If one goes for the early versions, why not go for the 2CD Castle or EMI versions from 1995? They're not that expensive.
Only have a few of the non-remastered discs. Currently, have NOTB and SSOASS. Managed to get a cheap 1995 Castle of NPFTD.
I second this. That being said: a) I prefer the japanese CP32 (up to seventh son) / TOCP (No Prayer & Fear) cds. Though getting Piece of Mind and Powerslave CP32 albums is both really expensive and hard to find. b) You will find out they are different masters, as the japanese Piece of Mind is the only master that has the "Still Life" intro as a separate track (named "Phatoor") c) Get the US Capitol for the debut album
The vinyl edition of "No Prayer for the Dying" was cut from the 44.1 kHz digital master, so the differences you hear are most likely due to your vinyl rig, mostly the altered frequency response of your cartridge. "Fear of the dark" was also cut from the 44.1 kHz digital master.
I'm no Iron Maiden expert, but it is unlikely (however not impossible) that the vinyl were cut flat from the digital masters.
I agree that the non-remastered CD’s are the best. Was very disappointed with the 98 and 15 remasters. Here’s what I have and have had on CD. Kept all my preferred discs and a few of the others. S/T: US Capitol. Sounds good. Killers: US Capitol pressed by EMI Swindon. Good mids but harsh highs Killers: UK EMI. Outstanding. Best sound quality of Maiden CD’s. Darker mids but highs not harsh like US. Completely different mastering from US and completely different soundscape. No Twilight Zone unfortunately, but have that on UK First 10 Years. Killers actually starts with a cymbal, which was cut on the US. I still haven’t gotten used to that after listening to the US mastering all these years but the UK is so crankable. Beast: UK EMI (like best). Also have early US Capitol. Agree it’s a bit cold sounding (both). I think there is only 1 mastering pre-1998, is that correct? Piece: UK EMI (like best). CP32 (smooth highs). US Nimbus UK press. Castle 2CD. Record Club. All are the same mastering but all have pressing differences unique to each. I think there is only 1 mastering pre-1998, is that correct? CP32 has track increment difference but mastering sounds the same. This one frustrates me because I love the album and the Piece b-sides on the First Ten Years sound so much better. Powerslave: UK EMI (like best). US DADC (warmer but not as clear). Would love to hear the WG gold since that’s a different mastering. SIT: UK EMI (like best). US Nimbus.
Over the course of the last two months I've picked up Iron Maiden, Number Of The Beast, Piece Of Mind, Powerslave, Somewhere In Time, 7th Son and No Prayer for a total of $150 including shipping. Not exactly cheap, but not crazy prices.
You'd have to do some adaptations to the audio for vinyl or it wouldn't sound very good or sometimes even be impossible to play. Cutting = mastering.
Agreed. I don't mean to say the 2015 CDs are good. But they don't have the silly mastering EQ that was on the 1998 atrocities. And although this mastering engineer has used a lot of compressed it appears not to be multi-band compression which was used in 1998. They are closer to the masters than the 1998 version. The only signs here appear to be No argument there.
Don't ask me how but I have heard the raw A/D 24/192 transfer of NUMBER OF THE BEAST album and the British vinyl (brother's import 1982 copy) and I tend to agree with you. The original British vinyl is the closest to the unfudged master than anything. And that includes so called HD tracks. Some low end filtering was done. Below 40 hz. But beyond that it is the master. The Capitol CD is good. People say it is dull. Sorry but the mix is like that. Deal with it! I had the 24/192 PCM raw transfer. No compression, EQ, edits or normalization. But it got toasted when my old laptop got ahhhhhh damaged. An engineer friend of mine got it from god know who. Problem was bad edits can cause low frequency thumps and clicks and pops. The raw A/D transfer I heard had more than a few click and numbs on it. Anyway, nothing they have released 20 years sounds anything like the master.
True. The best cutting engineers can cut a master as is. But it depends on length. If a 52 minute record is bass heavy (30 - 80hz) then you have a problem. Splitting one album into two is the solution. Instead if 26 minutes per side. 12 - 16 minutes per side. Plenty if groove space for all that low bass. You can cut a loud recoed (volume wise. Not compression) and quiet record with good dynamic range and killer bass. But never everybody is in love with turning over a record every 16 minutes. And then there is the opposite. In 1980 Billy Joel decided to release a double live album. That could have be a nice 80 minute release with good sound. Or even 100 minutes and still maintain decent sound. But Mr. Joel wanted an affordable product for fans so an hour of live music was to be cut on one record. A half an hour per side! SONGS IN THE ATTIC. I always thought it was full of outtakes because of the title. Fans want to hear a whole show. Not a castrated version. Rush could have released a triple live album in 1981. At 20 minutes per side that would have given the fans the full 2 hour show. Ans I am sure Rush could have arranged a special price for the triple vinyl like they did for the 3 disk set - STAGES. The Clash did it with Sandinista. Of course they locked the master tapes away. All 6 tapes until their record company agreed to pricing the triple album at a double price. Yea, sure. Did any Rock artist ever release a triple live album giving the fans a whole 2 hour show back in the days of vinyl? Iron Maiden gave us the while 100 minute show of the Powerslave Tour. Well.....On vinyl at least. I never understood why the VHS video was not the whole show..And until the 1998 remaster we didn't get the whole show on CD. Rush's, SHOW OF HANDS VHS HI-FI video and DVD is only 95 minutes. And why not include the LOCK AND KEY live track from the laser disk release when they remixed/re-released the show on DVD? The bottom line is yes, many compromises have to be made when cutting vinyl. Especially when it is a long album on one disk.
