Anyone got the Heart remasters so far?

Not having two or more verion's of the same title, when you knowingly will only play one version.
"Their going too take me away, ha, ha..."

 

Anyone up too ranking the Heart redbook catalog?
Dreamboat Annie would be, what?
1. Steve's, too rich from my blood, gold.
How would the rest go?
And, how would these new releases, rank?
Thanks.

 

Heck, I'll try. But this will be strictly the original CD's first.

Among the analog (or some analog) material, at the top is a bunch of them: Dreamboat Annie, Magazine, Bebe Le Strange, and Passionworks all sounded pretty good right out the gate (and Passionworks was one of the first Heart CD's made). The next tier would include: Little Queen, Private Audition, and Greatest Hits/Live. Then: Dog & Butterfly (mostly because of the tape source) and Heart (because it was mixed so damn bright). After that you get into the digitally recorded stuff: Bad Animals, Brigade, and Desire Walks On (which may or may not be all digital, but it's mastered hot), and all of those have the same digital stadium rock sound. Rock The House Live is just a bad live recording of most of the Brigade material so I discount it on principle.

I don't have The Road Home.

Jupiters Darling is not bad, but too much limiting was used during mixing to get some louder levels. Mastering engineer Brian Garnder had reduce the volume of some of the tracks that were already maxed-out and buzzed-cut by a decible or so just to get a consistant level across the whole disc.

Among the remasters... Of course Steve's Dreamboat Annie betters an already good original effort by Capitol. Forget the '99 remaster by Odea Murphy, though - too harsh. The MFSL gold CD does not really help Heart, and the remixed versions of "If Looks Could Kill", "Never" and "Nothin' At All" are used here anyway (so much for "original" master recording). The new Little Queen and Dog & Butterfly are worth it and do better the originals to me - D&B moreso than LQ. I still don't have the new Bebe Le Strange though.

 

I think Jupiters Darling is a great CD Did anyone notice that Darian Sahanaja (From the Wondermints) is in the band? He's on BOTH CDs I picked up last week: The new Heart and the new Brian Wilson.

Tim

 

The only decent sounding/mastering of the self-titled Heart album that I've heard is the Japanese first pressing. MFSL really dropped the ball on this one IMO. Other than that I kind of agree with Joel with one more exception. The Japanese first pressing of Bad Animals is not as hot sounding as the regular N. American version and worthwhile IMO.

 

I need to find that Japanese made CD some day. Mine is the UK pressed disc bought the day it came out still having the original mixes of the songs I mentioned earlier (matching the LP that I bought on the day of it's release a few weeks earlier).

Mine's US made, but it's not hot sounding either - just the typical hair-band rock sound of that time. Desire Walks On is the only pre-mid-90's hot sounding CD - thanks to George Marino.

BTW, I love Jupiters Darling - the best material they've done in almost 25 years in my book. It was just a little over-cooked before it went to the mastering stage, IMHO.

 

My CD pressing of self-titled Heart album was made in Switzerland for whatever that is worth. One of the first CD's I ever bought.

Anyone know how the Japan pressing of "Magazine" sounds? I might pick it up if it is worth it.

PAT

 

My Magazine on Capitol is made in Japan, if that's the one you mean. I think all of them made from '86 (when I got mine) to today use the same original CD mastering. I think it's pretty darned good. Could it use a decent remastering? Sure, but what's there works just fine for me.

 

I have one of these on the way...plus I have the TOCP Japan CD, as well as the MFSL. Looking forward to comparing the three of them.

 

If you like Heart...pick up "The Road Home"...

 

Good point....

 

I'd be interested in hearing your results Dob.

True funny story...
When I first got this one I threw it on and said to myself "What the ***! It sounds almost as bad as the standard N. American pressing." Now imagine my surprise, and feelings over being over-joyed when What About Love came on and sounded excellent. Turns out that all of the other songs sound excellent. I'm suspecting that If Looks Could Kill was imported onto this album from an inferior recording session due to the excessive distortion on the microphone that the other tracks do not display at all.

 

How is the TOCP CD? Original mixes?

 

Is there a HEART box set?

