Q re: Neil Young CD's

Does anyone know if the Neil Young CD's came from the original masters?

Also, are there any Neil Young CD's out there that sound better than what we've got now?

I'm itching to get "Tonights The Night," "Rust Never Sleeps," and "After the Goldrush" for quite some time, but those remasters/box set is still nowhere in sight.

 

I'd love to know this myself.

The one thing I know for sure is Young hates the CD format (I'm sure that's not news to anyone here). I remember him saying there were details and such on records that were lost in the digital conversion, which is why he started recording digitally--that way he wouldn't hear what was missing. (I used to think it was the weed talking for him, but now I think he may be right.)

Anyway, it wouldn't surprise me if he went straight to DVD-Audio with those upgrades!

 

The stock Cds sound fairly awesome, with few exceptions. I'd say, you'd be silly to wait for upgrades, since it would be slightly more difficult to get the "straight issues".

If "Harvest" isn't from the master, (RE-1) then I'm hearin' things, folks.

 

Yeah, I'm thinking of caving and buying what's out there right now. Some of those Warner CD's seem to have the EQ messed with. The Van Morrison CD's (Astral Weeks is bright; I think Moondance had something futzed with somewhere in the midrange), the US Rumors...

Then again, I thought Deja Vu was a bad mastering job, and lo and behold, it's a flat transfer!

 

Well, now I can add a few more CDs to my "Satisfied With..." list--namely, my Neil Young collection. That's what's great about this forum: Every day I learn that CDs I thought had inferior sound actually don't (Neil Young), and every once in a while I discover the opposite (Rumours--the general opinion here flies in the face of everything I'd heard about the original CD and the remaster).

BTW, I believe I read somewhere that Young was actively involved in the mastering of his Warners CDs. Anyone know about this?

 

I agree, my CD copy sounds stunning. It's in SQ Quad, too! (Or is it QS? Anyone remember?)

 

Er...are you saying that your previously disliked the Neil Young CDs but then changed your mind based on the opinions of those here?

 

Lukpac,

No, just that I thought they were mastered from tapes a few generations removed from the "original masters." I've never been unhappy with their sound (though I can see where the word "inferior" would lead you to think that), but I thought maybe they could sound a lot better. Hope I'm making sense, because I'm kinda tired right now.

 

Not about Neil Young for me, but I indeed learned on this forum to give certain "older" CD's another try, and not be so quick to discard the old in favor of the new improved "remastered" versions. Right?

 

Yes, Angel, you took the words right out of my mouth! Lukpac, what Angel said!

Good night, all.

 

How true Angel! I never would have thought so on some titles for sure.

 

"Harvest" is in quad? You mean the old master tape is actually a Quad mix? No WONDER so much of it has a kind of "surround feel", even in stereo. That really does explain a lot to me about the sound of that album.

Gee!

 

No, no Angel. They take the multi out for the surround mixes. Although someone just tried their go on making a 5.1 out of a stereo source of Pink FLoyd's "Meddle".

The new Beach Boys DVD (Endless Harmonies) has 5.1 mixes of a lot of popular Beach Boys songs. Mono goes Quad! Eeek! Steve, DUCK!

 

I've had all of Neil Young's CD's at one time or another. "Harvest" is one of the ones I sold because I thought it sounded flat and weak. Is there (oh no!) an original CD version to look for, and what's out there now is an inferior version of that? My copy I sold was in a longbox, though. Some of the others I wasn't happy with the sound on, that I sold were "Everybody Knows..." and "After The Gold Rush". I'm quite impressed with the sound of some of the later albums (on CD), like "Comes A Time" and "Rust Never Sleeps". But, I never thought I'd hear "Harvest" called a great sounding CD (or words to that affect).

nashreed

 

As far as I know, the current version of Harvest is the RE-1. Warner Brothers is very....ahem... conservative with respect to remastering. Others have suggested substituting "remiss" for "conservative"
The quad mix, eh. Anyone got an old SQ decoder to check? Apparently the first US CD pressing of Dark Side of the Moon was also accidentally released in SQ. Neither would be as good as modern 5.1 I expect. I think DSOTM is now up to RE-2 - the Doug Sax version.

 

The current stock of Neil Young CDs (RE-1) are much improved over the original issues. I've recently upgraded "EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE" and "AFTER THE GOLDRUSH" and they sound fine. Both were BMG Club issues. The copy of "DECADE" I received at the same time (from BMG) did not have a RE-1 in the inner ring and was the same hissy, flat sounding original issue. Anybody know if this has been upgraded?

 

Another way to approach my thinking on the Neil Young CDs is to compare them to Layla. When I heard that double CD from the 80s, I thought, "This can't possibly be from the original master tapes." Then, after hearing again and again that it was, and after picking up the Joseph Palmaccio remaster, I realized that short of Hoffmanization that's the best Layla is going to sound. So it moved from my "Disatisfied with..." to my "Satisfied with..." list.

Eliminate the terrible sound part, and the same goes for Warners Neil Young.

 

As a die hard Neil fan, here are a couple of CD's you might not be aware of.
There were 2 CD singles issued in the UK for Harvest Moon that contained the tracks from Decade that were unique to that album (i.e. Campaigner, Winterlong etc) that were remastered, a Gold edition Harvest was released in Australia in the early 90's, a UK Greatest Hits was released that contained one or two songs from the missing albums, the Complex sessions video soundtrack was released as a Promo only CD.
These are just a few abnormalities.

 

Wait a minute, when did this happen? My Young CDs don't have RE-1's on them, and I never saw any mention of this in ICE magazine. (Figures.)

Again, when did this happen? And have ALL the titles through Rust Never Sleeps been remastered?

 

Decade never got manipulated since the 1st CD release. There are no RE-1's.

Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere, has a RE-2 designation, Harvest is an RE-1. Rust Never Sleeps and just about the rest of the catalog is the same. I don't own the Neil Young album (Debut) but I'm sure that's still the same issue as always.

The newer issues don't seem to have any sonic nasties other than the normal Neil Young craziness. No worries.

 

I'm unclear about your "rest of the catalog is the same" statement. Specifically, are any of these titles RE-1 or RE-2?

After the Gold Rush
Tonight's the Night
Comes a Time
Rust Never Sleeps

Thanks.

 

Harvest is interesting as there are different types of recordings on it. I seem to remember the LP sounding better than the CD (still have the LP but no longer have a TT in my setup).

All I know is, I'll be comparing the CD to the 2 channel DVD-A mix the moment I get it. I want to hear what Neil says he hears.

 

Sorry, "Harvest" was never released in any quad format. Actually, none of Neil Young's stuff was ever released in quad. However, he recently released "Road Rock Vol. 1" on multi-channel DVD-A. It is a live recording with the surrounds used for actual concert-hall ambience (so those who oppose "active" surrounds won't be disappointed). There is also the "Red Rock" DVD, which I think has a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.

Anyway, "After The Gold Rush" has been announced for multi-channel DVD-A, and "Heart of Gold" in hi-rez surround has already been released on a DVD-A compilation by Warner Bros.

Aside from that, it sounds like Neil wants to release the remainder of his catalog on DVD-A stereo only, but it wouldn't surprise me if these got the surround treatment as well.

To get it straight from the horse's mouth, check out:

http://www.angelfire.com/rock2/traces/pages/cdInterview.html

 

Steve,

That's very interesting about 'Harvest' always being a "quad" mix. What's the story behind this and why was it never on the label? Do you think that this album would've sounded even better as a standard stereo mix (not that it should ever be re-mixed from history/save our original mixes heritage fund...)?

Todd