Nick Drake

I compared Bryter Layter 2008 SHM Fruit Tree box with the original US CD and honestly I would be hard pressed to pick them out saying which is which if I did this blind. When doing the test sighted I have a slight preference for the 2008 SHM Fruit Tree box, which sounds just a fraction more detailed with a lower noise floor. So at least up until 2008 (unless this SHM box recycles an earlier mastering, if I had to take a guess the 2003 remasters?) the tapes for BL were in fine condition up to that point.

I only listened to the hi-res downloads non-critically so I couldn't say what I thought of them. I did play the deluxe box LPs numerous times and am very familiar with their mastering, besides Pink Moon they were not to my taste at all and sounded subpar compared to early UK copies either from the first matrix or slightly later cuts.

 

Found a copy of Treasury for $14. Is that okay for a used SACD?

 

Not the cheapest anyone's ever bought it for, but yes, a reasonable price, especially given that apparently these are starting to go up in price lately. Plus heck, it's a great comp!

 

To add to my post 176 I hear a bigger difference between the original US CD of Pink Moon (Ryko/Hannibal silver and black face CD) and the SHM Japan box which I suspect was done by Simon Heyworth and I do prefer the US original in this case. I was using Place To Be and Free Ride for the comparison, I don't know how you guys listen to random tracks with Nick Drake, I went straight to the beginning of the album and played it from start to finish

 

That's why I haven't bought the SACD compilation.

 

Happy with the 1992 Ryko Disque Americ Canada. Haven't felt the need to go further

 

Amazon.co.uk had in for less than 3 pounds for the better part of a year...

 

In a sort of religious evangelistic stylee.... I gave my copy away, as it was so cheap, at the time.

 

George do you have any preference with his albums on digital? I've almost always listened to them on vinyl (early UK or US pressings, the former sounding more transparent) but came back to digital a few years ago after getting an unbelievable DAC.

I did some analysis last night, I believe there are four different masterings of his studio albums. The original UK/Europe Island CDs, USA Hannibal/Ryko, Simon Heyworth remasters and the hi-res downloads. The Island and Hannibal CDs are damn close, but they aren't digitally identical. If I had to take a guess the same sources were used but transferred at different times and they might be transferred flat? According to Cally in an interview these were sourced from LP production masters. But there is also a bunch of other misinformation in the interview so I'm not sure how accurate that is.

Maybe a thread of Nick Drake on digital would garner some interest?

 

I haven't done all the comparisons for all three albums, but I like the Original Island for Five Leaves Left.

I assume we have many Drake on CD threads, but they may be locked now due to the "inactive for 2 years, auto-locked" rule.

 

The SACD is the best digital Nick Drake but I really enjoy the sound of the Hannibal CDs as well. I like the original Island/Hannibal CDs better than the remasters.

 

That's true, the few times I've requested threads to be unlocked and replied to them they garner pretty much no new discussion.

One more thing to add to my post. The Hannibal Fruit Tree box from the early/mid 90s (before they switched it over to using the Heyworth remasters) used a combination of mastering from the Hannibal CDs and the Island CDs which is a bit odd, or maybe it was just some of the boxes. On FLL Hannibal you can hear two tape "glitches" in the first 30 seconds of the first track which is not present on the original Island CD or on my SHM CD box which I suspect is the Heyworth remaster.

I might start the thread after I've done more comparisons.

Overall I still think the original US Hannibal CDs (or Island) are the closest I've heard to the early UK vinyl... just finished playing Bryter Layter second label UK with the first matrix so it's fresh in my mind.

 

None of the CD releases I have or I've heard use the Heyworth remasters. I thought I had them on the Hannibal Fruit Tree box from the 90's you mentioned, but according to your post that's not the case.
I'm always looking for new ways to experience the albums, but I'm not a great believer there's much point going the digital route with Nick. Apart from in comparison with the dreadful Simply Vinyl 2000 repress and its even worse reissue in 2009, there's very little competition from digital.