 

No.

Nothing other than a set of the original Little Queen, Dog & Butterfly, and Bebe Le Strange CD's in a box that Sony used to sell.

A new real boxed set has been planned for a while now, but nothing definite yet.

 

It's been many months since I listened/compared this one to the MFSL, but I think they were the remixes (same as the MFSL). I also remember liking it better, overall, than the MFSL. When I report on my comparisions I'll note any remixes.

 

If I own the MoFi, is there any reason to obtain the TOCP?

 

Does anyone know an easy way to tell if the Heart "Heart" LP includes the original mixes or the remixes of 2 or 3 songs?

 

I'm not certain,so take it for what it's worth, but I'd be willing to bet that the TOCP version either uses the remixes or is mastered too bright. I would get the Japanese CP32-5078 and forget the rest until Steve is able to get his hands on it if the best mastering on CD is important to you.

 

Here's a question regarding the Portrait version of Little Queen. Is there a Japanese pressing? I've only found the US pressing in the used bins. As I recall, the DIDP number is 20007, which would suggest that Little Queen was one of the early titles released by CBS/Sony. As such, I would expect there to be a Japanese pressing. If there is a Japanese pressing, how does it sound in relation to the US pressing?

 

All I know is that I have the first issue - since I bought it the day it came out. The same with the CD on the day it came out a few weeks later. I never bought any other copies of either because I was happy with it and obliviously went on my way without ever knowing the pressings changed until years later - about 10 years later (around the time the MoFi CD came out). Since then, I've found out that the catalog number changed for a while. The original catalog number was ST-12410. The first two 45's, "What About Love" (released before the LP) and "Never (re-mix)" indicate this same catalog number. The 45 for "Nothin' At All (re-mix)" say the LP's catalog number is SJ-12410 (I had not paid any attention to that little detail at the time). I did not get the fourth single, so I don't know if the catalog number stayed with the SJ or reverted to ST.

The dead-wax on my LP is as follows:
Side 1,
ST-1-12410 - Z4 #1 (lightly) SLM (triangle shape) 9737 1-1 SHRED TML-S (stamped)

Side 2,
ST-2-12410 Z3 #2 (lightly) SHRED TML-S (stamped and double-ghosted) SML (triangle shape) 9737 - X 1-3

What's in parenthesis relates to the unspaced group of characters before it - as in, "#1" is "lightly written", but not the "Z4" before it. I tried to add extra spaces to show the grouping better, but the bbs software must be taking them out when posted.

Yes there is. I have it. I bought in early '85 right before I bought my first CD player (but I'd been eyeing it since late '84). It's a smooth frosted edged jewel case too. However, I do not have a US pressing so I can't answer the rest of your question. It's not a CD with a lot of bass (the new re-master kind of exaggerates the resonating low end just a bit thanks to the overuse of limiting to get an 8-9 db average level boost), but that's just like the LP too. But, the mix does show off some bass in small snippets (like from the moog in "Sylvan Song"). Little Queen and Passionworks (DIDP 20099) were the first two Heart albums released on CD.

 

Here is my dead wax...what do you think I have?

side 1 ST-1-12410-RE1-Z22 TML-S (STAMPED) SLM (TRIAGLE SHAPE) 9737 1-1
SIDE 2 ST-2-12410 Z3 #2 (VERY LIGHT) SHRED TML-S (STAMPED) (TRIANGLE SHAPE) 9737-X 1-8

 

Hmmm...

The "RE1" tells me it's a second cutting Side 1. Perhaps to incorporate the remixed version of "Never", but Side 2 might still have the original version of "Nothin At All".

I did come across a Heart Discography somewhere that lists that there were several different pressings - seemingly Capitol re-cut the record for every 45 released .

Here it is: http://www.ladyclergy.com/discog.htm, There is also a "Collections" page buried there that lists most of the different pressings, like the Nautilus Half-speed LP and Steve's DCC of Dreamboat Annie.

 

What is the easiest way to tell if I have original versions of the songs?

 

What is your best guess on this...if I pick up a promo copy of this LP, what are the chances that it will have the original mixes of all the songs?