Right. I was hoping remix might including mixing the guitars out of Free Form Guitar. Sort of an extended homage to John Cage. That would definitely improve the quality of the album.
That's over-broad. The original tech was good, the original producer was excellent, the mixes are fine. It's not tradionalist. There are other cases where the original mix was not hi-fi. This ain't one of them. But if the band wants it remixed it's their call.
Have not heard the MS Gold. Or the vinyl of CTA which I'm sure sounds very nice. The newer Mofi tamed the brass which was a good thing.
The MFSL was a flat transfer, and the Mastersound CD seems like it probably was as well. The two are extremely similar.
That's surprising about the MS Gold because I've heard maybe 5 seventies titles and I thought the EQ was kind of heavy (Boston, James Taylor)
I haven't seen any comments from Doug Sax about it, but as noted, it sounds extremely similar to the MFSL, so any EQ had to have been minimal. I believe Group Portrait didn't have much EQ either for that matter.
Group Portrait I've never owned. The Mofi CTA compared to a Japan pressing I had (Teicku I think is the spelling) sounded much flatter and the brass was easier on the ears. I just assumed the Mofi had the upper mids dialed back. But it sounds flat as a pancake. Another example of heavy EQ on a MS Gold is Wish You Were Here which is way heavy on the bass. The original 2 track 35DP smokes it.
Yes those gold MS have that quality. James Taylor JT sounds like that although I think its bass heavy.
I did not find the James Taylor JT bass heavy at least in my system. I think it sounds great with that bass foundation.
I remember when I did the shootout the original Columbia sounded more natural, but the MS Gold had more analog warmth, but was more bass heavy. On my system that was my take. In the end in this case it's a preference. The MS Gold in no way sounds bad.
I believe one should get the two-eye 1969-1970 Columbia pressings to hear CTA at its best. The two-eye's bass is superb.
There was a Rhino reissue several years back that was supposed to sound really good. But I can tell you that the circular Columbia label seriously pales next to my 2-eye.
This is one of my favorite albums but, like many others have stated, I’m going to sit tight with the excellent versions I already have, at least for the time being.
I’m pretty sure it would have been mentioned already. Regardless, I have the 5.1 mixes of Chicago II and V and never play them because the original quad mixes are so much better for the multichannel experience.
Personally, I would rather have the original mono single mixes reissued digitally. (They were dedicated, right? I recall @Steve Hoffman talking about Columbia being a "union shop" that never did folds. BTW, how long did that policy last? Seemingly for at least couple more years beyond the release of this album, since I remember Steve specifically saying Bob Dylan's 1971 single "Watching The River Flow" had a dedicated mono mix.) Or did I miss that happening already at some point?
It’d be hard to top the original 2 eye Columbia - played it the other night and was blown away by the sound. What a band.
Here's a couple of photos of the room CTA was mixed in, according to one of the captions: [from here: Vintage Sessions] They apparently show the room some months later (mixing Tom Rush s/t) - Ampex MM-1000 configured for 16-track operation and 8 x Dolby A301 2-channel units... Don Puluse is mentioned as mixing CTA with Jim Guercio in this room - is that right? Puluse was the credited engineer on the next 3 Chicago albums but Fred Catero is credited on CTA. If not, maybe it was Chicago that was mixed in this room?
I agree this album doesn't "need" a remix. (And there will always be the argument about whether to remix an album or not). But I'm all for a remixing an album just to hear a new perspective if someone wants to put the time and effort into it. Especially if the original mix is always available. So I'll definitely give it a good listen. However, I can't imagine it's going to be much different. But what a great album.