 

I first heard Nick Drake in an excellent dreamy VW car commercial. I kept wondering who sang that super cool song. I called my local listener supported station and asked the DJ and he kind of dismissively said, oh i think it's Nick Drake. I had never heard of him. Got Pink Moon on CD and loved it to death. Around that time a great documentary came out which i saw in the theater. The interesting part of it was how similar he sang to his mother. And the sadness of his music was just who he was. His guitar playing is pretty cool too. Very unique to him. So many cool songs. And a real vibe to his playing and singing.

 

Thanks for sharing how much his music means to you, and that special vibe you've picked up on apparently has a reason. I'm not a musician, but I've read somewhere how difficult it is for meer mortals to seperate the rhythm of the guitar and the vocals as much as he did. He often used the most tricky off-beat parts of bars to start vocal lines. That's one aspect. The other was really well covered in a video earlier in this thread: Nick's special guitar tone. Maybe a third would be the tunings he used.

 

The CDs are fine if your on a budget picked one up for 3.00 fairly recently.
The original LPs go for serious coin.

 

This from the horse's mouth, John Wood, 4 years ago, Sept 2013

NICK DRAKE – Vinyl Mastering Notes.

There has been little change in the methodology and process of transferring Tape to Master Laquers since these albums were originally Mastered in the late sixties and early seventies. However over the next 15 years until the advent of the compact disc improvements were made to the design of cutting heads that allowed more high frequency signals to be transferred which for ‘acoustic’ based material such as Nick’s gives a feeling of more air and space to the material.

In parallel with these improvements was the arrival of more sophisticated analogue equalisers offering the ability to subtly highlight parts of the audio spectrum in ways not available in Mastering channels when these records were transferred from tape originally. This new Mastering of Nick’s albums has made full use of these developments whilst retaining the integrity of the originals.

It is inevitable that when dealing with tapes that are now over 40 years old there will be some degradation in quality consequently we have not always been able to use the original first generation tapes. The sources are as follows:

FIVE LEAVES LEFT : The original tape was unusable and although there were tape copies the best source was using a 24bit digital file made from the original tape when re-mastered for CD some 12 years ago.

BRYTER LAYTER : Unfortunately the original Masters have been lost so I used my personal copy made at the time of the original mixes.

PINK MOON : This was cut from the original Masters.

All three albums were mastered at Abbey Road Studios, July 2012.

Mastering Engineer Adam Nunn

 

This is true, but fortunately we've been served well with Nick Drake reissues of quality.

 

'five leaves left', original tape was unusable? I wish more explanation would be given
as to why?
and 'bryter', original masters 'lost'? it baffles me how these things happen.
when I come back in another life (yeah right...), I'm coming back as the
Indiana Jones of tape archaeology/preservation.

 

Just saying the CDs are cheap as chips, come with booklets and sound nice. Just a economic option.

 

Ian Anderson (Tull) kept his masters in the garden shed.

 

i agree, i have all the LP reissues and the SQ is good to my ears. No complaints

 

The three lp's that Nick recorded in his all too brief lifetime represent to me what is perhaps the most succinctly perfect catalogue in popular music; two hours of the most exquisite bliss. They beg to be played successively in their entirety and the effect is spellbinding every time. That someone so uniquely gifted was plagued by such crippling depression is unutterably wretched.

I tend to prefer listening to the old Hannibal cd's in the Fruit Tree box (which IIRC are pretty much the same as the Island Masters) but the remasters aren't bad. And for those who haven't yet picked up the book from a few years back (Remembered for a While), it is a thing of rare beauty and a wonderful read.

 

If you bought the FLL 2013 remastered Back to Black vinyl release you were given the additional option of 24-bit HiRes FLACs and LoRes 320 MP3s (Dubbed from Disc) if I remember correctly. These formats were also part of the unremastered Back to Black Island 50th anniversary release a few years before.
Might be an interesting three-way comparison with the new source the 24-bit CD master from 2000.

 

Just this minute bought an FLL CD with the Heyworth remastering from the record shop my company shares a building with. Alexpop was right. It was dirt cheap!