RSD 2021 7/17 (pressing/overall quality review) *second drop*

This damned comment just cost me $75 online.
I need to turn the laptop off now.

 

Sorry

Now I feel a lot pressure for you to like it!

 

Did anybody get the Oceans Eleven Soundtrack ?

 

MSG-Live....LP's are pressed well, flat and quiet. The band is tight but the SQ is a mess...

 

The cover is not the best. Records a bit dished but quiet after a clean. SQ is decent. Worth a punt if you don't have it imo.

 

Ordered the Voices online after 8:00…says it’s cut from analog tape. Does the deadwax indicate who cut it? Let me know how it sounds when you get a chance to play it. Thanks!

 

Listening to mine which sounds great - did you see CB in the dead wax?

So glad I decided to buy this!

 

nice flat vinyl SUPER clear listened to side 2 sounded wonderful

 

Any run out info from the Monkees? Reagoso at Friday used to like to use Rainbo to press records in the past. Cheap cost to make and then charge premium prices.

 

I asked about that one but they were sold out. How Bluegrass is it? I mean is it more traditional or does it venture out a great deal?

 

Any indication who did the mastering?

 

Mine too. Sounds great.

 

If you’re a Bill Evan’s fan, get it! Really happy with it.

 

Great news. That was my #1 choice. Missed RSD yesterday as the weather here in NZ was appalling (violently heavy rain all day, flooding everywhere)

 

did not look sorry

 

MPO

 

Same.

 

Here are some of my results so far:

General: After unboxing the 11 RSD purchases, cleaning and sleeving them I noticed several things.

• The were a lot more damaged covers, bent corners, dented corners etc. Fortunately the discs inside appeared to be undamaged. I am not a collector, sure I like my LPs to look perfect but I can live with a little cosmetic damage if the record plays correctly.
• There is a higher percentage of disks coming in either paper sleeves with an anti-static liner or MoFi-like non-stick inner sleeves. There were still some plastic inner sleeve that didn't seem to be as static-free as they should be. I replaced (tossed) all such sleeves, plus the plain white paper inners. Printed inner sleeves or colored paper inners I retained, but I used a MoFi sleeve to store the record. I noticed I ended up using far less MoFi inners on this drop.
• Warps: There seemed to be more warps this time around vs. June. There may be several causes. July is warmer that June. Plus more that a few of my RSD LPs were smothering in tightly shrink wrapped covers that were difficult to remove. Even with a sharp matte knife, I had trouble getting the blade in the sleeve opening. That may explain some of the bent/damaged corners too.
• There are more and more disks coming on colored vinyl for RSD. I could do without colored vinyl, black is fine for with me. It used to be some shades of colored vinyl were far noisier than black vinyl. These days that no longer seems to always be true. Colored vinyl can often be just as quiet as black.
• I can't comment on ticks and pops and surface noise too much. All of my LPs get ultrasonically cleaned, passed over with a DeeStat III and run through a Sugar Cube SC-2 Mini click and pop remover.

Peggy Lee - World Broadcast Recordings 1955, Vol. 1:
This LP was pressed on Pink Vinyl but it is quiet in terms of surface noise and no clicks or pops that made it past my Sugar Cube. The LP was dead flat and centered. The sound is quite good but it is a little more raw than the Verve reissue of Black Coffee earlier this year. The recording facility doesn't sound as good and the performances were captured quickly. The performances sounds more like like what she might perform in a small jazz club whereas Black Coffee was more like what she would do in a big Las Vegas club. There are supposed to be 49 song performances from these sessions and the are planning release them all. Based on these I can’t wait to hear more.

The Ramones - triple J Live:
The Ramones are a force of nature there is no doubt of that. It seems like there is Ramones content every RSD. I had decided I didn't need another Ramones concert, I have about a dozen now. Then in the last few days I stated hearing some buzz about what a great performance this was. I looked at the material and I liked this period and it had a lot of my favorites. So when I missed out on an LP on my list, I grabbed this one as my consolation prize. The pressing was not quite dead flat, but was pretty close to it. The record was centered and quiet when it began and ended. As you know there is nothing quiet about a Ramones show. The sound was about as good as any other Ramones concert I've heard. Back in my CD days I always enjoyed the Rhino CDs Bill Inglot remastered. The only "ding" I would give the sound is something that I suspect was the fault of the original live performance. It sounds like the original sound engineers were struggling to get the live mix right and it took partway through the second track before they had things sorted. This is a way above average recording of some great material.

