I have not heard the Tom Scholz remasters (I'd like to but am hopeful for a new hi-res, eventually) but I have the original first Japan pressed discs of S/T and DLB that a lot of people prefer, and in the case of "DLB," the 80's 2nd issue remaster/repress and the SACD of the S/T album. I never sought out the 2nd 80's issue of the S/T because of its bad reputation. My favorites for both of those albums are the Mastersound Gold cd's. They were fairly cheap because of their ubiquity, and their somewhat bad reputation. I think they're wonderful. They rectify the thin sound of the early cd issues and in the case of the s/t, moderates the splashy cymbals and backing vocals that can at times become a mess. The Mastersound sorts it out much better, to me. Interestingly, Mark Wilder remastered both the Mastersound and the SACD versions of the S/T but the SACD is brighter and just doesn't hold together as well throughout. The SACD has its moments, but I'd pick the Mastersound disc as my favorite.
If You can tolerate some compression, You might like the 2006 remaster better than the overly bright MasterSound edition.
Can someone post the UPC or catalog number for the 2006 remaster? It is very hard to do a search for "Boston" and "Boston"
Thanks! I was being lazy - should have gone to discogs first! Or just clicked on the 2006 entry here: Album list - Dynamic Range Database
Steve and others have recommended the original ‘80s release with matrix “DIDP 20006”. Is there any significance to that matrix, or are all of the EK 34188 discs the same mastering?
I've seen a used copy of a digipak version of this, that's probably ca. 1998. Is this any good/better than the 2006 remaster?
I know there are at least two different masterings of the original CD: DIDP 20006 11B4 EK-34188 2B6 74
I have the DIDP 20006 11A4. Did I score? If I did, I'm not bragging. Just that I paid the price as an early adopter. I just paged through my 3x5 index cards. Bought it 10/24/1986. Side note 10/24/2301 is the 45th anniversary of that release.
I think all of the DIDP 20006 discs are the good mastering. Apparently some of the other EK 34188 discs have the good master and some do not. I just checked mine - it's a "1A EK34188 33 B1" and it's the good one. In this case, lower dynamic range = better sound.
I bought a copy of this album on ebay and it arrived today. I've just uploaded it to the dynamic range database: Album details - Dynamic Range Database
Let me start by saying im a recording engineer 30 years plus. Bostons debut album has been one of my favorite recordings ever since I was fourteen. Ive owned at one time just about every version thats been released. Ive owned the vinyl 1st pressing, the CBS Mastersound half speed master which sounded phenominal, the first cd pressing which I have unfortunately misplaced the sacd from 2001 and the Tom Scholz brickwalled disaster from 2006. Let me say that Tom Scholz is a fantastic engineer and musician but as a mastering engineer he's horrible. He broke the first principle of mastering which is to do no harm. Even if you listen to this at a nominal volume he must have clipped it. Its distorted. A little history of this album. It of course recorded in his basement. It was not recorded on 16 tracks. It was recorded on a 284 Scully 12 track machine. The machine came in to formats. An 8 and a 12. The console used was a custom built Dan Flickenger console. A very rare machine. Apparently some of it was mixed either in his basement and other tracks were dubbed to a 24 track machine to allow for more overdubs. The fact that More Than a Feeling was recorded on a twelve track machine still blows my mind to this day. Sadly these multitracks and master tapes may not even exsist anymore. Boston was one of the bands listed whos master tapes were among the thousands of tapes that went up in flames in the backlot fire on the NBC Universal lot in 2008 If youve seen the lists of artists that lost master tapes it will make you sick to your stomach.
I believe Tom has said that he'd purchased an 8-track deck and modified the heads for 12-track recording on a 1" tape. At any rate, that's how the instrumental tracks were recorded (all but the final cut, Brad's "Let Me Take You Home Tonight", which was produced by John Boylan and recorded without Tom in L.A., and Tom added an organ part to that later). But the original 1'" 12-track recordings from Tom's basement were "uploaded", if you will, to a 2" 24-track tape via cable snake out from Tom's basement window to a remote truck parked in his driveway. These second-generation tapes were then flown to L.A., where Brad added all the vocals at either the Capitol tower or The Record Plant, and then the whole thing was mixed down to stereo at Westlake Audio. There's a really great article on the making of the album in a 2000 issue of Mix magazine, where all of this is discussed.
I agree about Tom’s remaster but I think Sony has the masters for the BOSTON albums not NBC Universal. Unless they were stored there for the first album at Sony’s request, I doubt it was destroyed. The later albums that were made for MCA is another story entirely.
Up at the top of the page, I wrote that I liked the Mastersound versions, best. Subsequently, I purchased the 2nd US issue of the s/t disc (I only had the first pressing Japan for US issue) and (why stop there?) a late 80's Japan for Japan issue. Both of those are GREAT and I think they are a more relaxed listen (and maybe tonally right to my ears) than the Mastersound which can sound a bit crispy. I don't dislike the SACD, though, either. Same thing goes for the 2nd US issue of "Don't Look Back." I wound up getting the 2006 remasters and they're not worth listening to with the other versions so easily available.
Proverbial Post [just #'s/don't freak]: Album list - Dynamic Range Database Obviously, only rated releases are listed & all formats listed are grouped together.
The 2006 remaster has some problems but sounds more musical than the earlier issues. I'd go with the Blu-Spec for some additional improvement.