Wrong / Alternate Tracks Used In Releases

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Mollusk, Jun 9, 2022.

  1. chrisblower

    chrisblower Norfolk n'good

    Have mentioned this in previous threads - on The Magazine, Rickie Lee Jones third album, Rorschachs on my UK vinyl copy was a really great vocal track, on the cd release, and still on Spotify, it became a wordless hum along type of song. No idea why it got replaced in such a poor way.
     
  2. Nate-O-Phonic

    Nate-O-Phonic I didn't get a Harrumph! outta that guy...

    I have a DVD-A version of T-Rex's Electric Warrior that has Bang A Gong with no fade out, but a cold ending that runs 5 minutes. I 've never seen that elsewhere, but I'm not up on such things. Is this on something else?
     
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  3. Mollusk

    Mollusk I AM THE STALLION Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Whoops, just remembered this thread exists, anyone up for a bump?
     
  4. Alien Reg

    Alien Reg Forum Resident

    Crucial thread - have referred to it several times.
     
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  5. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Hunters & Collector~ The Slab (or Betty's Worry). On the single and the vinyl album the original mix appears, on the CD and on all subsequent compilations a remixed version with rerecorded vocals appears.

    Split Enz ~ Abu Dabi. Originally a vocal track about 'greedy oil barons' on most reissues it loses all vocals.
     
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  6. citizensmurf

    citizensmurf Ambient postpunk will never die

    Location:
    Calgary
    I remember these very well. Must have been an Ontario gas station promotion, I never saw them outside of the province. Many long road trip was spent listening to these tapes before I owned a Walkman and discovered thrash metal.
     
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  7. Hummus

    Hummus Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    The original DVD-A of ELP Brain Salad Surgery has no reverb on the vocals.

     
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  8. Mollusk

    Mollusk I AM THE STALLION Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Glad to know, the SHF seems to never send me updates for any threads, hard to keep track of the few I've made.

    Hell yeah, didn't know about that, always loved Brain Salad Surgery, may have to hunt down a copy
     
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  9. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    It was originally on the semi legit Electric Warrior Sessions in bad quality. On the first expanded EW it sounds like they edited the ending onto the master tape, then on the deluxe edition it reappears in much better sound.
     
  10. InStepWithTheStars

    InStepWithTheStars It's a miracle, let it alter you

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Love this thread. Can't remember if I've posted this one already (and too lazy to look), but it's on my mind because I'm seeing the band live in a few weeks, and because I love the song so much. "Bel-Air", from the Church's debut album Of Skins And Heart, typically fades out at the end. The original Australian Parlophone* LP, the UK Carrere LP with a different title and cover, and the 1988 Arista CD are all examples of this. However, a New Zealand vinyl pressing and the (very loud and compressed) 2002 remaster (reissued in 2010) lack this fade-out, revealing a short but incredibly compelling drum-roll to cap off the song. I'm a stickler for original versions, right down to edits and things of that nature, but this little drum flourish adds so much to the song that, even though the original versions lacked it, I consider it an integral part of the song. I only wish the 2002 remaster wasn't so aggressively compressed, as that absorbs a noticeable amount of the power.



    *The Beatles were also on Parlophone, thereby making this a Beatles thread (even though the Australian Parlophone of 1981 was the third cousin twice removed of the original British label, but still, Beatles)
     
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  11. EdwinM

    EdwinM Grumpy old man

    Location:
    Leusden
    The 1988 German Polydor cd of A Quick One by the Who uses the mono version unintentonally.
     
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  12. InStepWithTheStars

    InStepWithTheStars It's a miracle, let it alter you

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Was that really unintentional? Although nine of the ten songs had contemporary stereo mixes, there was never a proper stereo release of the album until the digital age; the 2008 Japanese CD is the first full release I can think of to include all the correct mixes. The first vinyl release of the full album in stereo (minus "See My Way", which never existed in true stereo) is less than a year old... and uses a digital remix of one song, to boot (and a badly distorted version of the digital remix, at that!). To this day, you will need to buy at least three versions of the album – more, if you want the best possible quality – in order to piece together a good-sounding digital stereo version. And you'll still have a song in mono. It's a shame, because the original stereo mixes of these songs are fantastic.
     
  13. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Most of the album was in true stereo on the German The Who album and the title song was in true stereo on The House that Track Built so any fool could have put out those 9 tracks on an album from 1970 onwards.
     
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  14. EdwinM

    EdwinM Grumpy old man

    Location:
    Leusden
    They put stereo on the inlay, so I suppose that was the intention.
     
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  15. InStepWithTheStars

    InStepWithTheStars It's a miracle, let it alter you

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Ha! Never noticed that. I would say that was the mistake moreso than the use of mono tracks, though – the stereo mixes, as good as they are, were splintered out all over creation and it took a long time to get them back together... and not in the best quality, either. For an '80s CD to correctly assemble the stereo mix of an LP that was only released in mono in its native country, when even half a century later it still hasn't been assembled properly on an official release...
    Correct – but it still took more than thirty years for that to happen on an official release. And apparently the best-quality tapes for many of these songs are missing. The stereo mix is so good, I really wish such a thing had been done sooner.
     