Canned Heat - Living The Blues:
This double LP was pressed on colored vinyl. The first disc on yellow vinyl and the second on pink vinyl. The first disc was dead flat and centered and hiss free. The second pink disc was gently warped, cupped actually, but this in no way impacted the sound, it also had 3 pea-sized splotches of black vinyl that bled into the pink vinyl in the run out groove. I don't have the original LP to compare it to but I think the sound is great. Gut wrenching bass that gave my sub-woofers a workout. The instruments were often hard panned left and right more like an early 60's stereo records. Great performance, great sound.

Bill Evans -Behind The Dikes:
This was my pick disk of the Drop, but it was a bit of a mixed bag. As others have noted, the 3 disks in their poly-lined pair inner paper inner sleeves were stored in the outer sleeve outside and behind the cardboard record jacket. Supposedly this was to prevent ring wear on the jackets. Two out of the 3 disks were warped and cupped. It wasn't enough to impact the sound. With my record clamp on when playing Sides 1 & 3 the record was gently warped. The tonearm rose and fell slightly but I couldn't hear an impact on the sound. When I played Sides 2 & 4 the LPs were bowl shaped. This was a bit trickier. I had to be careful of where I dropped the needle. If I went too close to the outer rim of the record it would spit the tonearm out and a few seconds into the first song. If I dropped the needle almost at the spot where the first track began, it would play fine. Once again the remaining surface warps would not affect the sound. Disk three was perfect. When I flipped the disk over to Side 4, I spotted what looked like a big piece of dust. I tried my carbon fiber brush on it and the "dust" didn't budge. I gave it an additional heavy duty 5 minute ultrasonic cleaning I tried to poke at it with a toothpick with no success. I didn't feel a bump of any kind. Finally I took picture with my iPhone and blew it way, way up. I was confused, but I was beginning to think it was actually a tiny drop of another color vinyl that had somehow made it into the puck my LP was made from. I took a chance a I heard nothing when the needle passed over this point. Now for some good news: All three disks were perfectly centered. As for the sound of the recording itself, it was top notch. Someone asked how this LP sounded compared to the Resonance Records LPs issued of Bill Evans for RSD. I have many, but not all of them, and this sounds as good or better that any of them. This is about the best sounding Bill Evans record live record I can think of offhand. It is quite well recorded indeed. In addition to the problems I've already mentioned, the outer jacket was bent a bit 2" in on one corner. But I wasn't going to do any better here because the dealer said he had already returned all of the other Bill Evans he had been sent for shipping damage. This was all he had. So I just squeezed by with this one. I was aware of the jacket damage but not the warping/cupping. This is still my pick disk of RSD Drop 2, but it is just barely snuck by with all of the issues. Still I am glad I have this LP.

 

And the record was REALLY tight in the paper inner sleeve. At least mine was. I put it in a MoFi sleeve but I'll bet I couldn't get it back in the paper sleeve if I wanted to. Haven't had a chance to spin it yet so can't comment further.

 

I haven't heard the RSD release but it's on Friday Music so that's not encouraging. If you've got a clean Grunt original it's unlikely the RSD release would top it. But yeah, I've got an original pressing and I'm curious about a comparison as well. Just not curious enough to drop the cash.

 

Was happy to see the record in a poly lined sleeve though

 

Yes! I couldn’t get it out without sticking my hand inside and slowly working it out.

 

listening now. Fine pressing. Sound quality varies.

 

Reposting from the other thread:

Regarding the Dr. John: I’m pleased with the sound quality (better than my original), and the pressing is perfect. The liner notes have fascinating backstory on the album I wasn’t aware of. As far as the bonus material goes, some of it has that spook I love on the Doctor’s early material, and some of it, well, is a bit aimless. Overall a great release and I’m happy to have it.

 

That’s why I don’t hold Friday Music in high esteem. That guy is a shyster.