Favorite west coast/AOR albums

I highly recommend Hamish Stuart's Sooner or Later cd. A great, overlooked disc rooted in the West Coast sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF_f2U5YN2Q

Just checked Amazon and you can pick up a used copy for $2

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...?ie=UTF8&qid=1330614945&sr=8-1&condition=used

 

Wow!!!!! Just listened to this track for the first time. What an amzing solo!!!!! It's got everything. and it's a 2 minute solo in a 3 minute song. just great!

 

That Kipner album is worth tracking down for that solo alone, IMO.

 

I own these two CDs, both filled with surprisingly good 70ish music with a west coast vibe: http://talconline.com/music/.

 

I must check them out! And I also need to get that Steve Kipner album ASAP.

Other favourite west coast albums:

Bill LaBounty - s/t 1982
Bobby Caldwell - bits and pieces up to Carry On 1982
Larsen Feiten Band - S/T 1980 & Full Moon Featuring Neil Larsen & Buzz Feiten 1982
Dane Donohue - s/t 1978

 

I did a quick (decent Philips headphones + Foobar/Replay gain and then "visually" using Adobe audition) comparison of a few different CD editions of the 1980 Airplay album: jpn R32P-1027 (1986), jpn BVCP-7378 (1995?), jpn BVCM-37621 (2005), SICP-20249 (2010). To begin with, this album never sounded any good but then again I was never a fan of Jay Graydon's productions, soundwise. IMO they were always too bright sounding and lacking low end.

These four CD editions all have quite a different character and I have no idea which one I like the most:

1986 R32P: The vocals sound quite distant, details not great, drums kind of muffled.

1995 BVCP: I like this more than the R32P. Vocals are much more up front, a bit louder but only for the better IMO, nice details without sounding terribly brittle.

2005 BVCM 25th anniv: Now this is a whole other story. A bit too compressed IMO. The only edition out of the four with a somewhat brickwalled sound (and looks). Can't say I totally dislike it though.

2010 SICP 30th anniv: Hearing this for the first time today gave me a surprise. I didn't expect it to sound like this as it has a totally different character from the others. No compression (according to the looks of the waveform) but a definite and apparent bass boost, vocals kind of pushed back again (like on the R32P). I would have loved to say I love this version, but the bass is a bit exaggerated and it just doesn't sound quite natural to me. Still, this is probably the one that will get the most play in my house.

I guess there's not a real winner here. Jay has said several times that he may remix the Airplay album one day. Let's hope he does

 

Thanks for that great write-up, Red!

Too bad Jay decided to boost the bass on the latest remaster, I had high hopes that it would be the one to own. And since it's quite expesive I'm now hesitating wether to get it or not.

Do you know if the 1990 issue share the same mastering as the 1986 first pressing?

Have you heard the vinyl of the album?

 

Unfortunately I have no info on the 1990 version but one of my old buddies owns it so maybe I can borrow it from him. I own a japanese vinyl edition though (bought it new in 1990 I think) but I haven't compared it with the others yet.

 

Ok, that would be great! I have posted the dr analysis above, and if the 1986 and the 1990 versions are the same, the numbers should be the same right?

 

Interesting! Here's the 1986 R32P and the 1995 (?) BVCP versions for comparison. Looks like the 1986 and the 1990 share the same mastering:


1986 R32P:

foobar2000 1.1.8 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2012-03-03 11:02:59

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: ? / ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR13 -1.10 dB -16.27 dB 4:28 ?-01 - Track01
DR14 0.00 dB -17.46 dB 4:48 ?-02 - Track02
DR15 0.00 dB -18.40 dB 4:01 ?-03 - Track03
DR14 -0.76 dB -18.43 dB 4:48 ?-04 - Track04
DR14 -1.27 dB -19.04 dB 3:47 ?-05 - Track05
DR13 0.00 dB -17.08 dB 4:36 ?-06 - Track06
DR14 -0.04 dB -17.07 dB 4:40 ?-07 - Track07
DR14 0.00 dB -16.80 dB 4:15 ?-08 - Track08
DR14 0.00 dB -18.30 dB 3:41 ?-09 - Track09
DR14 -1.38 dB -19.91 dB 4:29 ?-10 - Track10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR14

