The Rush cd mastering thread (part 2)

So obviously you're going to need the ANC-1-1005 of All The World's A Stage Kevin. IIRC I have heard the AN2K of Chronicles and it left me underwhelmed compared to the ANC-1 series.

 

I got a WAGK-1005. I ripped that whole disc, ripped What You're Doing from Chronicles, and then added WYD to AtWaS on a CD-R. I'll have to look for an ANC-1 someday though. It'd be nice to have the 1st one.

 

Picked up a WG for US S/T PDO #01 a few months ago from the thrift, nice sounding disc

 

I have been doing extensive comparing of Rush cds and find the 25.8P of AFTK to be bright.

Dave,

We have talked about the recommended pressings for the Rush catalog. I found that the Jpn 1st of Grace Under Pressure very close to the WG Atomic. Any others you found close SQ-wise?

 

Brian,

The only safe thing I can say about my own discoveries is that you really must regard them on a case by case basis.

The majority of the Japan 1sts, not all, seem to be tipped up around the 10 - 13Khz frequency range. I discovered this when I stumbled across the Canadian ANC-1's. The interesting thing I then noticed was that the W. German Atomic CD's, either for Europe or the USA pressings, were much closer to those ANC-1's. Even then we can't paint with a broad paint brush as The W. German Atomic of Power Windows has bettered, and not by the Grand Canyon by any means, both ANC-1 pressings. For the later album releases my findings are the Canadian ANK-1059 of Presto slightly, yes splitting hairs here, bettered the AF SACD with a more natural sounding timber presentation of instruments and room acoustics. For Roll The Bones and Counterparts the Audio Fidelity releases bettered all others. I hopes this helps.

 

I do understand, Dave. I weigh good mastering with source material. So, if one has full intros (like the Jpn 1st of Moving Puctures) I may lean that way. Do you know offhand which Jpn cds did not have that frequency tweak?

Brian

 

One day I'll do a Hemispheres comparison with the Anthem CD, the SACD and the 2015 Sean Magee.

I only have the SACD and heard the 2015 remaster, but I don't really remember how they compare to one another.

 

Sorry Brian I can't recall which ones were and were not as they left along time ago. I do recall that GUP was the best of the lot though and if the Canadian hadn't bettered it it would still be here.

 

While I don't have the 2015 remaster, I did find that the EQ on the Sector and AF versions was very similar. The differences were extremely slight, though the Sector had a bit more bass and less treble. My guess is that they both came from the same tapes. Was it a 192 kHz digital transfer of the master that the AF used? I recall reading something about digital backups of the masters somewhere online. Anyway, out of all the non-Japanese Hemispheres CDs that I've heard, I think the AF and Sector have the best EQ. The Anthem is nice too, but I really like the 'darker' sound of the newer versions. The Atomic is the outlier here since it's smiley-faced compared to the rest of the CDs. FWIW, the boosted highs are more noticeable to me than the bass on that one.

 

Thanks for your impressions. To me the Sectors are out of the game because of how compressed they are.
All the remasters since the Sectors probably used the same tapes (masters), but we know the 2015 were new transfers, compared to the Sectors at least.

 

In general, for the several Sectors I compared to the 2015 masterings, they are very similar tonally, but the 2015 have better dynamics, more akin to the originally released CDs.

I still like the Anthem the best for Hemispheres, the AF #2.

 

To me, there also seems to be a thin layer between the Sectors of 2112 and A Farewell To Kings and the 2015 masters that made it to CD. I would agree that the most recent CD reissues have better dynamics than their Sector counterparts. I really wish all of the 2015 masters get a CD release but it seems that is far from certain at this point.

 

I keep meaning to correct this. The Fly by Night 2015 is very different from the Sector, and actually all the previous CD versions too. Now that I have posted that statement, I will get the supporting info posted in the next day or two. I didn't like the 2015's for the others I compared, but for FbN, might be the best one, IMO. And the 2015 is so good for FbN, that I might have to get the rest someday.

 

OK, photobucket has been unavailable for the last several hours, so trying Google Photos ...



[Let me know if y'all can see that or not.]

Kind of a hodge podge, because I added the Chronicles comparison after the 1st comparison with Anthem and the End, and Chronicles only has the two songs Anthem and Fly by Night.

Chronicles is the same mastering as all the early CDs. (I wanted to look at Chronicles, because just comparing What You're Doing with the rest of the Anthem for AtWaS, sounded like Chronicles had a nicely done low end boost, that gave Geddy's bass a little more bite to it. so I thought heck, maybe Chronicles improved on FbN for those 2 songs, but nope, the same.)

Anyway! In general, all that came after the original Anthem CD (WANK), are eq'ed somewhat the same, with rises down low and up high, except for the 2015 HDtrx. That removes info centered around 5.5-6kHz.

One thing I thought was interesting, the '97 remaster, rises up towards 20kHz. The Sector has that rise centered about 7.5kHz, and the lp kind of "splits the difference", with it's high freq bump centered about 11-12kHz. Sorry, don't know the pedigree of the lp.

 

Okay, sorry to keep asking about the Signals 25.8p. The Atomic sounds nice. But it’s the narrow soundstage for example on The Analog Kid. I know the MFSL has one missing line on The Weapon. But looking for an 80’s issue whose eq removes some of the murkiness has decent bottom end which is a bit forward and has that intact line. Thoughts?

Does the MFSL of Signals have any longer fade outs?

 

I still don't the pic.

 

OK, this isn't embedded: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dZWwg8ctQ7rV2wGX6

Let me know, OK? (1st time trying it this way.)

 

Does the HiRes 2015 sound like it's from a better tape source than the original CD? The original CD is one of the weirdest sounding CDs I own. I can't believe that someone thought that it was OK to release a CD that sounds like that.

 

I almost forgot another important part! The listing on HDtracks says:

"Extended Ending" ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_by_Night_(album)
4. "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" 8:37

The HDtrx By-Tor is 9:32.

Cool.

No others (and I checked), just that one.

 

Direct link works but the images aren't big enough/are too compressed for the text to be readable.
Embedded pic still doesn't work for me.

 

No idea. But since the HDtrx has the longer By-Tor, that tells me that it's possibly from the original tapes.

Photobucket is back up. So I'll try to post that pic later there.

 

It's not really a longer version on the HDtracks release. They just reproduced the effect of the locked groove at the end of the record for those extra seconds.

From the wiki article: On the original vinyl release, the chimes heard at the end of "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" continue into the locked groove, and thus play indefinitely on manual record players.

 

OK, I actually hadn't listened to it yet. Thought there might have been something more substantial.

Here's the freq spectra comparison again for FbN from Photobucket:

 

I have all their remasted cds.the most common ones you would see in a store for sale.i think they sound great.i cant wait to hear versions that are even better!
great thread.My favorite rock band along with Saxon.

 

@Robinator, I've got the peaks for the Brazilian Signals. They don't match any other version on the chart.

79.9
74.5
79.2
86.3
89.3
93.2
79.6
87.1

This one's weird. It syncs with the WG Atomic, though despite both of them sounding identical to me, they don't cancel out once they're level matched. The waveforms are also somewhat different even after level matching, so I have no clue what the deal is. I need to look into this a bit further.