Those were some long sides of vinyl. It still sounds mighty fine, though! I hate to be pedantic, but that video was the whole set. It's missing Murray's guitar solo, but the video does include every song played at the Long Beach shows. Sanctuary is missing on the vinyl (as is Murray's solo again), otherwise sides 1 to 3 of the double LP feature another Long Beach show. The extra songs (side 4 of the original vinyl release/disc 2 of the remastered CD + b-sides of Live After Death singles except for Sanctuary) were only played a few times early in the tour, and not all of them were played every night. Those were recorded on various dates in London, a few months prior to the Long Beach shows.
Why are you depressing me talking about 44.1 khz same rate? Just lie and say it was 48 or 50 khz. LOL have you no mercy sir? LOL Everyone probably thinks THAT NO real pros today record at 16/44.1. That 16/44.1 or 16/48 is not used by pros. Well....sit down and have a stiff drink because I have some news. CLA still uses the orginal 2 inch DASH 3348. It came out in 1989. It records at 16/48! Every PRO TOOLS project CLA gets is cut down to 48 tracks or less and recorded on the 3348. He says it sounds good as long as you hit the top 15-20 %. In 16 bit 0VU equals - 12 dbfs (RMS, average.) I assumed he dithered the 24 bit tracks down to 16 bit and sample rate converted the 96 /192 khz sample rates down to 48. But apparently he does a D/A conversion. But don't quote me on it. The industry was still using 48 khz until the mid 90's. And 16 bit until the early 90's.
Wait....But I thought it was 13/40.096. LOL LOL Well, that is what it sounds like. I love the album and the mix is great. But the original mix is so harsh. That was early days of digital.. The remix is a different story. I haven't heard it.....Is it good? The stereo fold down of the 5.1 mix or did they do a separate stereo mix? But remember the multitrack was analog. 1980 digital is primitive.
There is no dedicated MP stereo remix. The surround remix is nice, but not on the level of Steven Wilson or Elliot Scheiner's work.
On the Blu-ray they say there is a stereo mix of the remix so this is a fold down then? How is the fold down mix? The fact is people would freakout if you put Neil's Tom's in 360 degree spread. So when he did a left to right tom fill it would go right around 360 degrees. They would be comments like, "Drums don't surround you!" Well bass, snare, and kick don't naturally come from the center either. There is no acoustic rule for that. And if they are two rhythm guitarists they do not have their amps stage far left and far stage right either and yet they are mixed this way. Why aren't people complaining about this? Totally unnatural. I did a few 5.1 mixes with a full 360 degree spread of drums. Not well received. And no I don't remember what album it was. Plenty of unsigned Metal and folk bands wanted a 5.1 mix. One sold as many as 100 copies. Independant label. The new trend is for new bands to manufacture their own disks so they get all the money. Unfortunately you can only turn out so much. And a record company can promote a new band better than the band alone on the web. There is a good reason so much of my mixes go unnoticed. Fun. ....Joy.
I don't know of any MP Blu-Ray that indicates a stereo remix. If so, it's an error. The original 1981 stereo mix was remastered and this is what is on all the discs. Of course you can always make a fold-down of the surround mix on your stereo system, but there is no folded-down track on the discs themselves. I think a careful stereo fold-down of the surround mix is a good alternative (and in "true" Hi-Res from the analog multis) to the original stereo mix.
After deliberation, an almost 360 degrees spread of Neal's drums is what we did with Steven Wilson for the A Farewell to Kings surround remix. To my knowledge it was well-received, at least better received than the much safer original surround mix.
Is anyone happy with how Iron Maiden sound on streaming services? I’ve been pretty unimpressed and prefer my CDs
I also like the newer pressings by Sean Magee, and they don't have inner groove distortion like the older pressings, which have been cut too hot. I was listening to Piece Of Mind yesterday and the more I turned up, the fatter the sound got.
