Gastwirt Chicago Transit Authority CD: 1 or 2 disc version preferred?

I'm watching the Sunday Night game on NBC and as they were going to commercial, the bumper music for the outro was Chicago's "Alive Again". What an obscure song to use for bumper music...

 

Folks, let's stick to the discussion of the various pressings of Chicago Transit Authority and not turn this into a discussion (criticism) of audio components.

 

Ok, I think I'll search out the Gold Columbia CD now since Mr. Sax mastered it. Thanks for that bit of info Steve, appreciate that

Bought the 2 LP set of CTA the week it was release eh? Hmm...you're revealing your age ya know

 

I like the original LP myself...

 

Two questions, please:

If you burn a copy of the Mastersound gold CTA direct to a CDR, will you get the same sound or will it lose any kind of audio quality?

And how do you extract and burn a regular CDR of the new stereo mix on the Chicago II DVD-A just to play in your car, etc?

 

We are talking about CTA here. Please don't change the topic.

 

You're about a month behind.

 

Then why all this talk of Rhino vs. Mastersound?

 

It's better late than never.

 

You will get the answer to your question if you read the whole thread.

 

Can we say the same of the 1995 release of the single CD version on "Chicago Records?"

I got one yesterday and some tracks sound fine, others are bright.

 

Dredging this one up to ask...for the Mastersound Gold disc of CTA - are there different Japan and US versions, or are these one in the same (in terms of mastering - I could care less about packaging etc)?

 

The Mastersound disc is the Mastersound disc. Doesn't matter where it was pressed. They're all the same.

 

I've never seen or heard of a Japan Mastersound of this title, but if there is one, chances are it would be identical to the U.S. version.

Been trying to find one of these, as well.

Those Rhino's, well...they sound like a rhino. For the rest, I really prefer the Gaswirt CD's over them. The re-issues just sound too hard and gritty. The Gastwirt's may have some EQ, but still somewhat listenable, and 110% better than the new ones, IMHO.

 

I agree.
Any Chicago albums remastered by Donelly (Rhino) sounds too hard and gritty.

This is how I rank the sound of Chicago CD's in terms of mastering engineer. No. 1 being the best but all of the three listed below sounds very good.

Good Sounding Ones
1. Doug Sax --------------- Chicago Transit Authority Mastersound Gold CD
2. Mark Wilder ------------- Group Portrait Box Set
3. Joe Gastwirt ------------ Columbia CD's

Bad Ones
David Donnelly -------------------- All Rhino Remasters

 

The Rhino CTA (only Chicago Rhino reissue I bought - stopped after that) is truly an abomination...can't make it though 5 minutes without wanting to rip it out of the player.

 

I have one. CK 57186. This is the original version of the Gold CD, and came in the white longbox. Not sure if the # changed when they reissued it as a U.S. pressing with a slipcase.

 

I Have not heard the mastersound version but the original Columbia beats the rhino !

 

The Rhino is dreadful. It's harsh. This is true of all of the Rhino Chicago CD's, in my opinion. The Columbia CD is just fine. The Rhino vinyl is sublime.

Ed

 

not heard the vinyl ! probably the only reason to hang on to the rhino cds is for the bonus tracks!

 

I believe LesPaul666 was pondering an actual Japanese issue, not the U.S. issue pressed in Japan. There is a Japanese gold issue of Chicago Transit Authority with an OBI strip. I believe it has an SRCS catalog number.

On a related note, I believe all U.S. copies of Chicago Transit Authority have the disc pressed in Japan since there only exists the original longbox form. That is, there is no later slipcase version with the disc pressed in the U.S.

 

Can anyone verify how the CTA CD released on Chicago Records compare to the Columbia CD? I saw a copy of the Chicago Records version and I was almost going to pick it up but decided to hold out for the Columbia version.

 

I'm fairly confident that the Chicago Records and US Columbia releases, for the whole catalog, use the same mastering.

 

Talking about Chicago on CD's, forget the Rhino remasters.
They were compessed and NR'ed to death.

The just recently released 180-gram Rhino vinyls of the first two Chicago albums are way above their CD counterparts in terms of sound quality. The vinyls are light years better.

Yes they share the same company name (Rhino) but they were remastered by two different engineers. It seems to me that the one who remastered Chicago on vinyl is the better remastering/audio restoration engineer.