to sound smooshed.
The last few batches of Rock Candy releases can all be had for about $10.49 through Imports Cds. Rack in shipping and they are still pretty inexpensive on the whole. I have a ton of their releases. Either 70's stuff that I never owned back in the day (Trigger, Detective, 707) or 80's rock/metal I only ever had on cassette ( Shark Island, Sea Hags, Salty Dog, Tangier, Hughes/Thrall, Circus of Power, etc...) most of these are boosted but still sound plenty fine cranked to 11. Great booklets and often cool bonus tracks as well. For the price they are very well done.
Armored Saint - Delirious Nomad Album details - Dynamic Range Database That one I can recommend. AVOID their reissue of March of the Saint. Seek out an older copy of that one instead. The two albums were mastered by different engineers. Delirious Nomad sounds good because Andy Pearce worked on it.
I wish we could get a list of all the Pearce remasters. He's one of the good guys. He did Ace Frehley-Trouble Walkin'- I just found that used.
Not anymore...they have a new North American distribution deal so the new releases are now priced as any domestic title would. I think that started in late 2017 sometime.
Two others that come to mind from RC that are great: KIX Midnight Dynamite - blows away the original Yngwie Malmsteen Fire & Ice - very subtle but adds just the right amount of bass
Sea Hags! I remember seeing their vid on the Headbangers Ball. I need to pick that one up. Only Rock Candy one I have is Kix Midnite Dynamite. I need to pick up that 2 disc Beast from the East!