Beavy, I couldn't say. All I know is that mine is an old original pressing from Swindon. It is a bit unusual as it has a rear art work stating "made in west Germany" and front artwork stating "made in England", but the CD is made in UK. I also have the CP32 Japan 1st pressing and it sounds the same.(just like the vinyl to my ears, which I bought the day it came out in 1976). I have some Hollywood remasters and a couple of 1993 remasters, but not for ADATR. Hopefully, someone who has ADATR Remaster will run EAC peaks for you. It might be that the original West German CD or Japan Cd has a different volume level, but possibly from the same (master) source, so we will have to see what develops.
Sorry, but the only thing I received from the dealer were the peak levels mentioned above. I don't remember the catalog number on the disc but it was completely different from the artwork which had the old CDP... numbers on it. But as it seems to be no original mastering I'll keep my fingers off this item.
Well the un-remastered version is CDP746208 2 and Japan CP32 5313. The remasters are :- A Day At The Races CD Parlophone CDPCSD 131 remaster A Day At The Races CD Parlophone 0777 7 89493 2 9 remaster A Day At The Races CD Hollywood HR-61035-2 long box A Day At The Races CD Toshiba-EMI TOCP-8275 remaster
Beavy, These are the EAC peak levels for the remaster: A Day At The Races 07777 7 89493 2 9 Disc Matrix reads : 789493 2 @ 1 1-5-4-NL IFPI AAH47 Track 1 Filename Track01.wav Peak level 92.9 % Test CRC D82DCE89 Copy OK Track 2 Filename Track02.wav Peak level 80.0 % Test CRC 30D0D9CE Copy OK Track 3 Filename Track03.wav Peak level 100.0 % Test CRC 281711E3 Copy finished Track 4 Filename Track04.wav Peak level 87.5 % Test CRC 017A00A8 Copy OK Track 5 Filename Track05.wav Peak level 88.8 % Test CRC A2DB52B6 Copy OK Track 6 Filename Track06.wav Peak level 90.6 % Test CRC 33B2C8E9 Copy finished Track 7 Filename Track07.wav Peak level 82.9 % Test CRC 5413F9CF Copy OK Track 8 Filename Track08.wav Peak level 87.2 % Test CRC E2E4B4EA Copy OK Track 9 Filename Track09.wav Peak level 97.8 % Test CRC 7FA05344 Copy OK Track 10 Filename Track10.wav Peak level 91.9 % Test CRC 60916C9A Copy OK
Thanks Darren; not a difficult work at all since I am a proud owner of the A day at the races remaster..
Thanks a lot for all the help Reading the comments here in the forum it seems I can be glad not to have bought this one. So the search will continue and I was already happy by seeing the right "cover" in the used bin.............
Should be relatively easy to find or to be certain, just buy a japan one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/QUEEN-A-DAY-A...ZMusic_CDs?hash=item2c52dd9016#ht_1674wt_1202 or a cheaper CDP7 one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CD-LP-Queen-A..._CDs_CDs_GL?hash=item3359ade41f#ht_595wt_1165 Or post a Want To Buy in the forums classifieds.
From reading through this thread, it doesn't seem as though the Toshiba-EMI Supermasters CDs have been clearly investigated. I happened to just get both the first and 2nd album so I can throw up some info. These were issued in 1990. If samples are of interest, let me know. Queen TOCP-6551 EAC: 99.3 % 97.7 % 97.1 % 96.3 % 93.4 % 97.7 % 73.6 % 87.1 % 97.9 % 79.2 %
I saw this speculated upon earlier in the thread, but I assume you refer only to Queen II? The s/t is definitely not no-noised. Queen II I'm not as sure about. I will upload a sample from if anyone wishes to compare it to the CP32: March Of The Black Queen: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=RmNCcHBBcG9CTW14dnc9PQ
It's the same mastering as my original Sonopress version. This mastering has very little "noise". It may be no-noised. I will try to check against my UK vinyl later.
QII seems to have some noise reduction applied. I remember speaking with another forum member about this when he picked it up cheaply. He gave it a listen and sold it the next day. Roland and I also swapped some EAC peak level info for both SuperMasters QI&QII and iirc, they were the same as the non-noise reduction versions, but yet they seemed to display all the characteristics of no-noise being added. Maybe Roland remembers it better than I do. I still have these SuperMasters, but I haven't ever played them (I know, I'm pretty useless when I have multiple copies), other than doing EAC tests.
The sample from the SuperMasters and the Sonopress version I have are identical. They both sounds a bit veiled/no-noised to me. Are you saying there is an earlier version that is not no-noised out there?
The QII SuperMasters is also bit-identical to my early EMI pressing (no Parlophone logo, country of origin unknown). A spectrum analysis reveals that this mastering is most probably NOT no-noised: The dark blue areas represent silence, the faded blue/green ones are "noise". If it was no-noised, the faded-green areas would be blue like the frequencies from 20kHz to 22kHz. The sample analysed is the SuperMasters. I have read that the tape for QII is in bad shape because of all the overdubs that took place directly onto the stereo master... It could explain why it sounds veiled...
I use the same trick as you to tell if a mastering is no-noised or not. But there are different degrees of use of no-noise. When comparing the original mastering to my UK vinyl it is quite easy to tell that there has been done some trickery on the CD mastering. The vinyl is much more alive sounding.
Not if you started with the Sonopress or CP32. I think it has always been considered that either these pressing were flat (ish) transfers without no-noise. These Supermasters seem to sit in the middle of the first releases,but issued before the Digital Remaster series and also seem unique to the Japanese market. Is it possible EAC can give the same peak readings for 2 masterings (one using no No-noise, and one using No-Noise?) if they are from the same master source?
As I said, the s/t album from the Supermasters series is definitely not no-noised. Here is a sample from "Keep Yourself Alive": http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=RmNEMWZEb0JRR2Z2Wmc9PQ So you can rule that out and deal with Queen II, but I don't think it is either. And no, I would suspect there is no way you could attain the exact same peak levels as the CP32s if no-noise was applied. Also, there is no real precedent for the use of no-noise. I have never heard a Toshiba-EMI pressing using no-noise as early as 1990. They seem to have gotten into that game a bit later than Sony, so unless the masters were switched it would seem unlikely. And given that reports are this mastering is identical to others and earlier pressings, I suspect we can conclude that it is a good find. Also, Bjorn, keep in mind that the vinyl very well may have been cut with top end boost, giving it a more "alive" sound. Or the original tapes might have been recorded in dolby and the tape transfer wasn't decoded perfectly for CD ... Different things could be at play, but I really don't think I hear any no-noise artifacts.
I just compared “Seven Seas Of Rhye” from the original EMI CD to the same track from the early WG Greatest hits CD. The version on the original EMI CD is “smiley faced” compared to the Greatest hits version. Still it has less tape hiss than the Gratest hits version. I prefer the Greatest hits mastering of this song by a wide margin. This is how the original is EQ compared to the WG Greatest hits.
I compared my Supermasters Queen II to my WG EMI copy hoping the Supermasters would be better. Not even close. The Supermasters sounded quite dead compared to the WG EMI. To my ears, it sounded like noise reduction. If not no-noised, why does it sound worse than the EMI original?
As I said earlier I have detected no difference between the original EMI mastering and the Supermasters of the first and the second album. They use the same mastering.
I guess they used some kind of noise reduction on the Queen II and then they tried to EQ some "life" back into it. Comparing this track to the UK vinyl the CD is jacked up in the heights by around 12db. We are talking serious top end boost on this one compared to the original UK LP. Still it have very little audible hiss.
