The Edsel Robert Palmer remasters

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mikaal, Aug 28, 2013.

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  1. mikaal

    mikaal Sociopathic Nice Guy Thread Starter

    Has anyone purchased any yet? I am itching to hear some opinions on the sound.
     
  2. BrucePadgett

    BrucePadgett Forum Resident

    The entire set is on its way from Amazon UK right now...will report back later. Very anxious to hear them, I've loved his voice since the '70s. He could sing ANY genre of music equally as convincing.
     
  3. dunkrag

    dunkrag Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    A little more muddy than the 2011 Culture Factory remasters... (at least on Secrets - the only one I have compared yet...)
     
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  4. sonnyrock

    sonnyrock Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    I have only played Some People...thus far.

    I own the Culture Factory disc, but I find it an unpleasant listening experience. I'm no good at describing things in technical terms, but it seems harsh, metallic, pinched and probably has too much high end energy. The louder you play it, the worse it sounds. At least, on my system.

    On the Edsel, I can hear some tape hiss on the track fades. I found myself turning the volume up, a few times, and played the album all the way through. It's not fantastic, but I found it preferable to the Culture Factory. I don't own the original cd issue, so can't make any comparison there. I bought the album when it was first released, on vinyl, so I am familiar with how that sounds.

    The remastering credit is simply, "Universal Studios, Belsize Rd., Kilburn".
     
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  5. art

    art Senior Member

    Location:
    520
    Those RP culture factory discs are wretched, loud, tweaked, unnerving.
     
  6. Torontotom

    Torontotom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    I totally agree. I'm going to give my CF Riptide "remaster" away once my Pride/Riptide CD arrives.

    It's a shame because CF reissues great titles but they sound horrible, particularly the Wang Chung and Romantics reissues.
     
    art likes this.
  7. Cool to hear we are finally getting decent remasters of these.
     
  8. rodstone

    rodstone Forum Resident

    I have listened to each of these and compared them to my P32D Japan first pressings (the Clues I compared is a Japan for US original). I did not bother comparing them to the Culture Factory remasters I have as well since those Culture Factory remasters are an abomination soundwise (painfully bright). So far, I have only compared a couple of tracks from each since the discs just arrived yesterday. My first impressions of the new Edsels are very positive. The new remasters are only slightly louder than the originals. In terms of EQ, to my ears they sound darker in tone than the originals. There is more bass than the originals. I hear more top end in the originals, which makes them a little more open than the Edsels, although the originals also sound thinner and more trebly to me. On first listen, I prefer the Edsels. The Edsels also have a few bonus tracks, like the 12" mix of Bad Case of Loving You and the b-side to Johnny & Mary plus a couple of alternate takes from Clues tracks. The alternates I didn't think added much but I like getting the non-album b-side from Clues.
     
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  9. Agent57

    Agent57 Marshall will buoy, but Fender control

    Location:
    PA
    Any thoughts on how the remaster of 'Riptide' compares to the original CD in the white-rapidly-turning-tan Digipak?

    I still think that's a great sounding disc...
     
  10. Very true. I have Double Fun (as well as the first two Mink Deville albums) and they are hideous sounding.
     
  11. Munros1969

    Munros1969 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I have all the Culture Factory Robert Palmer discs. Bought the new Edsel Sneakin' Sally / Pressure Drop disc to get the latter, which CF didn't issue. Did a less than scientific test of the Sneakin' Sally discs in the car the other day (Mark Levinson system). I'd agree with the comment above, the Edsel version was muddier and, to my ears, not as good. Guess I'm swimming against the tide on this one...
     
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  12. cakeordeath

    cakeordeath Forum Resident

  13. botley

    botley Forum Resident

    Got "Secrets+Clues+Maybe It's Live" today, tried them and something immediately sounded wrong. Imported to my computer and, lo and behold, spectral analysis revealed that all tracks were mastered from MP3 sources. No high frequencies; I'm wretchedly disappointed and considering returning the CDs. It's a shame because the liner notes are great and the packaging is top-notch all around.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  14. mikaal

    mikaal Sociopathic Nice Guy Thread Starter

    Oh no!!!!!!!!
    I have "Secrets" and "Pride/Riptide" coming and now I am scared to go to my mailbox....that sounds like a very strange thing for Edsel to do though!
     
  15. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    That is not a disc that needs any kind of remastering. I just bought one brand new from Amazon a few weeks ago for $3.99. Its in a jewel case now, but otherwise its still the original mastering from the 80's cd that came in a digi-pak. Sounds great. Very punchy and crankable.

    It's still available for $3.99. Why buy a remaster? There may be one, but I don't think I've ever heard an Edsel remaster that sounded good.
    http://www.amazon.com/Riptide-Robert-Palmer/dp/B000001FFP/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_5
     
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  16. mikaal

    mikaal Sociopathic Nice Guy Thread Starter

    Yeah I have the original too. I was mainly interested in hearing the supposed 12" mix of I Didn't Mean To Turn You On. Now it seams that that was a labelling error as well.
    I maintain that my 1994 Edsel remaster (the first series) of T.Rex The Slider was good. The next ones they did were compressed to death.
     
  17. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph

    Location:
    Italy
    I am not disputing what you hear but why would they do that? At the very least they could copy from the already existing CDs? Also, some of the bonus material in these sets has never been published before. Why would they go through a process that involves the mp3 format. If you said that some of the material is taken from vinyl then I could easily understand but mp3s for stuff that already exists on CD, or it has never been available digitally before, sounds a bit strange.

    BTW: I have "Secrets/Clues/Maybe It's Live" and I listened to it (through earbuds admittedly) but I didn't notice anything strange. Also, the Edsel remasters of Everything But The Girl are good.

    I will try to run the TAU analyser myself and will report on the results:
    http://en.true-audio.com/Analyzer.project
     
  18. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph

    Location:
    Italy
    Not strange at all. Edsel has a history of bad f***-ups, the most recent one I can think of is the Aztec Camera re-issues. I am giving them the benefit of doubt for the moment but their rap sheet is egregious.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  19. Echo

    Echo Forum Resident

    That's right, after the f***-ups of e.g. T. Rex, Edsel is at my black list. Their only good job I own, are the remasters of the (English) Beat, which they issued in Europe, but I think that band, who owned the tapes, checked the sonical quality of these (in the US another company issued these remasters as bigger boxset and despite the fact some songs were replaced by other ones, there was the same sonical quality)
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2013
  20. botley

    botley Forum Resident

    It was an engineering error, plain and simple. It's a shame because there was obviously a lot of care put into the layout and design of the packaging and a simple quality control check would have caught this issue. There is absolutely no musical information above 16 kHz, which is a dead giveaway.
     
  21. freemanl

    freemanl Bass Lover

    Location:
    Central New Jersey
    Hope it's not the case. I bought all of the these releases.
     
  22. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph

    Location:
    Italy
    It is the case. I have just run Tao Analyzer and all tracks on both CDs in the Secrets/Clues set are reported to be from mp3 files. I am going to check the other sets and report back. Meanwhile I am starting my Amazon return and will post a "review" on the Amazon UK site where I bought them.
     
    vonwegen likes this.
  23. rstamberg

    rstamberg Senior Member

    Location:
    Riverside, CT
    Glad I've got the Japanese ISLAND YEARS box set.
     
  24. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph

    Location:
    Italy
    I checked all CDs from all 4 sets and it is the same story for all of them. I am really speechless. Edsel is a company of scammers.
     
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  25. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph

    Location:
    Italy
    The two sets from the EMI catalogue published last year are not from mp3 files.
     
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