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  16. EdwinM

    EdwinM Grumpy old man

    Location:
    Leusden
    Thanks for the info. Have to track the Japanese cd which is still the only cd I see at Discogs with original stereo.
     
  17. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Wasn't the first true stereo release of Run Run Run on the mono remastered CD of A Quick One?
     
  18. TimeWarper

    TimeWarper A Well Respected Man

    Location:
    Melbourne
    Somehow the 1975 budget reissue of ‘The Best Of The Easybeats Volume 2,’ had not one, not two but three songs with the wrong version (at least wrong in comparison to the original release)

    ‘Land Of Make Believe’ is an alternate mix, ‘Hello How Are You’ is a completely different version, and ‘Lay Me Down And Die’ has vocals instead of the instrumental on the original album.

    Now the mislabelled tracks on their reissues is a whole other can of worms.
     
  19. InStepWithTheStars

    InStepWithTheStars It's a miracle, let it alter you

    Location:
    North Carolina
    I don't know about the first – I seem to recall the MCA A Quick One/Happy Jack has it in stereo, but this could be wrong – but the 1995 mostly-mono reissue definitely uses the best tape source. It's unfortunately loud and compressed, and one channel is 0.7 dB louder than the other, and the two channels are one sample out of sync... but the tape source is noticeably better than anything else that's been officially released digitally.
    There are two Japanese CDs, both double disc sets: one from 2008 and another from 2012. The '08 is loud and compressed, and the stereo version of "So Sad About Us" is remastered directly from the MCA A Quick One/Happy Jack CD. The '12 is a much nicer mastering, but "So Sad About Us" is a needledrop – it sounds pretty good, but there is audible distortion on the vocals.

    The HD downloads of A Quick One in both mono and stereo basically share identical mastering with the 2012 double-SHM-CD set (albeit at a higher resolution). The mono download is superior because it's actually mono, whereas the CD uses a stereo transfer of a mono tape that has some occasional audible issues. However, the stereo download uses the 2002 stereo remix for "So Sad About Us", and somehow it's been horribly distorted. It's like it's being played through a Nintendo Entertainment System: grainy, brittle, and low-fi. How that could have possibly happened, I don't know. This same exact download, complete with fake stereo "See My Way" and distorted "So Sad About Us" remix, was just pressed to vinyl at Abbey Road last year.

    The mastering quality of that 2012 reissue is decent, but not great. Most of the songs sound better on the 2006 Japanese CD I'm A Boy. Now, that CD is kinda dull-sounding, with the tapes showing their generational degradation, but the sound is still much more natural than the 2012 remaster, which is decent but a bit harsh and artificial-sounding. As mentioned above, "Run Run Run" is from a better source on the 1995 CD, and the only good digital version of "So Sad About Us" is the otherwise-bad MCA A Quick One/Happy Jack CD from circa 1988. Apparently that tape is lost as they've never released another good-sounding version. I take "See My Way" from the mono HD download and "A Quick One While He's Away" from the stereo HD download (bypassing the obscenely expensive 2012 CD set), and with some EQ recommended by Lukpac, I've got my preferred digital version of the album in stereo. Minus that one mono-only song.

    You can see why the Polydor CD stuck with mono!
     
  20. Disco Robot

    Disco Robot Forum Resident

    Location:
    33417
    Are their any Soundtrack Of Our Lives fans out there? I could never figure out of the drop out at :40 of "Infra Riot" was a mastering error? I've read some places that the band was so tight that the could stop/start the song with that great of precision, but its never sounded like that to me. (This may not be exactly what this thread is about, but figured it was close enough)
    .
     
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  21. EdwinM

    EdwinM Grumpy old man

    Location:
    Leusden
    Thanks ! This info is really useful.
     
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  22. rnranimal

    rnranimal Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    It's been a while since I've messed around with these but my recollection was that the HD download was a fold down of the stereo transfer which is intact on the Japanese '12 2CD.
     
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  23. Mollusk

    Mollusk I AM THE STALLION Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    I mean, I've posted the same stuff in threads before by mistake, if you have you're all good! :D
     
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  24. advancecharmander

    advancecharmander listening to electric ladyland

    Location:
    USA
    The Singles by the Doors has an unreleased alternate mix of Wishful Sinful, instead of the original single mix, apparently used by accident. The proper mix was released sometime afterwatd, so it can be corrected if you want to.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 18, 2023
  25. InStepWithTheStars

    InStepWithTheStars It's a miracle, let it alter you

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Lukpac is to thank for all the info. He is the only person who understands the discography while still maintaining his sanity. Without him, there would be no hope for the catalog. Comprehending the Who's recorded output may not be as noble a field as quantum physics, but it is every bit as challenging. Thankfully, we have a Ph.D. laureate within our ranks. (I've got an associate's degree in the field, but I'm struggling with the classes for the bachelor's.)
     
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