Donovan's 'Catch The Wind' remaster

My wife and I saw Donovan in the late '80s and I bought this CD soon after. What's the story behind it and what are the opinions on it's quality?

 

This album was originally released in the U.S. on the Hickory Label in 1965. The LP reached number 30. The songs Catch The Wind and Universal Soldier where Top 100 hits (23 and 53 respectively).

 

Great sound! Quality is # 1

 

Great Donovan album

My vote for a GREAT, not-that-well-known Donovan album (CD) is "Open Road"- 1970. I recently found it on CD on Ebay- an import. Check it out sometime- love that one!

 

Steve's "Catch The Wind" Donovan CD on Garland is great. I still play it all the time. The sound quality is so much nicer than on other Donovan CDs out there of this material.

 

BeatleFred,
I agree on Open Road. That's my favorite Donovan album--I bought it when it came out in 1970.
I disagree with you on the CD version though. It sounds like something was screwy when they mastered it. It's very loud, which might have something to do with it. Celtic Rock, for instance, sounds distorted, as do parts of other songs, like Clara Clarvoyant.

 

The following site has a good discography on Donovan and details certain typos found on various albums. Also lists the Garland CD:
http://www.sabotage.demon.co.uk/donovan/compile.htm

 

Hello Paul: Its Great to hear someone else out there knows this cool record. Actually I didnt imply that I thought there was anything special about the sound quality of it on CD- other than it was nice to see that it is atleast available on CD. I have it on album as well but I havent had my turntable ( '79 Technics SL-D2)in use for a while to be able to refresh my memory on how it sounds and compare to CD. I also forgot- I even have Open Road on an open reel tape that I bought from Ebay- a small-size reel at 3 3/4 ips - I once tried to play it on my 'ol early 70's Teac A-1200U but the reels wouldnt turn- I think the Teac needs to atleast have a belt inside replaced- probably stretched from the machine sitting too long. But I would be curious to hear how O.R. sounds on o.r. tape- the total analog experience- "groovy" (smile). You may be right about the mastering- but I'm inclined to think that- back then- there was not much concern focused on achieving "audiophile" sound quality, though tracks like "the lovely leading lady in our play..." sound smooth & decent. A note of interest: the 2 Cd Set, 'Donovan- Troubadour 1964-76' has an alternate version of Riki Tiki Tavi which is amusing to listening to. I actually did see/meet him briefly back in 1996 when his album "Sutras" was released- he did an in-store performance at Tower Records here in New York City followed by an autograph signing- I must say, I was REALLY impressed- his performance was excellent and he has a lot of charisma- wish he would come around again and do some bigger shows!

 

Got that when It first came out. Still holds up to anything out there and them some!

 

BeatleFred,

I'm interested in how the Open Road reel sounds, even though it's only 3 3/4 ips.

If you want to loan me your tape, I'll make you a CDR of it. My Revox A-77 is in immaculate shape with almost new heads.

Email me through my profile if you're willing.

 

DONOVAN

Donovan new FARYTALE Lp..not bad either !

 

Paul L is correct. I have a mint LP and it sounds miles better than the CD. The CD loses the beautiful rich warm dynamics that the LP has. It sounds flat and lifeless. The material itself is first rate though, and probably my favorite Donovan LP. His most fully realized and mature work

 

Since BeatleFred kindly loaned me his Open Road open reel, I took a look at the waveforms of it in contrast to the CD.

I don't know how to take pictures of the waveforms to post them, like some people have done here, so I'll have to describe them.

The Open Road CD is so loud the waveforms of the songs look like a series of 12 identical blocks. The open reel, on the other hand, has the loudest portions of the quietest song about 12dB below the loudest portions of the loudest songs.

But the consistently high volume is not what's worst about the CD. Not only are the quiet songs as loud as the loud songs, EVERYTHING is loud on the CD. I think the engineer must have used heavy compression and limiting and whatever other tricks he could abuse. All the musical parts that should be quiet in the songs are also loud. EVERY SINGLE MUSICAL ELEMENT IS SHOUTING NON-STOP!!!

Gone are all the subtleties, replaced by overwhelming hurt-your-ears loudness. Sad, sad, sad what a horrible mastering job was done for the CD. I think this is available only as an import CD. There's a possibility it might be redone for America, I guess, but it took 30 years for this one.