Bowie "Ziggy Stardust" Ryko CD trade-in program

This is absolutely true! The claim that these early disc were all "flat cuts" to satisfy the increasing demand was pretty common back then. And most of them were pretty barebones artwork wise. So when the fancy remasters with linernotes and whatnot came along many people happily rebought their favorite albums.

 

To contrast the above press release with info on the RCA's production details, here is information from the person who coordinated the manufacture of them.

Pick 'n' Mixed: The First Ever David Bowie CDs (RCA 1984)

(I'm sure this has been posted on here on other threads, but just in case some on here haven't seen it, here you go)

 

Just to clarify, this is only about the West Germany for Europe titles. I'm not 100% certain if the Japan for Europe releases were based on masters prepared by this team or not. There's a lot of questions still left to be answered about those CDs!

I wonder if Jeff Rougvie wrote this press release, or at least an outline for it. The way this is written reminds me of his (excellent) Bowie blog.

 

explain please -- never owned this box set

 

The USA Columbia Elvis Costello 80s CDs were awful -- Ryko much better ,

 

Can I now return my Ryko for an RCA?

 

If you use EQ to drop -2db around 3khz the Ryko starts to sound a lot more like the RCA.
Of course there was also some NR mused on the top end you can’t do anything about, the detail is just gone.

 

Ryko didn’t master them, it was done by Costello’s people, hence the improved sonics.

 

I blame it on early CD players.

The oldest CDs in my collection played now on my Philips 963SA sound quite decent.

 

Compared to the RCAs, a lot of Rykos have around 6 dB added at about 12-13 kHz. Of course, that's not to say the RCAs had perfect EQ to begin with (it's a case-by-case basis), so reducing the Ryko treble by 6 dB might make it too dull.

 

I was looking forward to hearing great sound quality thanks to the remaster from the best quality source tapes. What I actually heard was clear but also pinched and thin. These were the first Bowie CDs I owned, I didn't get any RCA CDs until later. Anyway, I didn't enjoy the sound of the Ryko box. Though at least it wasn't brickwalled, this was before the loudness wars!

Tim

 

I think the CD players were OK. What changed perhaps were our expectations about how things should sound.

Tim

 

By biggest impression from this Ryko campaign-period was seeing a Ryko poster on the wall of a cd store that read:

"Ziggy Stardust - Whether you know it or not, this album changed your life!"

 

Sure. The current exchange rate is 150:1

 

Damn, I only have 3

 

They certainly did to me. I purchased one RCA (don’t recall the title) and was extremely disappointed by the amount of tape hiss on the obviously not from the original master tapes used on those releases. Honestly I didn’t do ( or even consider doing) a side to side comparison. The Rykos sounded “clean” compared to the RCA’s.

Edit: I was also 19, so the Ryko’s were, for the most part, the first way I ever heard his back catalogue.

 

I wonder what Rykodisc did with the RCA CD's they received? I think most labels would trash them, but Rykodisc was an eco-friendly company (IIRC their catalogs carried PSA's for ecological concerns) so I wonder if they just donated them to Goodwill or something?

 

Have you never heard a Ryko Bowie cd?

 

To this day I don’t think the Ryko CDs are as bad as their reputation suggests. They’re certainly far better than the 1999 EMI remasters and the majority of the Parlophone remasters (with a few exceptions like Pin-Ups). They’re not compressed and can be EQ’ed if the FR really disagrees with you. There’s a bit of NR but it’s not overdone. They all have truly excellent bonus tracks (except STS which just had a few live tracks IIRC). I mostly use the preferred RCA masters for my Bowie listening these days but I still own all my Rykos and wouldn’t part with them for anything.

 

I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll just chime in again: the Ziggy Au20 ryko has a unique sound; it’s a “harder rocking” version than the Ziggy (Japan) RCA. I have both and like both. I also have the ChangesBowie Au20 for posterity, and I hate the sound on it; it’s harsh and abysmal compared to the RCA German and Japanese counterparts I own. So FYI, ymmv.

 

Same could be said for almost any remasters - remember newer is normally thought of as "better", and reviewers are/were aware of who butters their bread.

 

I’ve got the AU 20 boxed set. Stupidly, I think Changes was the RCA I let go when I was in college.

 

ChangesBowie RCAs are the cheapest CDs to recover. At least last time I checked

 

I just put in an inquiry with a former coworker but I'm almost positive they were long gone by the time I started working there a couple of years after the Bowie rollout.