If you say so. But vinyl forgives sins that CD does not. There's gotta be a reason why Saucerful has never had a mono CD release. Like Beck's Truth, the first Grateful Dead album, After Bathing at Baxters, and a few others. Hard to believe it's just coincidence.
If only. I heard (from a friend) that there may be a downloadable needle drop on the web somewhere, but still no official digital release of the mono mix.
Just my opinion and I know some others feel differently, but when I heard the Saucerful mono for the first time with RSD, I was not really all that floored. I know there are some differences in the mix, and sure it sounds OK, but my reaction was like "oh, it's in mono." The Piper mono, however, was a whole different universe--a completely different and truly revelatory experience of this album.
Yeah, I heard the same thing from others. Still want it though. Are You Experienced is another one of those hard-to-find mono mixes on CD. It got an SACD release last year (I think), but the reviews weren't too good.
VMP has this info: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn Color: Black Jacket Style: Direct-To-Board Jacket: Type Single Label: Legacy Recordings Mastering Engineer: James Guthrie, Joel Plante And Bernie Grundman Mastering Studio: Abbey Road Studios Pressing Location: Record Technology Incorporated (RTI) Release Type: Reissue Remastering Details: (AAA)
Wait, it was mastered at Abbey Road? Not at Guthrie's place? Bernie didn't do the cutting at Abbey Road certainly. I think the AAA designation is fishy, personally... I tend to agree; if the difference between mono and stereo mixes for Piper is analogous to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper (not talking about the remixes, just the originals)... the same is true for Saucerful and the White Album. Some songs are notably different in mono, others not so much It seems the band have taken the position that except for Piper and the early singles, stereo mixes are the ones they prefer to be out there, which is why it's kind of extraordinary a reissue of the mono Saucerful happened at all
Guys, the mastering info has been available since like 3 years ago. It’s NOT AAA. This has been discussed in great length before. The last time this was cut in mono AAA was 1969. It’s the exact same mastering as the digital transfer RSD version. Nothing changed. VMP doesn’t know what they’re talking about, and half the time, “mastered from tape” does not mean AAA anyway, but there’s a whole other thread on that. That all being said, unless you want to shell out several hundreds of dollars for an original UK mono pressing, this is the next best thing.
It's not priority for Pink Floyd to issue murky mono mix of second album. Same deal with Dead and Airplane. Master tapes for all of that albums exist. In fact Cream Puff War from mono 45' tape had been just issued on this compilation. Lenny Kaye Presents Lightning Striking First Dead album is so barely different in Mono so it sounds like fold down (which is not but differences are minimal). That's why they never bothered to put it on 2017 deluxe.
I bought the Tower when it was first released. Still have it, along with the Emily single. Was many years after when I was in England that I discovered there was a whole other version of the record.
I have it on a bootleg CD. Got it about 20 years ago. I have the RSD vinyl, but really, the stereo mix is the way to go I think.
I saw that and thought yeah right its AAA. I think I will email them and ask but I'm sure its impossible that VMP will have any kind of special cut.
Certainly not with the exact same mastering team at an entirely different studio than the ones they typically work in Interestingly, the gold-coloured Columbia label in this VMP product image is the same as the RSD release, only inverted colours (ie. gold text on black background instead of the other way around) Gotta catch 'em all, completists!
That's probably a mix up too obviously. I mean the recording was done at Abbey Road, that's where their analogue tapes are from.
acoustic sounds has info and the hype sticker of the upcoming version that indicates it's a repress of the 2017 mastering: Pink Floyd-Piper At The Gates Of Dawn-180 Gram Vinyl Record|Acoustic Sounds James Guthrie mastered that to hi-res and Bernie cut it from there just like all of the recent PF reissues.
Luckily that one is still pretty affordable. It’s been creeping up but nothing like Piper. Weren’t there more copies of Saucer?
I hope they'll do a regular black and blue Columbia label this time. I'd buy a copy just for that. EDIT Just saw the promo image posted above. Well I'm still tempted
I got the RSD release a few years back...,good to see this mono mix getting reissued, Piper sounds great in mono!
I can't find any info on it using the hi-res master. Is that just as assumption based on his previous work?
On all the recent (2016 and beyond) remasters it says the same thing on the hype sticker: "Remastered from the original analogue tapes by JAMES GUTHRIE, JOEL PLANTE and BERNIE GRUNDMAN." and they are all digital transfers. If it was all analog they wouldn't use 3 guys to cut it from tape.