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 1411 kbps
Codec: PCM
================================================================================

1995 BVCP:

foobar2000 1.1.8 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2012-03-03 11:11:24

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: ? / ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR12 0.00 dB -13.99 dB 4:28 ?-01 - Track01
DR13 0.00 dB -15.20 dB 4:48 ?-02 - Track02
DR13 0.00 dB -16.32 dB 4:01 ?-03 - Track03
DR13 0.00 dB -15.58 dB 4:48 ?-04 - Track04
DR13 0.00 dB -16.63 dB 3:47 ?-05 - Track05
DR12 0.00 dB -14.73 dB 4:36 ?-06 - Track06
DR13 0.00 dB -15.10 dB 4:40 ?-07 - Track07
DR13 0.00 dB -14.78 dB 4:16 ?-08 - Track08
DR13 0.00 dB -15.94 dB 3:41 ?-09 - Track09
DR14 0.00 dB -17.64 dB 4:29 ?-10 - Track10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 1411 kbps
Codec: PCM
================================================================================

 

Indeed! Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I'd like to contribute that the numbers above suggest they are NOT the same master at all.

Having the same album average is meaningless. Look song to song--they have different levels across the board. It looks like they used a brickwall limiter on the 95 (because it was new at the time) in the way that the tool was designed/intended to be used--to raise to full scale or just below safely by occasionally clipping a transient that would keep you needing to push the whole thing down without good musical reason.

I feel the need to point that out for anyone who runs across this in the archive. That DR tool is a very easy/handy/relevant stat, IMO--but, it's important that one know a little bit about the numbers beyond the album average. Those two have different masterings.

 

Jamie, I said that the 1986 and the 1990 seem to share the same mastering. I was referring to Rundfunk's contribution earlier in the thread, I was not referring to the numbers of the 1995 edition. The numbers of the 1986 and the 1990 seem identical to me.

 

My bad....didn't see that.

The industry has really made a minefield out of this stuff, no?

It appears the Pages 1981 record has now seen 3 different audio masters for four releases on CD....for an album that (while I love it) didn't sell well to begin with! That what brought up the old thread, fwiw-my trying to figure out what barcodes to look for on those--I got a sealed vinyl version that was easily bested by some mp3s of some master obviously other than the current one I bought from Pono!

 

Pages albums on Pono? It's so frustrating to see all these great releases on HDtracks, Pono, Qobuz and Prostudiomasters, and as far as I know I can't access either of those shops from my country. Hopeless. I wonder where other forum members from Scandinavia buy all of their lossless music??

 

They are, but they're "just" redbook, FWIW. See--in MY country, you can't buy the CDs, so Pono is the only choice for "not data compressed" access to the older titles....other than expensive Japanese import CDs. The Pages were never released on CD here I don't think. Vinyl records a plenty. I just bought a sealed copy of the 81 record....

 

Man, I'd love to see the Bliss Band and a ton of otherwise Japan-only CD releases of WB AOR product hit Pono Music... (but it won't make me BUY a Pono...)

 

I found the Yacht Rock Youtube series through this thread. Stay smooth brother!

 

Nothing would make me buy a Pono player save potentially it being kind $99 "neat toy price".

 

C'mon guys, "Aja" beats them all, simply the best. Now, does anybody know anything about this band called FCC (Funky Communication Committee)? They have this amazing album called "Do You Believe in Magic?", very smooth stuff. They have a Michael McDonald feel to them. I search for information on them but didn't find nothing!

 

I like the first episodes, but all that space and aliens crap ruins the last ones for me. So Koko wasn't really Koko? WTF!

 

Ed Motta's AOR Mixes for Wax Poetics magazine. Just rare stuff!

Mix 1: http://waxpoetics.com/music/mixtape/the-aor-mix/



Mix 2: http://waxpoetics.com/music/mixtape/ed-motta-drops-aor-mix-2-support-u-s-tour/



His latest album is super smooth too, and it's actually called AOR.

 

Ed Motta's AOR is an excellent album!! Be sure to order the English version, unless, of course you're Spanish!

 

West coast jazz?
FM rock > Steely Dan etc..

 

My two favorites of the genre: