I decided to send one last Hail Mary email to MPL about this unlimited downloads issue. I finally got a response this morning: "MPL work closely with Abbey Road Studios to ensure fans receive the very best audio listening experience. On Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, Abbey Road Studios are satisfied that the work done does not compromise the quality of the recordings. Whilst there was light compression employed, this was used to the extent where they are confident we can still class the audio files as Unlimited. Abbey Road have given a brief explanation of the process employed below. All main album files (including the double album) were processed using the Shadow Hills compressor and Jünger Accent 2. Only artistic compression was applied and gain matched. No Accent 2 gain was applied. The tape transfers were “hotter" than the original albums with a fuller timbre. We class these files as Unlimited due to the nature of the compression used to keep the warmth and depth of the original recordings."
Thanks for the effort investigating this issue. I'm pleasantly surprised that MPL responded to the query.
Thank you for posting this. I'm curious, did you ask them about the error at the end of 'Love Is Strange'?
Well done. It tells you everything that they consider "unlimited" to mean "yeah, actually, there is some limiting". I'd be surprised if anyone who checked out the waveform for Night Out thought it could be considered "unlimited". At least we know that what we got wasn't an error, for what it's worth.
I do not even think that they (MPL) even acknowledged any error. So they cannot fix something that they have not admitted is an error.
^^^I also think that there was a similar glitch on "Magneto & Titanium Man" from the digital/CD versions of the song included in the Venus & Mars Archive set. And that error too was never acknowledged, nor fixed.
Interesting comments from Paul on Bruce McMouse from a 1975 interview with International Musician: "I've got a few little things waiting to be finished. Did a thing in Europe with the first Wings. It's a film, quite nice, but I think it'll end up as a kids' programme 'cos it's not that great. It'll be nice for kids but for adult critical acclaim it's not quite good enough".
Presumably just the mouse cartoons? I can't imagine that by 1976-77, why young kids would have been interested in watching 4-5 year old performances of the like of Mumbo and Long Tall Sally.
Interesting that he thinks that way. I think the performances are quite good - better than I expected and Wings sound more muscular than on record up to that point. I like it about as much as Wings Over America, actually, and I wish they would have released it as a straight concert film without the rubbish cartoon animation and story.
It more or less proved that Macca can't act. If this had come out previously, "BroadStreet" would never have happened.
So do I but I cannot stand the different versions of Paul within the same song. And for all those canned introductions? Cut them out!
His is the solo scene that never made the film. Lester saw in 1964 he wasn't much of an actor. And yet, he keeps trying. (If you think his Broadstreet film is bad, watch the 1993 Saturday Night Live performance where he plays a butler. Definitely not there for the acting!)
To be fair, you can read the script for the scene online and see that it just is not funny. Goes on for too long without a real good gag. I'm not sure any of the other three could've gotten past that.
https://blog.discogs.com/en/top-100-most-expensive-cds-sold-on-discogs/ Panic buyers (and Beatles fans in general) are funny. #72, #16, #13 and #9 on the list of most expensive CD releases sold on Discogs of all time.
Steve didn’t want to remix from the multitracks. He wanted to go back to the workparts. You see, for the Venus and Mars master, instead of the individual song workparts being banded together, they were dubbed onto a reel with an added layer of compression. However, he was told no.
And that is from memory from a forum discussion close to 15 years ago. I am pretty sure my memory of the details is correct.
None of which goes to my point: That Venus and Mars sounds the way it does because McCartney wants it to sound the way it does, evidenced by the fact that an offer to make it sound "better" was repeatedly rejected by the artist and/or the artist's representatives. Actually, this strengthens my point, because nothing but the "squashing" would have or could have been changed by the process described. The "squashing" is a feature, not a bug. Apologies for using the wrong word almost 5 months ago in recalling something I read years ago.
It would have been so easy for me to buy multiple copies of that box to re-sell for a ton of money, but I'd hate to gouge fellow fans. I bet one person sold multiple copies of the Big Barn Box featured on that list. As we know, there are members on this forum who buy multiple copies of limited edition items to re-sell for a profit, preventing some of us fans from getting the item for ourselves at a normal price. I won't name names...